Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 7, 1 July 2002 — LUNA HOʻOKELE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LUNA HOʻOKELE

BY Clyde W. Namu'o OHA administrator In August, my first year at the Office of Hawaiian Aff77airs will be complete, Throughout the past year, we have had many successes; of special note is a first-of-its-kind homeownership program initiated by OHA to offer Hawaiians a way to obtain a home without a down payment, We partnered with major banks and were bolstered by supporters on our congressional delegation to make it happen, and now more than 1,500 Hawaiians have signed up to apply for the program, Upon my arrival, I wanted to do everything possible to not only assess how I could best assist our beneficiaries and OHA staff but look at ongoing initiatives at OHA, such as our efforts to support passage of a federal recognition bill and action toward our Strategic Plan, While our congressional delegation has done everything possible to move the "Akaka Bill" through Congress, the bill is not, at this time, where we wanted it to be, The current draft, Senate bill S, 746 is designed to express the policy of the United States regarding the United States relationship with Native Hawaiians and to provide a process for the recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity, and for other purposes, Our legislative team on staff is tracking thebill's daily status, we are working aggressively with staff at the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and other interested groups in our community to see this bill's eventual passage, More to follow next month.

After many months of community meetmgs, deliberations and planning, our Board of Trustees took a major step in approving, on April 4, the first-year action plan necessary to begin its fiveyear strategic plan, focusing on 10 key goals, I am working with our management team, staff and Board leadership to structure our staff in a way that best fits the Board's direction, I will report to you any alignment changes to our staff in an upcoming eolumn, īn brief, our Board approved the following goals for the first year of our strategic plan: Goal 1. Advocacy-Native Rights Strategy 1 : Promote and protect the rights and entitlements of Native Hawaiians Strategy 2: Obtain at least one significant legal outcome to benefit the native Hawaiian people Strategy 3: Secure a predictable, on-going revenue stream from the Public Land Trust Strategy 4: Achieve agreement in the Hawaiian community on the issue of blood quantum Goal: 2. Culture Strategy 1: īdentify native Hawaiian cultural traditions, practices and rights most endangered Strategy 2: Assure continued monitoring of administrative actions Goal: 3. Eeonomie Development Strategy 1 : Create substantive policies and institutional support Strategy 2: Leverage potential resources Goal: 4. Education Strategy 1 : Leverage potential resources to create educational opportunities Strategy 2: Create additional literacy resources for Native Hawaiians Strategy 3: Engage kupuna in developing Hawaiian learning methods Goal: 5. Environment-Natural Resources Strategy 1 : Establish an integrated network

Strategy 2: Establish a policy on Hawaiian water rights Goal: 6. Nationhood Strategy 1 : Create a plan and process for unification Strategy 2: Develop voter education campaign Goal: 7. Policy Strategy 1 : Provide effective, efficient administration of OHA Strategy 2: Assure effective, efficient process of decision-making by the Board Strategy 3: īncrease OHA's understanding of developing issues in the community Strategy 4: Engage Congressional delegation, State Legislative leaders and loeal effected officials to support Hawaiians, Goal: 8. Social Services Strategy 1 : To improve beneficiary access to resources, information and services Goal: 9. Land and Housing Strategy 1: Develop infrastructure to enhanee Native Hawaiian trust fund in the area of land, Strategy 2: Develop a plan to address native Hawaiian housing Goal: 10. Heahh Strategy 1 : Develop strategy to address kupuna heahh issues These are exciting times for OHA and me, as its administrator, Every day we must work to find new ways to do what's right for our beneficiaries, ī ask of you, however, to stay abreast of challenges to our people, Housing, eeonomie development, advocacy and protection of our rights as Hawaiians are all part of our plan, ī need you to help me move our agenda forward, however, Please provide me your comments and concerns when ī eome to your community, Together, we will improve OHA and the future of our people, MālamaPono ■

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