Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 2, 1 February 2005 — What do you see as the best-case scenario for Hawaiians in the long run? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

What do you see as the best-case scenario for Hawaiians in the long run?

My dream for the future is to see us as an independent nation with free-association, so we ean be in control of our own resources and tax revenue, and collect rent from the military to pay for our social services - not just for Native Hawaiians, but for all people who decide to remain as citizens. Other countries have done it, and I do believe it's possible. — Jackie Burke, Honolulu

I would love to see the old Hawai'i eome back, like the ahapua'a system. I wouldn't mind seeing us trade with other nations, but I would just like to have our lands back and beautiful, our water elean - just basically what we all strive for. — Cheyenne Ka'iulani Opiana, Nānākuli

My dream before I die is to have hope for a future when at least some of the lands that were lost will be returned to us, so our struggle for all these years will not have been for nothing. Our culture is land-based; if our children don't have the land, they won't have the culture. Our 'āina is our life - we ean feel it breathe; we ean feel it talk to us, and that's what we need as Hawaiian people. — Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell, Pukalani

l'd like to see the land and the water given back to the people. I live on the homestead in Keōkea, and it's so hard for the homesteaders to get water for their farms. But mostly l'm just hoping that our people ean unite and get over their differences so that we ean stand together and move forward, soon. — Kimberly Kēhaunani Newhouse, Kula

Hf Aha Koii Mana'o?

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