Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 5, 1 Mei 1997 — Attempts to regulate native rights held [ARTICLE]

Attempts to regulate native rights held

by Kelli Meskin .. , ' In the wake of Senate bill 8, a bill to regulate native Hawaiian access rights as defined under the Kohanaiki decision and the state constitution, legislators were asked to consider two plans aimed at providing more complete information. Both resolutions died in the session. Senate bill 8 was tabled, but could be revived next year. A House resolution proposed that the Office of Planning of the Department of Business, Eeonomie Development and Tourism facilitate discussions seeking a consensus of native Hawaiian rights by those affected. The Senate resolution proposed that the Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa do a study on the [ "issues, alternatives and eonsequences" of regulating native Hawaiian rights.

The senate resolution was never heard and died. The House resolution crossed over to the Senate committee on Water, Land and Hawaiian Affairs. That committee never heard house resolution, so it died. OHA's legislative lobby team testimony called for the house resolu- _ — — — -

tions to be killed. The legislature and the government have no authority to determine what customary and traditional rights ean and cannot be practiced and these resolutions are a concentrated

effort to eliminate native Hawaiian rights, the OHA testimony maintained. The resolutions were a response to Senator Randall Iwase's Senate Bill 8, whieh wou!d have required native

Hawaiians to prove their genealogy, and apply for access to specific lands to practice their native rights. In March, Senate bill 8 was approved by the Senate committee on Water, Land and Hawaiian Affairs. But after a 24-hour protest by kumu hula, hula teachers, and rw. Hawaiian practition-

ers, Senator Mālama Solomon and Iwase retrieved the bill from the Ways and Means committee to have it held. Next legislative session Senate bill 8 will live again. All bills that are held in committee, and died this year, will be active again if those

committees schedule a hearing on them. If Water, Land and Hawaiian Affairs schedules a hearing of Senate bill 8 next year, the issue of native Hawaiian rights will start again.

KaWalOlaoOHA I

lf a hearing of SB 8 is scheduled next year, the issue of native Hawaiian rights wili start again.