Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 7, 1 July 2009 — Thanks for trying, Sens. Hanabusa and Hee [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Thanks for trying, Sens. Hanabusa and Hee

Iwant to send out a Big Mahalo to all of the state senators who tried to resolve the ceded land revenue issue onee and for all, especially Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and Sen. Clayton Hee. Senator Hee introduced Senate Bill 995, whieh attempted to resolve the claims and disputes relating to OHA's portion of ineome from the Public Land Trust between Nov. 7, 1978, and July 1, 2009. Senator Hee's proposal offered OHA $251 million in cash anel 20 percent of the 1.8 million acres of ceded lands to be determined in negotiations between the agency and the Lingle administration. SB 995 would have given OHA the right to choose from the following properties, among many others: 1) Kaka'ako Makai; 2) Kahana Valley and Beach Park; 3) La Mariana and Pier 60; 4) Heeia meadowlands; 5) Mauna Kea: Mauna Kea Scientific Reserve; 6) Waikiki Yacht Club; 7) Ala Wai Boat Harbor Complex; 8) Kalaeloa Makai; and 9) Any and all other lands, together with the state's interest in any and all improvements thereon, that the state may agree to convey to OHA. Even a few of these properties could generate all of the revenue OHA needs to operate indefinitely and would have given our future nation the concrete assets it needs to serve the Hawaiian population. OHA ean never be a self-sufficient organization as long as our leadership is content with begging the Legislature for a 20 percent share of ceded land revenues every year - funds whieh ean be taken away from us at anytime. SB 995 would have made Native Hawaiians self-sufficient (the very essence of sovereignty) and relieved the State of Hawaii of a large burden on its budget. Unfortunately, this opportunity has onee again slipped away from OHA's hands. AUWE! So why did SB 995 fail to pass during the last days of the Legislature? According to an article written by Advertiser Staff Writer Gordon Y.K. Pang on May 2, 2009, "key House members" declined to support the bill, but everyone knows that all of these key members

are directed by House Speaker Calvin Say. It doesn't surprise me that Speaker Say killed the bill since he has not supported many Hawaiian issues. Rumor has it that he had help from certain Hawaiians who conducted some hard, back-door lobbying. Speaker Say has also told OHA's administration that he doesn't want to see another settlement bill next year. Pang's article also stated that the OHA trustees were "lukewarm" in their support of SB 995. 1 am baffled by this statement since the board voted unanimously to support the bill with a few technical changes by our attorney, Bill Meheula. When I later spoke with Pang, he said that a Trustee told him that the board did not formally support the bill, whieh is funny, since I remember this Trustee voting for it. The laek of any coherent vision offered by our current leadership has been a setback for OH A for the last seven years. The mixed signals that are given on the board's behalf have also been less than honest. I believe that if SB 995 passed, the governor would have vetoed it. For all the praises she sang about helping the Hawaiian conununity, at best it appears the governor and her attorney general have done everything they could to limit their support for OHA and its beneficiaries. The attorney general's latest betrayal to Native Hawaiians is to remove his support for the Akaka Bill if the original version from the year 2000 is introduced. According to him, it is unconstitutional. This has forced our congressional delegation to pull back the 2000 version and reintroduce last year's bill that Republicans in Congress bastardized. I say why rush this bill through now? The Lingle administration will be gone next year. At the same time, the Democratic-controlled Congress and a president who has pledged to sign the bill when it reaches his desk should be a better fit for us. ONANOTHERNOTE: The Kawaiaha'o Church Multipurpose Center Construction Project In early May of 2006, OHA contributed $1 million to help rebuild Likeke Hall at Kawaiaha'o Church. However, reconstructing Likeke Hall has now turned into a "Multipurpose Center," whieh will house offices, a nursery, archives, meeting space and a kitchen. As many of you have certainly heard in the media, construction of the Multipurpose Center See AKANA on page 2G

[ĒM www.oha.org/kwo

LEO 'ELELE ■ TRUSTEE MESSAGES

Rowena Akana TrustEE, At-largE

AKANA CūūtiūūEd fram pagE 25

was put on hold in April after 69 sets of human remains were discovered by workers. On May 27, 2009, OHA sent a letter to the State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) regarding our serious concerns about the ongoing discovery of remains and the treatment of unmarked burial sites on the Kawaiaha'o Church property. (NOTE: At the time of this writing, we have not heard from SHPD). State law requires that any discovered skeletal remains that appear to be more than 50 years old cannot be moved without the state Department of Health's (DOH) approval. However, since the church didn't have names for the deceased, whieh DOH requires, the issue fell under the jurisdiction of SHPD. OHA feels that a "good faith interpretation of the law" would require inventory-level testing of any area proposed for construction. OHA also stresses that if any remains are identified, that they be treated in accordance with the law as in previously identified burial sites. The Oahu Island Burial Council also needs to be allowed to determine the ultimate disposition of the remains in consultation with identified lineal and cultural descendants; and this time, be given AN ACCURATE MAP of where the graves are located. Since the area of Kawaiaha'o Cemetery and the surrounding area headed makai hold hundreds of unmarked ancestral Native Hawaiian burial sites, OHA strongly advised against removing or redesignating portions of Kawaiaha'o Church Cemetery just to make the Multipurpose Center easier to build. OHA also reminded SHPD that construction workers need to remember that the surrounding soil contains fragments of our iwi kupuna that are too small to be noticed or prop-

erly recovered. Given the powerful reverence for iwi kupuna within our Native Hawaiian conununity, the soil should also be treated with the utmost respect. There should also be no utility lines, sewer lines or grease trap within the vicinity of human burial sites. I strongly believe that construction should have been halted as soon as the first group of iwi was unearthed. A REPUTABLE archeologist should have immediately contacted the Oahu Island Burial Council. Instead, what seems to have occurred is that many of the iwi kupuna were placed in lauhala baskets and stored under the church. The workers then destroyed all of the caskets, making the iwi ahnost impossible to identify. This is a Hagrant act of desecration no matter what eulture a person comes from and it is unbelievable that it was allowed to occur at Kawaiaha'o Church. The people responsible for this egregious act should be called upon to explain how this could have happened. It is also unfathomable to me that a construction fiim could possibly get a permit to desecrate such a sacred burial site in this manner without proper authorization. One has to question if they even had all of the proper permits to proceed. It is my understanding that the graves were unearthed with only a grading permit! I believe that all of this could have been prevented if they had simply taken the time to do things right before construction started. Now they are forced to work backward to fix their mistakes after the damage has been done. This project must not be allowed to eonhnue until a plan ean be agreed upon by all parties, including lineal descendants. Let us pray that all sides ean work together to care for the iwi kupuna in a pono way. Aloha Ke Akua. ■ For more information on important Hawaiian issues, eheek out Trustee Akana 's web site at rowenaakana.org.