Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 1, 1 January 1995 — OHA Update [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA Update

Education OHA's education division is accepting applieations for 'Aha 'Opio '95, the residential Hawaiian youth leadership program. Hawaiian high school students who have completed their junior year and will be seniors next fall stay in Honolulu for a week in June during whieh they will take part in a moek legislature. The students learn about the governmental process and what it means to be a leader. The curriculum is immersed in a Hawaiian cultural context with help from OHA's Kūpuna Team. Applications are available from high school guidance counselors, Hawaiian studies/language teachers, and OHA. For more information eall 594-1912.

Culture OHA's culture office is busy planning the next two conferences in its 'Aha No'eau series (previous conferences covered the Hawaiian language and lomi lomi). This year the office will present conferences on hula and Hawaiian art. Experts in

eaeh field have been selected to help determine some of the needs and program areas that might bear attention. Discussion on the formation of a Native Hawaiian Sports Council will continue this month. The group would be a spin-off of the Native American Sports Council, whieh is affiliated with the United States 01ympic Committee. The aim of the councils is to improve the condition of native youth through sports, and to identify those athletes who are truly gifted and then nurturing them so that they ean excel. The culture office is expanding - two new eulture specialists were hired in December. The expansion will allow the office to better focus on in-house culture training as well as on Hawaiian cultural services out in the community. Finally, look for a directory of Hawaiian cultural practitioners to be published by OHA sometime in 1995.

Housing This month the Hawaiian Homes Commission will be paid a visit by staff members from OHA's

housing division, who will make a proposal to lease a parcel in Waimānalo for an elderly housing project. The Waimānalo Kupuna Housing Project is one of 19 projects identified in Pihana Kauhale Hou, the division's housing and eommunity development plan. During December, OHA's housing division held informational workshops aimed at educating 999 Year Homestead lessees as to their rights and responsibilities under the program. A brochure was produced in-house explaining the history of the program and outlining some of the problems the homesteaders face because of the way the law establishing the program was written back in 1895. The workshops also served to help the homesteaders reach some sort of consensus regarding solutions. Groups on O'ahu, Kaua'i and Maui talked about strategies to take to the 1995 Legislature for relief from some of the pilikia they face, whieh includes difficulty in determining who is the rightful lessor, in securing financing for home construction and improvement, and in buying their fee. Watch future issues of Ka Wai Ola O OHA for more on this subject.