Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 5, 1 May 2000 — TRUSTEE MESSAGES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TRUSTEE MESSAGES

Puwalu could facilitateself-deter[nination

N THE wake of the Rice vs. Cayetano decision, there has been mueh discussion by non-Hawaiians about the security and status of Hawaiian rights and entitlements. Media reports indicate there are some attorneys who beheve that the Rice decision is the mechanism to further strip, dispossess and disenfranchise our people of educational opportunities, pohheal status and our right to self-deter-minahon and self-govemance. There have also been attempts to weaken the other ah'i trusts. We will not sit back while our nahon is stripped of its assets. We must stand up and take a proactive role in determining what the future holds for our po'e. Historicahy, legahy and sociahy, the reasons for the estabhshment of a Hawaiian nahon are very prominent and important and should be fully explored by the community at large. It is so integral for Hawahans to address and thwart immediately these pemicious actions whieh threaten our status as indigenous peoples. A method that seeks to strengthen Hawaiians' outlook and knowledge of self-determination is an initiative cahed puwalu, or self-determina-tion, informarion-sharing meeting, in whieh Hawaiians from aU walks of life gather to discuss the best possible ways to buhd unity.

What the puwalu seeks is a coordinated and neutral effort to build consensus on self-determination through fomms, pubhc discussions and direct input from our people. Last August, the board appropriated $249,000 for the puwalu so that the eduea&onal component of this important event could be started. Tmstees Louis Hao, MUilani Trask, A. "Frenchy" DeSoto, Colette Machado and I voted in favor of this initiative. We saw that there is nothing more self-supporting and self-

sustaining than the estabhshment of a Hawaiian nation whereby we ean control our own resources, identity, govemance and land. Sadly, the January reorganization of the board extinguished any ehanee the puwalu would become a reahty. Apmdent course of action is a neutral process by whieh the community as a whole ean participate, so the will of the people ean be carried out. OHA ean play a key role in helping to facihtate and bring this process togeth-

er. This approach ean provide and allow input from everyone. This is a emeial „ time in our Hawaiian history and it is a time for unity and not division. I believe it should begin with OHA and its trustees. After ah, we were elected to serve our beneficiaries as servants and we should lead by example, by offering a helping hand, to guide a fair and equitable path to self-determination. According to the Hawai'i Revised Statutes, the purpose of OHA is to better the conditions of ah Hawaiians. By law, the board, on behalf of Hawaiians, also has the power to manage, invest and administer the proceeds from the sale of lands, along with other miscellaneous ineome. It is also responsible for land set aside from the state and/or federal govemment or other private sources. In addition, this office is the receptacle in whieh money is invested, collected, received, deposited and withdrawn on behalf of the Hawaiian people. With all of these resources at our disposal, working together, we tmstees, along with the Hawaiian community, should be able to achieve the goal of pohtical status and self-determination. Those wishing to contribute with helpful suggestions, please feel free to contact myofficeat 594-1750. ■

[?]

"We will not sit back while our nation is stripped of its assets. We must stand up and take a proactive role in determining what the future holds for our po'e."

[?]