Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 20, Number 9, 1 Kepakemapa 2003 — Q&A With Hawaiian Kingdom reinstatement advocate Henry Noa [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Q&A With Hawaiian Kingdom reinstatement advocate Henry Noa

~W~ ~W~ enry Noa is the prime minē m ister of the Reinstated M. -M. Hawaiian Government (RHG), whieh convened for the first time in 107 years on Jan. 15, 2000. The RHG conducted a citizenship drive, revived the nation 's voting districts, held a parliamentary eleetion and a constitutional convention and conducted a plehescite to ratify their proposed constitution. Today the RHG has a memhership ofmore than 3,000 individuals. Noa was raised on Waimānalo Homestead and attended Saint Louis High School. He received his bachelor's d.egree in Physical Education and Hawaiian History from the University of Hawai'i. Today, when Noa is not conducting meetings throughout the island.s, he d.evotes the majority of his time at the RHG office on Wai'alae Avenue, managing the d.ay-to-d.ay activities ofthe reinstated. government. Why are so many Hawaiians confused about sovereignty? HN: One of the problems that we face today in Hawai'i is that an educational process about sovereignty for our people was never set up. There are only so many processes for sovereignty out there right now. Why don't we bring them all together and have everybody answer preset questions. This way people ean hear who you are and what your platform is and how you expect to achieve it and so forth. Why doesn't OHA finance and put together an educational forum that ean be filmed? Let eaeh sovereignty group talk for 15 minutes. I would like to see it eome down to two processes; federal recognition and reinstatement. KWO: What is your opinion of

the Fed.eral Recognition Bill? By being federally recognized, all I am doing is consenting to be identified as someone who I am not, and also I am consenting to being subjected to that country forever. Any government created through the federal recognition bill will be controlled under the constraints of U.S. federal and state laws. When we have problems w i t h t h e Department o f the Interior, who are we going to cry to, the U.S. courtrooms? Native Americans with federal recognition are fighting with the Department of the Interior right now for the department's mismanagement of their

assets. In international law you ean give up your nation's right to sover-

eignty. If we accept federal recognition now, and we have complaints later on, the federal government will say you accepted the bill when you should have objected to it. I listen to people who keep saying 'federal recognition is the first step.' You take that first step and it is over. Why should. people accept reinstatement of the Kingd.om of Hawai'i rather than other sovereignty processes? Reinstatement directly addresses the problem - the 1893 overthrow. By reinstating a nation you actually manifest the rights that are inherent in that nation. You manifest that right of that political authority. You

manifest that right to elaim what belongs to that nation, particularly the land base. And you also secure your 'proper claimant' status in international law. The purpose for reinstating is to put back what was onee there. You are putting back the right of that nation to exist, the right to have political authority, the right to elaim what belongs to the nation. How ean other sovereignty groups elaim the land base? They have no standing. They might as well be the Provisional Government. How do you reinstate a government? The Rule of Postliminium is a legal application according to inter-

national law for one government to return property that belongs to another government. All Department of Hawaiian Homelands and ceded lands were stolen and still belong to the Hawaiian government. OHA cannot safeguard its assets from the results of the Amkaki case. If OHA transferred their assets to RHG, we would be able to safeguard those assets. And if we get taken to court for possessing the assets, then we would be able find out who has proper elaim to those assets, through the process of law. How has the Native Hawaiian youth been affected by the sovereignty movement? There is a new breed

coming up of students between the ages of 16 and 23. These students ean

speak Hawanan, are educated about Hawaiian history and have the instincts of being Hawaiian. They are very focused. I see them right now, for our process, as a huge advantage. All I keep hoping for is that they ean hook up with the right information before they get confused. What do Hawaiians have to do achieve justice? Let's mobilize and eome together. It is not a matter of Democrat versus Republican, or one sovereignty group versus another. It is about us Hawaiians coming together because that is what is needed. ■

Kūkākūkā

Henry Noa, prime minister of the Reinstated Hawaiian Government Photo: Sterling Wong