Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 1, 1 January 2013 — Aloha kākou, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aloha kākou,

Ieome before you today to highlight the accomplishments of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in this past year and to focus on what I believe shall be ourNo. 1 priority for 2013. I am proud and happy to say that 2012 was a milestone year for Native Hawaiians as we eontinue to build upon the foundation established by our ancestors. Last year when I stood before you at the State of OHA, we were at the brink of finally settling the longstanding dispute over pastdue revenues owed to OHA by the State of Hawai'i. We identified this settlement as our No. 1 priority for 2012. I am honored to be able to say to you today that we eompleted and finalized the settlement of the 25-year dispute over past-due revenues with the governor and the state Legislature in 2012. As a result, we have gained 30 acres of prime land in Kaka'ako Makai for our Lāhui Kānaka 'Ōiwi. This land ean and will generate millions of dollars to take care of our people in current and future generations and ensure a strong and vibrant nation. I want to thank our community for standing with us at the Legislature in support of this settlement. Your support was critical and you stood strong. Mahalo to our Hawaiian organizations and businesses, civic clubs and Hawaiian homestead associations. I also want to thank Governor Abercrombie, the state Legislature, my colleagues of the Board of Trustees, and OHA staff and consultants for working together to resolve this matter. Mahalo nui loa. In 2012, OHA also helped to win the Nā Wai 'Ehā lawsuit over water rights on Maui. In its ruling, the court instructed the state to take Hawaiian traditional and cultural practices seriously. No shortcuts. No writing special rules or exemptions. Follow the law. This made the ruling a major victory not only for the Maui taro farmers, but for all Native Hawaiians. In this year, OHA partnered with eommunity organizations to provide education and training, heahh care, access to housing and many other worthy causes by providing $14 million in grant support for these projects. OHA also continued to advocate for Native

Hawaiians at the state and federal levels. Another major accomplishment of OHA in 2012 was the acquisition of our first eommercial property, the Gentry Paeihe Design Center, to add to the expanding land base of the Native Hawaiian nahon. Working with the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, OHA continued on the path toward Native Hawaiian self-governance in support of the Kana'iolowalu enrollment process. "Unrelinquished - Undeterred - and Unified to Rebuild the Hawaiian Nation," the slogan of Kana'iolowalu is an inspiring eall to our people to reunify in the self-recognition of our unrelinquished sovereignty. Taking up and spreading this eall shall be OHA's No. 1 priority for 2013. In July, the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission launched Kana'iolowalu, the Native Hawaiian Roll. This is a big step. We have

had rolls before, but because this one has its origin in a state law whieh supports the organization of a Native Hawaiian governing entity that shall be recognized by the State of Hawai'i and ean be recognized by the United States, it carries extra weight. Kana'iolowalu provides us, as Native Hawaiians, the opportunity to show that we have an unbroken continuity to our ancestors who first occupied and exercised sovereignty over our pae 'āina Hawai'i, the Hawaiian archipelago. In our genealogies, mo'olelo and oral traditions, we have the documented history of the rule of 30 generations of ali'i leaders from around 980 to 1000 A.D. through Queen Lili'uokalani who heeame queen in 1891 and passed away in 1917. Even though the planter-business-missionary-descendant eoup d'etat usurped her rule in 1893 and coerced her to sign an abdication, the queen herself denounced that abdication. Throughout her lifetime our people still looked to her as the leader of a parallel Hawaiian government. As long as she lived, she embodied the Hawaiian governing entity. Upon herpassing, Queen Kapi'olani's nephew, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole organized several entities to support the well-being of the Native Hawaiian people - the 'Ahahui Pu'uhonua O Na Hawai'i (the Hawaiian Protective Association), the Hawaiian civic clubs and the Hawaiian Homelands. For those of us whose grandparents lived as citizens of the Hawai'i Kingdom and constitutional monarchy under Queen Lili'uokalani, we are only two generations away from her governance and our generation has taken the lead to formally reorganize a sovereign governing entity through many initiatives and now through Kana'iolowalu. Now is the time for our generation to work with the next generation to finish the work that was started when we marched as Hui Ala Loa to open access to our beaches across Moloka'i Ranch lands, occupied Kaho'olawe and stopped the bombing as the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana, launched the Hōkūle'a as the Polynesian Voyaging Society and started the first Pūnana Leo and Kula Kaiapuni Schools as parents and grandparents and teachers, and set up burials councils to protect our iwi kūpuna. Now is the time. E holomua pū kākou a e ' auamo i ke kuleana e kūkulu i ke kahua - Let us move forward together and carry the kuleana ofbuiīding the foundation for our sovereign governing entity. Aloha ... aloha 'āina. ■

Here is the full text of Chairperson Colette Y. Machado's prepared speech.

Chairperson Colefte Y. Machado. - Photo: John Matsuzaki