Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 1986 — Aotearoa Hawaii Branch Organized [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aotearoa Hawaii Branch Organized

Aotearoa Hawaii Nei is a branch of the Maori Women's Welfare League ine. whieh was recently organized to provide the Maori community in Hawaii with a strong commercial need for closer ties, kinship and unity. The group was honored by the presence of Georgina Kirby, national president of the powerful Welfare League in New Zealand who spent five days in Hawaii following a fiveweek visit to New York, Washington, D.C., Kansas City and San Francisco. She was one of 12 international de!egates invited to the Nairobi Decade Conference for Women where certain ones were selected for speaking engagements in the U.S. Theme for Mrs. Kirby's tour in the U.S. was "Challenges for American Women in the 1980's — Implications of Nairobi in 1985." Delegates represented indigenous groups of their respective countries. Speakers addressed such important key issues as employment, education, housing and family problems such as child abuse, battered wives and improving parental skills.

"The American Indians and the native Hawaiians have similar and identical problems as the New Zealand Maori," Mrs. Kirby told the loeal group during her stopover. Mrs. Kirby met with loeal league members in Laie. She said Maori people in New Zealand were very pleased with the step taken by the loeal group. Officers of the Hawaii branch are Rakana Sturm, president; Fay Campbeil, vice president; and Aliee Unawai, secretary. The league has over 200 branches nationwide. In addition to the Hawaii branch's obligations to take care of loeal needs, the organization must also study the Hawaiians' need to be recognized as the indigenous group of America, Mrs. Kirby said.

Georgina Kirby