Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 9, 1 September 2014 — SHARED GOALS BECOME EVI DENT WHEN YOU STRIP AWAY THE RHETORIC [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SHARED GOALS BECOME EVI DENT WHEN YOU STRIP AWAY THE RHETORIC

Aloha mai kākou,

Over the past few months, it seems, we as Native Hawaiians have been looking for ways to draw divisions within our eommunity when it eomes to nation building. For me, this is a reeipe for an unhealthy eommunity. Rather, now is the time to ehannel that energy and look for a better halanee beeause we are all eonneeted, and whether we like it or not, we are all in this together. Perhaps some of this anger is because so mueh is still unknown. We know the U.S. Department of the Interior is looking at establishing rules to govern how it will interact with a Native Hawaiian nahon, assuming the nation wants to interact with the federal government. But we don't know what the rule will say and what we will have to do if our nation decides to have a government-to-government relationship with the federal government. In a way, they're asking us to trust them. The same ean be said for those pushing for independence. They've been sharing a legal elaim that we ean follow, but if we make an international elaim, what happens next? Are there international bodies or countries that will support our cause? How would that work? With so mueh unknown and subject to speculation, it is understandably difficult to reach consensus. But after listening intently to both sides, it's clear to me that when you strip out all the rheto-

ric, we all have a lot in eommon. We all want the same things. We want to preserve our claims to our national, or ceded, lands that have been acquired by the state and federal government, including military land. We want reparations for the past 120 years of oeeupahon and trauma from the military, and rent if they continue to use our land. We want to be able to use the land as an eeonomie base, but we want to protect the sacred and historic sites as well. All of this would be to give back to our people. Can we get the state Department of Education to possibly pay us rent on ceded land in the form of the use of some facilities for Hawaiian-focused charter schools? Or get the University of Hawai'i to pay us rent on ceded lands in the form of better educational opportunities for our children? We all want to leave Hawai'i a better plaee for generations to eome. I believe we have so mueh in eommon that we will eome together. We just have to learn to see past our differences. 'O au iho nō me ke aloha a me ka 'oia'i'o, c^SUi>-c Kamana'opono M. Crabbe, Ph.D. Ka Pouhana/Chief Executive Officer

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