Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 10, 1 October 1998 — Page 31 Advertisements Column 1 [ADVERTISEMENT]
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We work out of Hilo and Honolulu. $125.00 flat rate includes your personal color pictorial genealogy chart and five hours combined research and computer work. Short of funds, we ean work somethingout. Hilo: 1-808-959-1 139/Honolulu: 1-808-488-5243 9.5f! 24 hrs/7 days a week to mainland.a min.ute. Competitive Intemational Rates. FREE sign up over the phone and FREE toll-fiee number. Two FREE calling cards. One month of Long Distance calling in your 12th month. Call: Nalani 808-841-5746; Mainland
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coconut shell & Hawaiian woods with computer graphic motifs! Hawaiian Quilt Pattems & Petroglyphs. 808-572-0025 or e-mail: filhan@hgea.org Kuleana Land: Nearly 1/2 acre, excellent taro land with free auwai water, adjacent to County water, paved road, and electricity. Only $78,000 (FS) Waimea, Kaua'i. Call Ph: 808-338-0229. Laurie's Business Services: Bookkeeping, accounting, ineome and small business taxes. Free consultation $25/hr. Rates are negotiable. Call: Lauiie Gorelangton 808-947-6650 Fax: 808-95 1 -841 9 ■
P A I D ADVERTISEMENT
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K * m by Alan Murakami Litigation Director, Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation
In the £all general election. voters will be asked: Should the state convene a constitutional convention (again)? Is asking tbis question cause to wony? For a variet\' of reasons. Hawaiians and organiza£ions like NHLC that provide iegal advocacy for Hawaiians need to think carefully about the impact of this question. It ean affect Hawaiians in ways that are not so obvious to the average voter CosL If we have another c»nstitutional con\entton how mueh will it cost us and ean we afford it? The estimate for eon\ening another constitutional convention is $12 miilion. That's money that could go to other programs -impro\ing our poorly peribrming schools, health programs, eeonomie diversification, job training and deve!opment, and environmental protection. For tli:u amount of money in this day and age, the peeple of this state need to seriously consider whether the convention is so broken that it needs fixing now Past Achievements. Secondly, a constitutional convention presents an opportunity to change lavvs that currently protect t»rtain traditions. cultural practtoes and institutions meant to beneflt Native Hawaiians. But why wouki anyone want to do thaL5 Perhaps ifs a sign of how successful Native Hawaiians haw been in asserting laws that many peeple simply ignored or dismissed as po\veites. In the second decade of statehood in Hawai'i, conflicts began to escalate between Hawaiian communities and deveiopers over the use of land, water and resources as Hawai'i sprinted to build . up its massive tourism infrastructure. A nascent Hawtoian mowment began. In 1978, a cx>nstitutional conventton influenced heavily by young Hawaiian ad\'ocales, joined by many other sectois of the community, resolved to include m;my important rights Hawaiians enjoy today: (a) theestablishmentofOHA; (b) strengthening of the trust relationship between Native Hawaiians and the state of ilawai'i; (e) establishment of a state poiicy to protect the traditional and customary rights of Hawaiians to peipetuate their culture; (d) enhancement of protection for the ceded iands that were onee held by the Kingdom ofHawai'i and being held in trust bvthestate; (e) enhanoement df protection of the Hawaiian rights to water resources of the state; and (f) creation of a constitutional right to a elean and healthy
environment. These changes were made to reflect the growing recognition that moelem laws were eroding the health and welfare of Hawaiians. The convention's recommendations were largely ratified by the voters in 1978. to culminate a decade of turmoil o\er conflicts between the old way of doing things, and newly-recog-nized rights that Hawaiians long held. These amendntents were the most sweeping provisions to elevate the status of Hawaiians since the 1920 Hawaiian Homes Commisston Act For over a century, few in Hawai'i had given mueh attention to the rights of Hawaiians that accompanied King Kamehameha's grant of private title to individuals at the time of the Mahele in 1848. In the 1970's groups like Life of the Land began to lay the groundwork for challenging the grovring reai estate development projects servicing the tourism industry because of environmental andplanningc»ncerns. Thesegroupsestablishedimportantprooedural rights to intervene in proceedings before government agencies charged with gi\ing permits for such developments under our land use laws. In the 1980's and 1990's, many Hawaiian communities began challenging similar projects because of their impacts on resources important to Hawaiian communities - fishing grounds, limu, historic sites, etc. In Miioii'i, Ka'u, Kona, Waianae, Windward 0'ahu, Moloka'i, Lana'i and Kaua'i, Hawaiians encountered consistent threats to the resource base on whieh they and their ancestors reiied for centuries to practice a culture unique to the world. Emerging from these battles, Hawaiians began to recognize what access, gathering, watei; and land rights still remained to be enforced in tiiese struggles. Several clients of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation were in the midstof most of these conflicts, figliting to assert rights to eonlinue traditions and practices thal persisted ffirough the (tecades since the Maheie - gathering at the shoreline and in the mountains for naturai foods and medicine, woishipping at sacred sites, inigating ancient taro lands from the streams, gaining access to puisue these activities. We fought many contested case hearings, brought expert testimony on tliese issues, and appealed adverse ttecistons in numerous contested case heaiin^ before tiie land use eomnmion, county planning commissions and the courts. In a remarkable 1995 decision by the Hawai'i Supreme Court in Puhiie Access Shoreline Hawaii v Hawaii Countv Planning Commission. many of the legal bases for these claims found . renewed legal recognition. The resulting uproar from the Iand
development/property title business community has not died down since that summer. In repealed attempts to shrink, limit, or condition these rights, the legislature has drawn Hawaii's eommunities through prolonged and heated debates that have yet to be resol\ed. Manv of these attempts to circumvent prevailing law have been delimited by the provisions contained in the 1978 eonstitutional amendments. In the meanlime, as OHA matured and persistently demantfed tlie rights the legislature had conferred upon it in the form of a portion of the proceeds from the ceded lands trusq intense conflict arose over deflnitions affecting the level of revenue to the OHA trast. Where it onee received only $ 1 .7 million per year under the formula for payment originaliy adopted by the state in the early 1980's, nioie recent rounds of litigation and negotiations have resulted in $15 million annuai revenues, with the possibility of more than doubling that revenue should 0FL\'s interpretations prevail in the iatest negotiations. None of these revenues include the back rent estimated to range from $500 miliion to over a $ 1 .2 hillion, depending who you believe. In the midst of this turmoil, it was natural for adversaries of Hawaiians to turn to tlie constitution as the source of their probIems, even if it iay ekewheie. The coastitution lays out the substance of these rights more explicitly than anywhere else and serves as the foundation for our current govemance and polilieal inirastmcture. It is based on the exercise of the aloha spirit by recognizing intangibte benefits that lie at the bedrock of our unique vaiues, cuiture and lifestyle. 0ur land of aloha reflects that struggle. 0pening up the door to a new constitutionai convention will put at risk gains and advances, for whieh Native Hawaiian eommunities and leatters have fought long and hard. Let's not forget the days when only a handful of people took seriously the laws in our constitution that said Native Hawaiians weie entitled to certain rights and remember those long and perilous paths as we
approach an answer to the November bailotquestion.
Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation 1164 Bishop Street, Suile 1205 Honolulu, Hawai'i 96813 Phone (808) 521-2302 Fax: (808) 537-4268