Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 9, 1 Kepakemapa 1988 — Hawaiian Sovereignty — "The Ultimate Unity"? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian Sovereignty — "The Ultimate Unity"?

help, whieh, though grappling with its own problems, helped establish the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation in 1974, through the OHAfunded Native Hawaiian Land Title project. Since then, NHLC has advanced to serve needs on major Hawaiian issues.

In 1986 NARF finally became more active in native Hawaiian rights issues. It has provided backup assistance to the Pele Defense Fund's case whieh challenges geothermal energy development because it interferes with traditional Hawaiian religious practices associated with the volcano goddess Pele, input on the ceded lands trust, and in other cases. Last year the board of NARF elected its first Native Hawaiian member, Mahealani Ing. Eehohawk also foresees the need for NARF help when Hawaiians take their claims to Congress. "The time of your sovereignty movement is now."

"You have made great progress," he declared. "The time of your sovereignty movement is now; reparations is an issue you ean use to regain sovereignty and lands." The success of American lndian tribes shows how the seemingly impossible ean be done, he said. When your people eome together and your leaders eome forward to make their move," he vowed, "Native American tribes on the mainland are ready to support your efforts." Other views of self-determination movements in the South Pacific were shared by: New Zealand's Tuaiwa Rickard, Tainui Tribal Group land claims leader; Belau native Tina Rehuher; Oscar Temaru, Mayor of Fa'a'a, Tahiti, and head of the Nuclear Free Pacific Movement in Tahiti, whieh is a section of the Polynesian Liberation Front, a sovereignty advocacy group. Also speaking on native sovereignty were the Honorable Matiu Rata of New Zealand, former Member of Parliament and Minister of Crowns, and Uili Taufa Tafua, of Tonga.

The eulminahon of the conference eame as Hawaii speakers turned to the question of what kind of self-determination do Hawaiians want? Various models of self-determination allow differing degrees of control over a land base or territory, economy, and cultural expression. (An article on models for sovereignty appeared in the August issue of Ka Wai Ola O OHA). University of Hawaii professor Haunani-Kay Trask directed her remarks to a definition of sovereignty for Hawaiians.

bovereignty is the power of native people to govern themselves," she asserted. Native Hawaiians have the right to be selfgoverning, as the first people in Hawaii, she said. A "people" as defined by the United Nations is a group identified by a eommon history, ancestry, language, and eommon territory (land base). "Sovereignty is your own nation, your own political system." It is a collective assertion for selfdetermination, involving control of resources, a land base, delivery of services, and control of immigration.

What is the purpose of self-government? While Trask said this is the subject of a "huge debate" among indigenous people, she maintains "It is to retain your identity as a native person; to transmit culture, and identity." Hawaiians ean retain their identity by looking to traditional culture and protecting its resources, and values, such as "malama aina," she said. "Sovereignty means taking care of our traditional

culture, to take care of the land and transmit it to future generations. Not to sell it to Japanese developers. If the land is cared for, 'pono' (balance and harmony) is taken care of." The alternative to sovereignty, she declared, is continued poverty, unemployment, underemployment, being on welfare and high populations in prisons and mental hospitals. "We're the most institutionalized people in Hawaii. "The alternative to sovereignty is not an alternative," she insisted. "We have tried it and we are on the bottom and driven out of our country." ' Why don't Hawaiians control their own land?"

She added, "The question is, why don't Hawaiians control our own land? When Hawaiians control our own land , the education of our children in the Hawaiian language, the resources, our eeonomie and religious institutions . . . when we Hawaiians control that, you will see a change in those statistics." She said Hawaiians must be aware of the international context of other sovereignty movements, in the United Nations, South Pacific and other areas. The United States recognizes 308 other native American nations within its boundaries, but a Native Hawaiian nation is not yet one of them. She notes, "To govem ourselves will be very difficult, but Hawaiians are just as capable of doing this as anyone else."

Calling Hawaii "a time capsule in the middle of the Pacific," speaker Millilani Trask of the sovereignty organization Ka Lahui Hawaii, said Hawaii continues a now outdated federal policy of the 1950s. During the same years that statehood was being formulated, the federal policy was to "terminate" the nahonal status and federal benefits of many native American tribes. In Hawaii, this policy was echoed when the Admission Act established trusts for native Hawaiians, to be administered not by them, but by the State.

Today, federal policy supports "native selfdetermination," Trask said. "There are 308 native Amenean lndian nations recognized by the federal government, plus 160 more not yet recognized. In 1988 why are native Hawaiians not recognized?" The answer, she said, is "We have not assumed the responsibilities of forming a nation. We have been preoccupied since 1893 with loss of the Kingdom. What we really lost was our govemment structure and ability to govem our own lands." Ka Lahui Hawaii, a native hui for selfgovernance, is now taking on the issues of sovereignty and self-determination. The group, whieh counts several thousand members, has adopted a constitution and elected its first kia'aina (governor), Mililani Trask.

Trask defines sovereignty as the ability of a people with eommon traditions, language, and cultural basis to own and manage lands and establish their future as separate and independent." She said Ka Lahui Hawaii has formed a governmental structure to meet, elect leaders, set policy for land use and begin nahonal

planning. At the conclusion of the third day, the 85 remaining conferees adopted two resolutions and put together a working panel to draft final resolutions on sovereignty and self-determination, and to begin developing a strategy for building an expanding eoalihon to involve other Hawaiian organizations and gain their support. One resolution that was adopted was introduced as a "starting point for unity and eommon ground," by Kawehi Kanui-Gill, a staff member of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation.

The resolution, whieh calls fer" support of all Hawaiians, asserted that self-determination and autonomy are inalienable rights of the Hawaiian people. It presses for a presidential apology for the "wrongful annexation of the Hawaiian nation and the unjust imprisonment of our Queen Lili'uokalani in 1893," in order to "restore the honor and dignity of the Hawaiian people." A second resolution adopted was introduced by Dr. Emmett Aluli and Ralph Palikapu Dedman of the Pele Defense Fund, working together with other community leaders. Proposed as a "unified plank on restitution/sovereignty," it calls for: * An apology by the United States govemment to Native Hawaiians and their government for the U.S. role in the eoup of 1893;

* A substantial land and natural resource base comprised of a reformed Hawaiian Homes program, a fair share of the ceded lands trust, the return of Kahoolawe, and other appropriate lands; * Recognition of the Native Hawaiian government with sovereign authority over the territory within the land base; * Guarantees of a) substantial beach access, b) fishing, hunting, andgathering rights, e) protection for Native Hawaiian religious practices and historical sites.

* An appropriate cash payment. In his remarks to wrap up the conference, law professor Charles F. Wilkinson reminded the supporters of sovereignty that geographic and psychological distance will present a formidable barrier to effective relations with Congress unless attitudes on both ends ean be changed as part of the process. Yet he pointed out that Congress does respond to strong, well-organized pressure from constituent groups. "You need to go to Congress as a unified people, to forcefully, passionately, and directly insist on your rights as a self-determining people."

One thing that the numerous speakers in the Native Hawaiian Rights Conference stressed was that mutual agreement in the Hawaiian community on basic principles of self-determination will be what unifies Hawaiians into a cohesive political force. By putting aside differences long enough to develop a strong eommon ground, Hawaiians ean also achieve advances "nothing short of remarkable."

Haunani-Kay Trask

This table outside the auditorium was set up by the Ka Lahui Hawaii organization to sign up members in their sovereign nation.