Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 2000 — Healing nation [ARTICLE]

Healing nation

As we await the U.S. Senate's vote recognizing our franchise as an independent people, I would ask that Hawaiians consider this. Before us lay a number of important and historic decisions. The course we set to meet the promise of the federal legislation will iipple through the lives of our people for generations to eome. To this point in time, for generation upon generation, our families have felt the pain of a great social trauma - the tread of colonialism through the land. In order for us to gain some measure of reconciliation in the face of this widespread anguish, we must first acknowledge that this wounding is real, and then that this pain has eome from forces both inside and outside our family groups. As we enter this next period of our history let us acknowledge that our need for healing is large. The way through this difFicult transition period ean be guided by the skills and mana'o of our traditional healers. Asking our healers to lead in the birth of this new nation will allow us to be touched by the mana'o of our ancestors. With their leadership we will bring to fullness, for all people, the abundance onee found in this land. Bud Pōmaika'i Cook Hilo I am a transplanted Hawaiian of mixed heritage. Last month, a letter from Inoa'ole prompted this. OHA is looking back and forward, but not far enough. If in the past is located the future, then OHA must

do this. Properties (lands and buildings) must be purchased and people trained to run these businesses for profit and the good of Hawai'i. Inoa'ole is right, but I would go a step further. We don't need to buy everything in sight - a little at a time would help greatly. Money sitting in the bank does not generate enough ineome and does not provide jobs for people. Just look at a resort owned and run by Hawaiians, generating profit for Hawaiians. The profits would be reinvested for a second and a third and so on. The initial venture would be a training ground for the next, and would create meaningful employment opportunities in construction, business management, accounting, food management, maintenance, etc. The time for fighting among ourselves is over. We must pull together for the good of the whole. Unlike the Native Americans, we ean not have casinos but the concept is there if we want to work together. Live long and prosper Hawai'i. Aloha. Herb Lum Via the lnternet