Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 20, Number 9, 1 September 2003 — Forum airs recognition views [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Forum airs recognition views

By Derek Ferrar Although opposing viewpoints were aired at the recent OHAsponsored television discussion forum on the pros and cons of federal recognition legislation for Native Hawaiians, forum participants were generally in agreement that the event provided an important opportunity for

serious discussion on different sides of the issue. "The most positive thing about this discussion was that it shows that OHA is willing to put both sides on a puhlie forum and get thoughtful comments based on historical commitment to this whole issuc," said forum participant Pōkā Laenui, an attorney and longtime advocate of Hawaiian independence.

The 90-minute forum, whieh was filmed in front of an audience of about 200 at the East-West Center's Jefferson Hall on Aug. 7, was broadcast live on both KFVE television and KINE radio and then rebroadcast on KFVE several days later. Both stations generously donated the air time for the program. See FORUM on page 5

"Far from assisting our lāhui , our nation , in securing a legitimate government , the Akaka bill ... does not address the most meaningful foundations of the sovereignty movement.;/ — Jon Osorio

"In the next two to four years , we will see either the birth of a nation or the burial of a people. This really is the Hawaiiansf last stand." — Boyd Mossman

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OHA Trustee Boyd Mossman listens to UH Associate Professor Jon Osorio speak during the televised forum.

The forum was intended as an indepth kūkākūkā (discussion), with participants making opening and closing statements, and responding to questions posed by a pair of moderators as well as eaeh other. In addition, participants answered several videotaped questions from community members "in the street." Besides Laenui, the forum's participants included OHA trustee and former state judge Boyd Mossman; former Hawai'i Supreme Court jus-

tice and current OHA board attorney Robert Klein; and University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Center for Hawaiian Studies professor Jon Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio. The event's moderators were OHA Administrator Clyde Nāmu'o and Ku'umeaaloha Gomes, director of the Kua'ana services program for Native Hawaiian students at UH. In alignment with the OHA Board of Trustees' unanimous support of the "Akaka-Stevens" federal-recog-nition bill currently before the U.S. Senate, Mossman and Klein advocated the bill as an indispensable and "practical" component of a legal strategy to defend against court cases that seek to abolish government programs benefiting Hawaiians as being unconstitutionally based on racial preference. Without the passage of such a measure, coupled with the establishment of a Native Hawaiian governing entity, they said, the U.S. Supreme Court would likely strike down Hawaiian entitlements based on the precedent of the Rice decision whieh invalidated OHA's former Hawaiians-only voting policy. "I expect that in the next two to four years, we will see either birth of a nation or the burial of a people," Mossman said. "This really is the Hawaiians' last stand." "If you have your own government with a relationship on a politieal basis with the United States," Klein added, "you're not going to be in court trying to preserve what you have; you're going to be able to move forward with your own deci-sion-making capacity."

Osorio, on the other hand, stated his opposition to the federalrecognition legislation, saying he believes it is a last-minute effort to preserve the "status quo" in response to the strength and diversity of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. "Far from assisting our lāhui, our nation, in securing a legitimate government," he said, "the Akaka bill ... does not address the most meaningful foundations of the sovereignty movement; (it) will plaee limits on the nature and scope of Hawaiian self-governance; (and) it's not needed to protect current Native Hawaiian resources from court challenges." Meanwhile, Laenui said that federal recognition could be helpful to protect benefits in the short run, as long as it allowed the option for Hawaiians to pursue eventual independence. "The Akaka bill does have benefits," he said, "... but it also has the negative side: We're all afraid ... that it's going to get twisted into the theft of our independent nation. So the question is: ... do we have to take the negative along with the positive? I say no; we ean go with the Akaka bill — if at the same time, we also have the right to choose to move along in a parallel track for our independence." The forum's most electric moment eame during the closing statements, when Osorio, responding to shouted protests from some audience members — including cries of "traitor!" directed toward the supporters of the Akaka-Stevens bill — pointedly declared: "There are no traitors on this stage ... don't

attack the people who are speaking one way or another, they're all patriots up here." Reflecting on the event afterward, Osorio said that the forum brought home for him the importance of "engaging in many more discussions with Hawaiians who haven't historically been part of the sovereignty movement, and who have often been suspicious of Hawaiians who have. ... "If we are going to achieve true self-determination, it's going to have to be a dialogue that involves all of us." ■

FORUM from page 1

lj you have your own government with a relationship on a political basis with the United States, you're not going to be in court trying to preserve what you have; you're going to be able to move forward." — Robert Klein

"We ean go with the Akaka bill if at the same time, we also have the right to choose to move along in a parallel track for our independence." — Pōkā Laenui