Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 9, 1 September 2009 — Seeking common ground [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Seeking common ground

£ A no'aimekealohakākou, /\ On Aug. 8 a few of us met at a Ā. \.Waikīkī Hotel to open dialogue between OHA trustees and Native Hawaiian groups who are opposed to OHA for a variety of reasons, federal recognition being just one. A total of 17 presentations were made to four trustees by both self-defined Hawaiian government organizations and advocacy and education groups. This meeting was a decided effort to determine if Hawaiians on opposite sides of the fence ean work together on mutually agreed upon matters. OHA was extending its hand to groups who have complained that we never listen to them or consider their needs. Contention and anger were not supposed to be a part of the meeting, but unfortunately all was not perfect. Nevertheless, the meeting was eoncluded and all stayed until the end. As I was integrally involved in the planning and execution of this event along with several other independence group representatives, I was asked to present some opening remarks, whieh follow: "The purpose of this gathering, 'aha, kūkākūkā, originally was for OHA trustees to be able to hear from organizations claiming to be the legitimate govermnent of the Hawaiian people and to learn who they were and what their claims and structure were. It expanded to include advocacy groups without a government structure since we were not able to either identify or interest other self-defined govermnents. If this meeting were a success, we would eonsider moving on to looking at needs upon whieh we could all agree while setting aside the disputed issues. "It seems that at all meetings I have attended with independents such as yourselves there

has been strong disagreement and contention, but to me, those who eame were still decent and good people for the most part. Some were longtime friends, some relatives, some schoolmates. It always bothered me that we could not work together because we do not agree on major issues and philosophies. This was kind of like when I was on the bench - I regretted not being able to meet one-on-one with those I was sending to prison. All I could do was talk to them in the oft-times crowded courtroom with a long distance in between. "This suimnit offers a beginning for independents and OHA to start to talk about mutually agreeable matters affecting our Hawaiian people but not involving any disputes or eontentious issues. It is hopefully the beginning of a better and mutually beneficial relationship amongst us as kanaka maoli, Native Hawaiians, keiki o ka 'āina. "I believe together we ean honor our kūpuna of the past as well as provide for the future of our keiki, for our roots are the same. We are not here to debate or argue or contend. Today we are here to meet and listen and learn - hopefully tomorrow we ean begin working to serve our people together ..." One of, I would say, three contentious group's representatives refused to work on anything OH A was involved in so long as we still disagreed on the Akaka Bill. He felt no one should work with OHA while disagreeing on Akaka or anything else and that to do so was ludicrous. And so if an iimnersion school could benefit from OHA working with an independence group or if a Hawaiian could move into a house because OHA and an independence group worked together despite their disagreement on Akaka, is that ludicrous? That person stormed out and so be it. I do, however, look forward to further meetings and discussions with those opposition groups who believe in Hawaiian values, for I believe that as Hawaiians, regardless of our disagreements, we ean still work for our people . . . together. ■

www.oha.or8/kwo LEO 'ELELE ■ TRUSTEE MESSAGES

I Boyd P. Mossman TrustEE, Maui