Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 5, 1 May 1993 — Native rights advocate urges participation, unity, on water issues [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Native rights advocate urges participation, unity, on water issues

by Patrick Johnston Given their busy lives and numerous, sometimes divergent interests, native Hawaiians often have difficulty presenting a united front on the many issues that affect their community. However, the issue of present and future water needs demands a cohesive voice if Hawaiians are to overeome the sluggish response of the state to their water rights. Tim Wapato, former commissioner of Administration for Native Americans and longtime native American rights advocate, stressed such participation and unity in a workshop at the Hawaiian Water Law Symposium held Apnl 9-10 at the University of Hawai'i-Mānoa. Participation, he pointed out, does not mean native Hawaiians going to state organized hearings and giving testimony with little or no results. Instead he stressed the importance of the community getting together to form structures outside the state that ean

pressure the government to create laws that directly address their needs. "A structure needs to be set up. The present state structure is not going to invite you in. ... You are going to have to change the structure and you are going to have to do this through confrontation." Wapato explained that a negoti-

ating and water management structure entails three things: a legal eonstruction to clarify what rights native Hawaiians have with regard to water; a complete inventory of land resources and uses of the land; and a management and administrative body.

Native Hawaiians, he stressed, should not accept the excuse that the laws won't allow them in. "You have to confront the system. That's the way laws are

made and that's the only way that change will be made in the structure as it exists now." Organizations like the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Wapato said, have a eonflict of interest because they are both an organ of the state and a body that represents the interests of native Hawaiians-a sovereign

group. "You as native Hawaiians have to be in a position to negotiate as a sovereign group. Somebody can't do it for you." Politics and eeonomics play a disproportionately large role in legislative decisionmakine and will

often influence state bodies to act contrary to environmentally appropriate action. "Cutting down trees and destroying owls or shipping off water to resort or

golf course development are eeonomie decisions and, under the present structure, will override what would appear to be the best physical uses for water." Common concerns among native Hawaiians are the large amounts of money and technical skills needed to determine water needs. Wapato explained it was important to use state or federal agencies, such as the U.S. Geological Survey, that have the expertise and the mandate to assist native peoples. "Many people eomplain that they don't have the resources to do all the necessary work. However, there are agencies equipped with the resources and the mandate to engage in those activities. ... It's time to hold their feet to the fire and get them to do some of the work for you." Wapato stressed that native Hawaiians have to present a united strategy when seeking federal funding. "If Hawaiian Homes ean put together enough

unity on the issues then you do have federal and state agencies that will fund what you want to do. ... If the funding agencies see there is a strategy then you ean make the case for funding. They don't want five or six different groups with different strategies." The Water Symposium was put on by the Native Hawaiian Advisory Council and included speeches and workshops on a variety of water-related topics. These included the need to rework the water code so it includes more specific rules and regulations for administering native Hawaiian water demands and the need for native Hawaiians to work cooperatively with state and private interests. Discussions were frank, lively, at times emotional, but, most agreed, useful in keeping the issue of water rights at the foreground of the struggle for native Hawaiian rights.

Tim Wapato