Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 6, 1 June 2011 — Kūʻokoʻa, for a change [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kūʻokoʻa, for a change

Occasionally I will be inviting Hawaiian leaders ofpolitical and cultural standing to share their views. This month's contribution is written by Jonathan Kay

Kamakawiwo 'ole Osorio, for whom I have the greatest respect. By Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio may be best known among OHA Trustees and staff for opposing the Akaka bill. I think that federal recognition will not allow us to fix the documented problems of Kānaka - in education, land ownership, employment, heahh,

homelessness, malnutrition and incarceration - mostly because it was never intended to create a legitimate sovereign nation with sufficient resources to maintain itself and its people. Since 2000, at least, federal recognition has been about protecting Hawaiian institutions - OHA, DHHL, Kamehameha - from judicial decisions challenging their constitutionality. The Akaka bill was little more than about preserving the status quo. And this is the most important point: the status quo will bring Hawai'i to ruin. This past year several colleagues of mine collaborated on the book The Value of Hawai'i: Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future. They were not all Kānaka Maoli and their analyses of the problems facing Hawai'i did not focus solely on our people and our claims. They voiced concerns about the pohtical culture, the economy, the land and water, and the laws, and there was fairly universal agreement among the writers and editors that our islands face some rather severe, complex and interrelated difficulties in the future. As we have made the rounds in various coimnunities since the release of this book, we have discovered that many people share these concems: that the economy is in a long-tenn downward slide; that there are environmental changes that will handicap future eeonomie initiatives; that govemment services and public education are in jeopardy both for the immediate and long tenn; and that the state goveinment seems very mueh at a loss about what it must do. But by far the most repeated refrain was that most of our social and eeonomie

institutions were mueh healthier before the real estate spikes of the past three decades eroded the eeonomie fortunes of a majority of the state's residents.

The fact is that whatever affects the general popuMon of Hawai'i and its middle class has already pounced on the poor, landless and marginalized - in other words, fellow Hawaiians. I believe that the only way to really solve the problems in our islands will require a sustained effort by all of Hawai'i's people, including those who are not Kānaka Maoli. I do believe that only a serious change in the way that we treat this 'āina ean prevent enonnous suffering in

the very near future. Federal recognition and even a moderately successful negotiation for land and money would not solve the structural eeonomie and environmental problems that are besetting our islands now. In fact it would be easy for our own federally recognized people to occupy our lands, eoneem ourselves with our own welfare and tum our backs on the rest of the residents and this 'āina as well. Here is a better idea. Let us rebuild the nation that the Kamehamehas and Kalākauas left us - multiethnic, independent, educated, proud and reasonably solvent. Let us finance this with major land refonn and heavily tax properties that are not being productively utilized. Let us reforest and rebuild our agricultural and aquacultural infrastructures and decentralize the tourist industry making it possible for ordinary people to participate in the industry as proprietors, and vigorously regulate our resources in ways that strengthen already existing communities. Let us consider, as a nation, what better uses might be made with lands currently serving as military bases. Let us no longer be just the most expensive plaee for sale. Let us really take back our country, and encourage residents of Hawai'i to join Kānaka in declaring ourselves free and independent. We have that kuleana. ■ To comment on this or any other issue of eoneem, feel free to contact Peter on twitter @PeterApo, Facebook/PeterApo, or PeterAOHA @ gmail.com.

PetEr Apo TrustEE, O'ahu