Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 2, 1 February 1994 — Commissioners respond to Boyle: [ARTICLE]

Commissioners respond to Boyle:

Boyle brought his opinions to the Dec. 29 Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission meeting and faced some tough questions on how his idcas couid be applied to the native Hawaiians issue. Barbara Kalipi brought up the issue of self-suffi-ciency, explaining that most Hawaiians have been raised American in American socie(y and that it would be difficult to break out of this moid of thinking. Boyle responded that Hawaiians are in a stronger position politically and legally than even the Palestinians, and that they <the Palestinians) were able to develop social and political structures based on their own traditions. "You have to build the state from the ground up," Bovle said. "You must build social structures and institutions based on your own culture." The institutions, he argued, must be able to feed, clothe, house and govem the peoples. "You already have some of those institutions in plaee," he said. Bill Meheula asked about restimtion and whether it was reasonable to think that the state would give up power to native Hawaiians. He said, "Assuming Hawaiians ean eome together, we would still be desperate for land and money and anything we decide would be hard to enforce, even with the world court supporting us. We would then have to negotiate with the state and do so from a position of weakness." Boyle responded that Hawaiians should just elaim the land for themselves. To this Meheula said, "Then we wou!d all go to jail." "Non-violent resistance is OK. Some of you should be prepared to go to jail," Boyle answered. Tasha Kama brought up the difficulty of redirecting lease revenues from the state to native Hawaiians Boyle told commissioners that the Hawaiians' biggest card is their ability to disrupt Ihe all-impoi-

tant tourist industry and if they started to do this the state would be forced to sit up and listen. "The economy is vulnerable to civil resistance. If you don't get what you,want, then nim up the hoat on the state." Pōkā Laenui (Hayden Burgess) asked about the rights of all people in Hawai'i, not just native Hawaiians. Boyle suggested that an indigenous Hawaiian state ratify the U.N. human rights treaty. thcn offer dual citizenship to all residents who have been on the islands more than seven years. "As a matter of human rights, you wan< to give people living here a ehanee to becomecitizens." Laenui disagreed with some of the points made by Boyle, saying after the meeting he didn't think the Apology should be limited to native Hawaiians alone but to everyone that was part of the Hawai'i prior to the overthrow. . . , "The overthrow occurred against a nation and against all races of that nation," he said. Laenui added that he thought it was best to explore all avenues and not - as Boyle suggested - opt out of the system and declare all other paths illegitimate. Bill Meheula commented after the meeting that Boyle's ideas were informative but really outside the realm of possibilities for the commission and Hawaiians in general. "Our goal is to bring Hawaiians together and have them gain knowledge about the sovereignty movement. 1 doubt many Hawaiians would go for what Boyle had to say." In his lecture the previous night, Boyle had mentioned that when Palestinians chose to creale their nation they voted on it and a majority ehose independence. Meheula felt that, if a vote was carried out today, a majority of Hawaiians would not do the same.