Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 20, Number 10, 1 October 2003 — Conference to address Hawaiian intellectual property issues [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Conference to address Hawaiian intellectual property issues

By Sterling Kini Wong As Vicky Holt Takamine sat in a theater watching the film Lilo and Stitch with her mo'opuna, she wondered why one of the movie's songs sounded familiar. Takamine, kumu hula of Hālau Pua Ali'i 'Ilima and the president of the 'īlio'ulaokalani Coalition, soon heeame angry when she realized that the song about the lead character in the movie, "He Mele no Lilog incorporated two Hawaiian songs written for Hawai'i's last two reigning monarchs, King Kalākaua and Queen Lili'uokalani. She said that by combining these two songs into one, renaming the song as if it were composed for the movie's main character and then copyrighting it, the Walt Disney Music Co. misappropriated Native Hawaiian culture. "This is wrong, this is hewa," Takamine said. It is this sort of eommercial exploitation of Native Hawaiian culture, she said, that has spawned the first Native Hawaiian intellectual property rights conferenee, whieh will be held Oct. 3-5 at the Waikīkī Beach Marriott Resort. The 'īlio'ulaokalani Coalition, the Pū'ā Foundation, the Native Hawaiian Leadership Project and Native Hawaiian Vocational See CONFERENCE on page 17

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CONFERENCE from page 7 Education Program are sponsoring Ka 'Aha Pono, a conference designed to analyze the misuse of Hawaiian intellectual property rights and to eall upon the government and private sectors to recognize these rights. Native Hawaiian attorney Le'a Kanehe, who will conduct a presentation on "bioprospecting" at the conference, said that in light of the legal challenges facing Hawaiian entitlements, this is an opportune time to have a proactive conference that asserts Native Hawaiian rights. According to Kanehe, 27, Native Hawaiian intellectual property rights are founded on collective cultural practices that have been developed and refined over thousands of years. Kanehe said that there is a sense of kuleana inherent in intellectual property rights, and that Native Hawaiians "have an obligation to protect our rights and take a stand to make things pono." One of the objectives of the eonference is to establish policies on the use of Hawaiian intellectual property. Organizers of the Ka 'Aha Pono hope to present the conferenee findings at the Festival of Pacific Arts in Palau in 2004, and the World Indigenous Peoples

Conference in 2005. The conferenee will include discussions on commercial infringement of Hawaiian music and hula, the establishment of a Native Hawaiian trademark, and the use of legal strategies to protect native intellectual property rights. Takamine has nominated "He Mele no Lilo' " and the hula documentary American Aloha for the first annual Kāpulu Awards, whieh she said will highlight the most insolent misappropriations of Hawaiian intellectual property. The "winners" of the awards will be announced at the conference. The fee for the three-day event is $300, with a limited number of scholarships available. For more information and registration applications, log on to ilio.org. ■