Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 10, 1 October 2010 — KAMA HOPKINS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

KAMA HOPKINS

1. A healthy nation is a strong nation. While it may seem simplistic, if we don't mālama our kino (bodies) and ola kino (health) we eaeh cannot contribute to the collective necessary to make a healthy community. Furthermore for Hawaiians, we know that heahh is not

just a discussion about the physical. It's about the physical, mental, spiritual, our 'ohana and our community. All of these things define heahh for us as a people. As Trustee, I would take a systemic approach to achieving better overall heahh for Hawaiians, focusing on core programs and areas that ean serve as catalysts for progress. I believe that investment into heahh care will provide good physical and emotional health and lay the foundation from whieh we ean take on other challenges. From there we should work outward into areas like food and agriculture to feed us, education to guide us, and eeonomie development to support us. All of these things work together in a system and there is tremendous opportunity to make better investments into programs and people in our community who understand these connections and who believe in taking a holistic approach to community building. 2. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs was created through the 1978 Constitutional Convention as an administrative entity to manage the use of ceded land revenue for the benefit of Native Hawaiians, it was not intended to act as a governing entity. Therefore, I believe that the only role the Office of Hawaiian Affairs should play is as a facilitator, helping to bring the organizations, individuals and resources together to carry out the procedures defined by the legislation in fonning a Native Hawaiian Government. 3. In regards to the past due revenue, the Governor, State Legislators and OHA Trustees should resume negotiations to find a creative solution to this issue. In light of the current fiscal challenges to our State budget, the solution is not going to be an SEE HOPKINS ON PAGE 6

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easy answer. We need to seek out a long-term solution that will honor the $200 million past due revenue obligation to OHA that does not cause a significant short-term burden to the State budget. As for the annual revenue payment to OHA, my hope is that the State continue with the current payment of approximately $15 million. This amount should be the base and if 20 percent (OHA's share) of ceded land revenues exceeds $15 million, then the greater value should be paid.