Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 12, 1 December 1993 — Judge Edward King: working to resoive a legacy of neglect [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Judge Edward King: working to resoive a legacy of neglect

Interview bv Patrick Johnston Judge Edward King is the Independent Representative for the beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. He was hired as part of the settlement of a suit by a group headed by Charles Ka'ai'ai against the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and other state departments, whieh objected to the resolutions of a governor-appointed state task force looking into breaches of the home lands trust by the state. Ka'ai'ai felt that individuals outside the state government should assist in resolvine the claims.

King has done extensive legal work among Pacific Islanders including 11 years as Chief Justice of the Federated States of Micronesia. KWO: Tell me a bit about your background and how you got involved with legal claims of Pacific lslanders. King: Well, to put it most simply, two decades ago I went to Micronesia as the Deputy Director and Chief of Litigation of the Micronesia Legal Services program, whieh was established in the early 1970s to provide legal services for Micronesians who couldn't afford to pay for attorneys. Given the eeonomie circumstances of the time, that was pretty mueh all Micronesians. We won a number of cases and developed a precedent that was seen as very significant in empowering Micronesians toward self-govern-ment and obtaining more rights. That was 1972 to 1976. In 1976, we went to the U.S., mainly because our kids were getting older. Our eldest daughter was reaching high school age and we just felt we probably ought to get back. The adjustment of leaving Micronesia and coming to the U.S. was very hard. Instead of

knowing almost everybody we were out in the masses of people. Things were less warm and gentle. Houses were closed. It was surprising how difficult it was to adjust. Just as we did, the vice president of the Federated States of Micronesia showed up at my doorstep and said the president had sent him. One of the things he had been asked to do was to ask if I would agree to eome and be the first Chief Justice of the Federated States of Micronesia. So we went through all kinds of family agonies. After all, we left Micronesia for the very reason that we didn't think our kids

were the right age or our family wasn't at the right stage for us to be living there. But after thinking about it and wringing our hands for a long time, we decided that I would move back as Chief Justice of the Federated States of Micronesia and I served in that capacity for about 1 1 and a half years. KWO: You consider yourself a permanent resident of Hawai'i now. When did you eome and why did you decide to make Hawai'i your home? King: We eame right at the very end of last year. We decided to make it our home because we have so many connections in the Pacific and we know quite a few people here. l've also been work-

ing at trying to establish a judieial institute that would provide support for beneficiaries. The University of Hawai'i has wanted to support the initiative and they furnished me an office and equipment to do so. We've been through Hawai'i so mueh in the years that we were in Micronesia that Hawai'i, in a sense, comes close and holds out the prospect of truly being called home. I'm very please about having this assignment because it helps me feel that I have a ehanee to join the community in Hawai'i, that I have a ehanee to play a role that is constructive and helpful and I'm honored to be given the opportunity and really gratified because it is a way of integrating with the community in a way that most don't have a ehanee to.

KWO: What do you feel are the major challenges facing Hawaiian home lands and native Hawaiian claims against the state? King: Certainly the appraisal question and how to evaluate these claims is no small task and it's not as though reasonable people will all look at these problems and eome out at the same plaee. Everybody on this task force is reasonable, but we are not all likely to eome out exactly with the same evaluations. In fact there ean be enormous disparities in evaluations. So that is one challenge. Another important part of my own task is advocacy vis-a-vis the federal government. Clearly a precedent of neglect was established during territorial times and the state just did what had been done in the past. So one of the key aspects of this is to get the federal government to respond and recognize the role it has played and eventually to eome back and vindicate the good thing that was done with the Hawaiians home lands legislation in the first plaee. If the federal government doesn't do anything, then it will be a greater sham and a greater loss for all concerned then if there had been no legislation in the first plaee. To say to someone that "I'm going to do something really good for you" and then, as soon as that person starts count-

ing on something happening, to ignore them and treat them as though they are non-existent, is worse than if they had said nothing in the first plaee. That's a very important second part. The third, and in many ways this is the most crucial and eontentious issue, is to try to figure how to lay this festering sore to rest. You know, people shouldn't be spending the rest of their lives fixating on what happened say, in 1930 or 1950. We've got our own problems now and people should be facing those problems. This is a time of great fennent for Hawaiians and this ean be a time when people move to a new

level of understanding of how they fit vis-a-vis the American system or some other form of self-government. That's what the emphasis ought to be on. It would be a service to everyone if we could figure out a mechanism to truly resolve these claims in the sense that the state doesn't have guilt, the federal government doesn't have guilt, but in such a way that native Hawaiians ean say that in the end they were not betrayed, that they were not made fools of, that they have received the trust, that the federal government and the state did eome through. They said they would and they did finally. That would be important, it seems to me, and that's the hardest part of it all. That's really the whole point of the exercise and it's definitely the hardest. KWO: What are your responsibilities as Independent Representative for the beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act? King: Basically, my job is to parcontinued on page 2

State task force reviewing breaches of the homelands trust Govemor-appointed task force looking into breaches of the Hawaiian Home Lands tmst by the state. Its mandate is not to look into individual claims but to resolve general breaches of the trust, ones involving illegal and improper withdrawals and transfers of Hawaiian home lands. Independent Representative for the beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act Legislatively mandated, court-appointed position arising from a suit by Charles Ka'ai'ai against the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands that objected to the way home lands claims against the state were being resolved. The independent representative works with, but is not a part of, the task force. Hawaiian Home Lands Trust Individual Claims Review Panel Created by the 1991 State Legislature to receive and review the claims of individual native Hawaiians who suffered damage through breaches of the Hawaiian home lands trust during the period 1959 to 1988.

Edward King: independent representative for homsteaders.