Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 6, 1 June 1993 — For our land and our people [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

For our land and our people

by Moanike'ala Akaka Trustee. Hawai'i The long-awaited retroactive ceded lands backrent payment due ŌHA was passed in the Legislature this session. The Legislature agreed to float a bond that shortly will begin to deliver resources with whieh to help the Hawaiian people There is confusion that needs to

be cleared up relating to this past-owed package. We trustees believe that there are a few more issues to be negotiated. When we negotiated the retroactive package between 1988 through 1990, we agreed the pro-

posed settlement would be $95 million. subject to verification by our auditors: and was to be paid by the state in land and/or money. It has taken from then until now for our auditors to negotiate and eome to an agreement on amounts owed. We received a $5 million down payment April 30. We trustees who negotiated for OHA (only two of the original

team remain on the board, Trustee DeSoto and myself) were told that "the retroactive package was confined to land and/or money for what is owed" native Hawaiians between 1980-1990. It was also agreed by the state that in the prospective package there would the option to get lands! Harold Masumoto, director of

Office of State Planning, was quoted in the H o n o I u I u Advertiser on Apnl 20 as saving that Hawaiians "ean have the money or the land but not both." He was partially wrong! In a H o n o I u I u

Ad\ertiser letter to ihe editor Apnl 27. Masumoto clarified that he was referring to the retroactive payment only and that the legislation specified cash or a combination of cash and land for the retroactive payment. Noima Wong of OSP, and the governor's point person on Hawaiian affairs. eame before the board of trustees on April 28 and admitted Masumoto erred in

the perception conveyed in his statement. (This meeting will be televised on all islands as part of OHA's monthly meetings on cable.) She agreed that certain issues regarding land are exclud-

ed from the memorandum of agreement until further discussion. She also noted that the state's retroactive

payment should not be confused with federal negotiations. When Wong spoke to the Haw ai'i Eeonomie Association at the Plaza Club (quoting the Honolulu Advertiser, April 30), she was quite accurate in explaining "Eeonomie impacts ean be quite severe in this state if the general community is not supportive of Hawaiian sovereignty." Wong also pointed out that the aloha spirit could decline toward tourism if frustrations over sovereignty are not addressed. She mentioned a ceded land base for the nation. This trustee has been pushing for exactly that for decades. Instead of most of us being the renters as we have been since the

end of the last century, we will become the landlords onee again — and rightfully so! While the Hawaiian Business and Professional Association

(now called the Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce) is lining up with others locally , nationally and intemationally to create business on our Hawaiian sovereign lands, I am concerned that whatever business endeavors occur on nation lands be in the spirit of Aloha 'Aina, not exploitative of our people. and of course they must be environmentally sound. Solid, community-based eeonomie development must be part of our future. Congressman Neil Abercrombie must be congratulated for stating in a Sunday, May 2 Honolulu Advertiser Focus section article, that "by rights Bellows belongs to the Hawaiians," and that the 'Onipa'a (centennial) observance was "a wake-up eall." Adm.

Charles Larson threatened that the Marines may pull out of Kāne'ohe if they cannot use Bellows for maneuvers. Yet Abercrombie leamed that Marine

Commandant Gen. Munday has no intention of leaving Kāne'ohe. This threat of Larson's is an intimidation tactic to silence the cry for the return of Hawaiian lands into Hawaiian hands. In closing, we see today in the Balkans a surge towards nationalism that has enmeshed several ethnic groups into a ghastly multi-sided civil war with no clear solutions in sight. We must, as Hawaiians — enlightend ehildren of aloha — avoid such violent means and continue working clearly, honestly and peacefully towards a sovereignty that is a credit to our Polynesian tradition and heritage. Mālama pono. Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono.

I am eoneemeei that whatever business endeavours occur on nation land be in the spirit of Aloha 'Aina, not exploitative of our people, and of course they must be environmentally sound.