Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 12, 1 December 2000 — Mahalo for your confidence [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Mahalo for your confidence

WISH to express my great appreciation for the generous show of faith the voters have shown in electing me to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) as a trustee. I will work diligently to eam your trust as I assume my responsibilities as an OHA trustee. I will apply my experience as a former public servant on various commissions, boards, and educational institutions to benefit OHA and our Hawaiian beneficiaries. I am particularly interested in fostering eeonomie development activities to complement other efforts currently being undertaken in our community. I believe this is both a realistic and practical way to increase the well being of our beneficiaries and the communities in whieh they live. I believe my financial experience ean be an asset to OHA in developing programs to increase self-sufficiency of both our organization and our beneficiaries. Toward this end, I would like the board to consider developing a bank as a tangible way to achieve financial independence. The availability of fresh water is emeial

to our survival and is also vital to the exercise of Hawaiian's traditional and customary gathering rights. I would like to see a more focused inquiry as

to tne eonamon 01 our water resources and the technological possibilities that ean be used to meet our future fresh water needs while balancing and respecting Native Hawaiian's needs to practice their traditional and customary gathering ways. Many OHA beneficiaries serve a emeial role in transmitting the Hawaiian culture to non-Hawaiians through the performing arts and by serving as hosts to visitors from around the

world. Unfortunately, many Hawaiians who labor in these fields are inadequately eompensated for the services they provide. I

believe we must acknowledge the contributions of Hawaiians to the economy of this state and assure they are adequately and fairly compensated for the work they perform.

The Northwest Hawaiian Islands are a valuable, natural, one of a kind resource that should be protected from exploitation and over fishing. These islands, along with Johnston and Palmvra, are

former kingdom lands for whieh a trust responsibility continues to be owed to native Hawaiians. I believe OHA should fully explore the benefits derived to the state and federal govemment from these lands and should advocate not only for protection of Hawaiian's traditional and customary fishing and gathering rights but also for a say in how these resources are managed. I look forward to serving our Hawaiian beneficiaries and the community at large and weleome the ODDortu-

nity to forge new relationships with all of the members of our newly elected OHA Board. ■

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