Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 20, Number 9, 1 September 2003 — Kamehameha Schools suits reinforce urgency of federal recognition and need for Hawaiian unity, governance [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kamehameha Schools suits reinforce urgency of federal recognition and need for Hawaiian unity, governance

By Clyde Namu'o The recent lawsuits filed against Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiianpreference admission policy illustrate all too clearly that the educational and other benefits

provided to Hawaiians by private ali'i land trusts are as vulnerable to "race-based" legal attacks as the puhlie trusts administered by OHA and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. True, the attacks are based on different legal provisions:

While the Arakaki suit against OHA and DHHL elaim that those agencies, whieh function as government entities, are in violation of equal-rights provisions in the U.S. Constitution, the suits against Kamehameha rely on federal laws prohibiting racial discrimination in private schools and other institutions. But the intent behind both actions is similar: To erase as "race-based discrimination" the special indigenous rights of Native

Hawaiians, rights that are based on descent from the original inhahitants of these islands, as well as a well-established history of internationally recognized sovereign nationhood prior to the U.S.-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

And, too, the principal players

behind the suits are familiar: One of the attorneys in the suit against Kamehameha is Hawai'i island lawyer John Goemans, who also participated in the Rice v. Cayetano lawsuit that resulted in the U.S.

Supreme Court's invalidation of OHA's former Hawaiiansonly election policy. Goemans actually had the gall to liken Kamehameha Schools' trustees to the notorious civil-rights foe "Governor George Wallaee of Alahama ... standing in the schoolhouse door to prevent the admission of qualified children simply because they have the wrong skin color and bloodline." Echoing this upending of civil-

rights history and intent, writer Ken Conklin, a vocal opponent of Hawaiian assets and programs, recently charged in a newspaper opinion pieee that passage of a fed-eral-recognition bill for Hawaiians would lead to "apartheid." One ean only wonder where such legal champions of "equal protection" and "racial equality" were when Hawaiians were dying to near extinction from foreign epidemics, when family lands were being stripped away under alien and often incomprehensible ownership laws, when the sovereign kingdom was forcibly overthrown, or when Hawaiian children were being beaten for the transgression of speaking their native tongue at school. If there is any "benefit" to the suits against Kamehameha Schools, it is that they prove beyond any doubt that we Hawaiians are truly in this together, and we must find a eommon ground on whieh to stand and fight these threats. We have reached a critical time in our struggle for justice and the determina-

tion of our future as a people. The eloek is ticking on our need to eome together and form a Hawaiian governing entity that ean speak for us all in these crucial matters. While federal recognition legislation and Hawaiian self-governance cannot by themselves put an end to the legal threats, they are likely to carry substantial weight in any final decision by the courts. OHA's trustees, administration and resources are fully engaged on both these fronts, but it will take the kōkua of all Hawaiians to prevail. It cannot be stressed strongly enough that all of us need to get involved in any we ean. We cannot afford to wait, or others will decide our future for us. Please join OHA for our family day of fun and education at Kapi'olani Park on Sunday, Sept. 7. It is time to eome together to act. Ciyde Nāmu'o is administrator ofthe Office of Hawaiian Affairs. ■

Ni'i Hnn 1/

Namu'o