Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 6, 1 Iune 2001 — Master plan, Federal recognition, Hokuliʻa [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Master plan, Federal recognition, Hokuliʻa

Linda Dela Cruz Trustee, Hawai'i

Many issues are finally being resolved at OHA. We have addressed some of the concerns noted by State Auditor Marion Higa. Of high priority is getting back on track in fulfilling our mandate of bettering the conditions of the native Hawaiians and Hawaiians. In January, OHA's Budget and Finance Committee held a workshop on setting priorities and guidelines. At that time, it was affirmed that policies of the agency would be the purview of the Policy and Planning Committee, although some policies are administrative. In the end, however, the Board of Trustees needs to adopt these policies. Another priority is the updating of OHA's Master Plan, as mandated by law. The project is costly, but necessary, and requires community

input, especially from OHA's beneficiaries. The 1986 Federal/State Task Force made many recommendations that remain unimplemented. Let's not repeat that unproductive scenario. Community input is imperative to updating OHA's Master Plan, because individual communities know best what their needs and eoncerns are. Planning and prioritizing comes from firsthand knowledge of issues. At the forefront of Hawaiian eommunity concerns is the need for federal recognition. Our people, in Hawai'i and on the mainland, need to get informed on this matter, and be maka'ala to surmounting threats to Hawaiian programs and entitlements. We must avail resources to effectively inform our people of the growing threats. Now more than ever, we need to eome together.

In order to establish a Hawaiian government of any type, we need to protect and preserve our entitlements and benefits. In order to protect these, we need to agree to be united. Before we ean move forward, we need to create an identity that includes all Hawaiians who ean trace their Hawaiian roots to before Western contact. We need all Hawaiians to contact your families in Hawai'i on the mainland and around the world to support federal legislation to recognize Hawaiians as an indigenous group with a political relationship with the United States. The Akaka Bill may not be perfect, but it's a start. We ean then all start from a elean page and decide what's best for our future instead of other people telling us what to do. We ean agree

to disagree. Many efforts to bring Hawaiians together have not worked. We no longer have the luxury of time, and mustn't waste it fighting one another. To my constituents on Hawai'i island, many pilikia have plagued our people recently. The descendants of the Kealakekua district shared with the Board of Trustees a serious infraction of agreements and state procedure involving the Hokuli'a Development. Burials and cultural sites previously identified in the EIS process are being dug up. The monitoring systems of the state agencies and the developers have failed our kupuna miserably. We will do our best from this end to protect their interests, and have referred the matter to OHA's Native Hawaiian Historic Preservation Council. Mahalo, mālama pono, a hui hou. ■

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