Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 7, 1 July 2011 — OHA Board visits Lānaʻi [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA Board visits Lānaʻi

By Garett Kamemoto LĀNA'I-Nearly every student beyond the sixth grade on Lāna'i has received personal hnanee instruction over the past four years largely due to a grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, according to a key representative of a nonprofit organization for Native Hawaiians. Speaking to the OHA Board of Trustees at a Community Meeting at the Lāna'i High and Elementary School on June 15, Joelle Aoki of Alu Like Ine. also said that at least 107 middle-school students have benefited in the past year from financial-literacy programs funded by OHA. These personal hnanee education programs are intended to give students a head start at being less debt-prone by teaching them how to manage checkbooks, how

mortgages work and other basic hnaneial life skills. This comes at a time when OHA has been stressing financial-literacy training as a way to increase family ineome, whieh is one of its 10 Strategic Results stemming from efforts to improve conditions for Native Hawaiians. Alu Like was one of many groups represented at the community meeting, where topics ranged from watershed protection provided by Lāna'i Native Species Recovery to healthcare services provided by Ke Ola Hou o Lāna'i. Kepā Maly of the Lāna'i Culture and Heritage Center delivered an Ethnography of Ka'ā Ahupua'a on the island of Lāna'i to Trustees. The 400-page report tells about the cultural resources of the ahupua'a as recounted over the generations. "There are histories of Lāna'i that haven't seen the light of day since

the 1920sandthe Englishlanguage accounts - it's just incredible," Maly told the Trustees. The report's executive summary ean be found at lanaichc.org/ohagrant/OHA_Grant.htm along with a video of a day's fieldwork in the Ka'ā Ahupua'a. The next Neighbor Island meetings will be held at Kūlana

'Ōiwi Hālau, Kalama'ula, on Moloka'i. The Community Meeting will be held Wednesday, July 20 at 6:30 p.m. The Board of Trustees meeting will be held Thursday, July 21 at 9 a.m. For information, eall Irene Ka'ahanui on Moloka'i at (808) 560-3611. ■

Albert Morita, President of the Lāna'i Culture and Heritage Center, in blue, leads OHA Trustees and staff on a visit to Ka'ā Ahupua'a. - Photo: Courtesy of Kepā Maly