Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 36, Number 12, 1 December 2019 — Remembering a remarkable Hawaiian and true Kahu Mālama 'Āina [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Remembering a remarkable Hawaiian and true Kahu Mālama 'Āina

LEO ELELE V TRUSTEE MESSSAGES "

OHA honored the late Larry Kamakawiwo'ole with a resolution, excerpted helow: WHEREAS, Lawrence "Larry " Kamakawiwo 'ole was born in May 1943 in Honolulu, O'ahu, to William Kamakawiwo 'ole, a bus instructor and dispatcherfor the Honolulu Rapid Transit Cotnpany, and Wenonah Kamakawiwo' ole, a substitute elementary teacher: and

WHEREAS, Larry Kamakawiwo'ole was raised in Pālama and 'Ālewa, attending area public elementary schools before enrolling at Kamehameha Schools, where he graduated frorn high school in 1961; and WHEREAS, Mr. Kamakawiwo'ole earned an undergraduate degree frorn the University of Hawai'i; master's degrees from the Pacific SchooI of Religion in Berkeley, and the University of Hawai'i; and a law degree frorn the Georgetown University Law Center; and WHEREAS, Mr. Kamakawiwo'ole had a long and distinguished professional career, serving as the first full-time clirector ofthe Ethnic Studies Program at the University ofHawai'i at Mānoa, a deputy prosecutorfor the City and County of Honolulu, and a special deputy attorney general to the Department of Commerce and Consumer Ajfairs; anel WHEREAS, Mr. Kamakawiwo'ole played an indispensable roIe in the Hawaiian Renaissance, an unprecedented political rnovement of environmental consciousness and appreciation for native culture and language: and WHEREAS, upon returning from Berkeley in the 1970s, he employed the comrnunity organizing skills he learned in graduate school to protest Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate 's evictions of residents and farmers in Kalama Valley, a seminal land struggle that would help to launeh the Hawaiian Renaissance and spark two decades ofHawaiian polhieal activism

anel cultural renewal; and WHEREAS, he was a founding organizer and spokesperson for Kōkua Kalama VaIIey and later Kōkua Hawai 'i, whieh sought to keep special Hawaiian comrnunities intact and uphokl basic human rights in housing for the poor and disenfran eh ised; and WHEREAS, he and the other leaders and organizers ofKōkua Hawai 'i broadened the conversation on human riglrts anel housing to ineluāe

the planneel evictions ofseveral other comrnunities in Hawai'i, such as Ota Camp, Wai'āholeWaikāne, He'eia Kea, Waimānalo, Chinatown, Hālawa Housing and "Census Tract 57" in Kalihi; and WHEREAS, these leaders established a legacy of peaceful protest and eh'il disobedience that reshaped Hawai'i's laws to recognize the rights of the disenfranchised, including Native Hawaiians, immigrants, and the poor; and WHEREAS, Mr. Kamakawiwo 'ole 's tireless work also helped to lay the foundationfor the 1978 Constitutional Convention, the state Office ofHawaiian Ajfairs, and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, among other institutions, that continue to uphokl his vision of social justice for Native Hawaiians; and WHEREAS, with the recent passing on October 9, 2019, of Mr. Lawrence "Larry" Kamakawiwo'ole, Hawai'i has lost a leader and community advocate who helpeel to shape thefuture of Hawai'i and the social fabric of our islands[.j Resolved clauses have been omitted for length. OHA presented this resolution to Larry's family on November 21, 2019, and recognized an extraordinary advocate who dedicated himself to protecting the poor and disenfranchised. The resolution also expresses aloha for leaders of Kōkua Hawai'i and community organizers for their pivotal work for disenfranchised eultures and communities in Hawai'i and the Paeihe. ■

Cūlette Y. Machado Chsir, īrustsE Mūlūks'i □nd Lāna'i