Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 2, 1 February 2011 — Aloha mai kākou, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aloha mai kākou,

The 2011 Hawai'i state legislative session has begun, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs submitted its legislative package. Our Advocacy Line of Business is busy monitoring both House and Senate bills that affect the Native Hawaiian community. In an effort to keep our beneficiaries informed, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs will post pertinent legislative information to our OHA web site, www.oha. org, so you may view and also take action by submitting testimony directly to the Senate and House committees where these bills will be heard. We encourage all of our beneficiaries to get involved and let your voice be heard, so we ean affect systemic change for the betterment of all. In this issue, OHA Chairperson Colette Machado shares her mana'o on the past due ceded land revenues with our Governor to encourage the Legislature to settle this longstanding issue. She submitted a thoughtful and

insightful letter to Governor Neil Abercrombie underscoring eaeh effort that OHA, as an agency, has made and asks for his support in settling this issue with our legislators for the benefit of our Native Hawaiian beneficiaries. Finally, with heavy hearts, we moum the passing of former OHA Trustee and Chairperson Adelaide "Frenchy" De Soto. Aunty Frenchy was a pillar in the Native Hawaiian community. Her unwavering position toward Native Hawaiian issues, including protecting Mākua, placed her in the forefront of our community. During a time when we as Hawaiians were finding our collective voice through the political and cultural surge known as the Hawaiian Renaissance, she was our heaeon. Through her work as a delegate during the 1978 Constitutional Convention, Aunty Frenchy was instrumental in the creation of not only the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, but in the passage of Native Hawaiian initiatives to include the adoption of the Hawaiian language as an official state language, and laid the groundwork for returning the island of

Kaho'olawe from the federal government. We bid farewell to our beloved "Mother of OHA," and we pledge to keep fighting the fight to improve

the conditions of all Native Hawaiians. Me ka 'oia'i'o, (UydU^ LO-

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MESSAGE FR0M THE CEO

Clyde W. Nāmu'o Chief Executive 0fficer