Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 1, 1 January 1987 — Trustees: Forge Selves into Allianee of One Ohana [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Trustees: Forge Selves into Allianee of One Ohana

Kenneih F. Brown's Message at lnvestiture

Hawaiian businessman and former State Senator Kenneth F. Brown couldn't have put it more appropriately when as keynote speaker at the very first formal investitute of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affaris Dec. 6 at historic Kawaiahao Church he opened his remarks with the following: "It has been quite a week, hasn't it? We've inaugurated a new governor with the name of Waihe'e. And we've inaugurated the new Trustees of OHA. And the new governor helped create OHA. "A great way to start the special year of 1987 — Ho'olako." He noted the changing times and the changing world and how these changes are making OHA more and more important, positioning the agency at the front of this wave of change. As evidence of this change, he made a eouple of observations. They are being printed here as the eomplete text of his address. "First the Western, Caucasian world is becoming mueh more sensitive to conditions and concerns of other cultures and races. One evidence of this is the fact that the turmoil in South Africa is upsetting people all over the world, including the students at our university. But its mueh more than that. lts a sea-change in attitude. Its probably the result of the instant video system that blankets mueh of our world. Maybe every race now sees itself as a minority, from the global perspective. Second, and I find this fascinating. . .as the public becomes more and more dependent on television and less and less dependent on reading, the communications methods of primal peoples become more and more effective. Think about it! Our Hawaiian ancestors, without a written language had to be extremely skillful in all the other ways of eommunieahon. Hula, mele, the perfection of the skills of memory, recitation and the inspiration of oratory. . .all were the essential stock in trade of our ancestors. Look at the most effective communicators of today and you will find tnat they use these very same primal ways, magnified a million times by audio visual technology. So we have ready-made, and waiting for us the means for OHA and the Hawaiian to: • Tell their story. • Persuade. • Convert. • Effectuate.

And most important of all to impart to the rest of the citizenry an appreciation of the essential primal Hawaiian values whieh are proving to be so effective in coping with the new computer jungle whieh we humans have created and whieh we have to live in. An example of this value transmission is occuring right now in the visitor industry where employees of the Kaanapali Beach Hotel are eagerly studying Hawaiian values and history and applying their knowledge, with great success, to their jobs and lives. They are discovering that the old values of our ancestors are very helpful, pertinent and valid in today's world. And they are acting them out in their daily lives. At the same time, this value orientation isenhancing the total hotel operation. All this with an increase inthe dignity and sense of self-worth of the employees. . .and in the richness of the visitors, experience. (Editor's Note: A profile sfory on the hotel's Project Po'okela Program and its general manager, Mike White, appeared in the Nouember ,issue of this newspaper).: To get back to our discussion of the changing world. It has alway seemed to me that an essential strategy in today's environment is to form alliances. As the poet has said, "No man is an island." The communications explosion has infinitely validated this finding. Going it alone doesn't work any more. What is demanded is larger and larger entities with single missions and shared knowledge and strategies. OHA should recognize this and start forming alliances. One allianee comes immediately to mind whieh our Maori cousins have done. Working closely with the many othej institutions and agencies whieh bear respensibility for Hawaiian eoncerns, OHA could propose to the government that of the hundreds of millions of dollars whieh it spends every year on remedial programs for disadvantaged Hawaiians, 10 percent, say, could be assigned to preventive measures. Just as is now becoming the accepted strategy in medicine, the emphasis would be placed on changing

the conditions whieh cause the pathology , thus preventing it from occuring and avoiding the attendant suffering and cost of remedial treatment. So should it be with social and eeonomie, as well as health pathologies amongst our people; looking for the root causes and removing them. A small amount of money spent now would create huge savings in the future. OHA should also form alliances with the business community whieh stands ready and waiting to offer kokua. An allianee between Amfac ine. and the Waiaha Foundation helped create George Kanahele's book, "Ku Kanaka." And the Kaanapali Beach Hotel's program is based on the findings of Dr. Kanahele's book. And the Kaanapali Beach is an Amfac Hotel. How's that for an allianee? We already have an excellent example of an allianee in your own Hawaii-Maori trade initiative. This enterprise has met with enthusiasm and acceptance from both parties and has, moreover, generated interest from other Pacific nations. I think you should look at another, even bolder allianee. It would involve all of the peoples of Polynesia. There are a lot of endemic problems whieh occur throughout Polynesia. These include increasing urbanization, eeonomie dislocation, laek of jobs, health and social pathologies. . .and the breakdown of traditional social patterns. How productive and constructive it would be if all of us Polynesians got together to work on solutions to these generic problems. I ean see now. . ."The Allianee of Polynesian Peoples." There are many, many agencies and institutions in plaee already whieh eoneem themselves with these problems. But there is no single governance policy nor reference point. I ean see OHA taking the lead in, first, indentifying these agencies throughout Polynesia and then providing an agenda and aprotocolthroughwhich all the wisdom, knowledge, experience, and creativity available throughout Polynesia is brought to bear on the nrnhlfims.

Having such an enterprise in plaee would directly benefit the constituency of OHA because it would bring to bear on our problems a very large and powerful eollective intelligence, something that could not be mobilized in any other way. In addition it would give to the Hawaiian people the rewarding feeling that their travails have not been in vain because the wisdom they have gained was being passed on to their Polynesian cousins throughout the Pacific. The spirit of unity that walks Polynesia today has been dramatically highlighted and symbolized by the Hokule'a. What better way could there be to build upon and enhanee that spirit than to initiate this massive, eoordinated attack upon our shared problems. Tmstees, I say to you, alliances should be the watch word of your tenure. And the very first one you must work on is internal. You Trustees mustforge yourselves into an allianee of one ohana so that the world ean get a single, unified message from you through a single, clear ehannel. You have not done this yet! When you do, you then become an example and an inspiration to the Hawaiian people and to the members of all the other Hawaiians whieh you need to build."

Hawaii businessman and former State Senator Kenneth F. Brown, keynote speaker at the Dec. 6 investiture for Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustees, and OHA Board Chairman Moses K. Keale Sr. enjoy a humorous moment.