Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 2, 1 February 2004 — Con-Con revisited [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Con-Con revisited

At a Jan. 5 press conference, three of the participants in the 1978 eonstitutional convention that created OHA — Frenchy DeSoto, Bill Paty and John Waihe'e — discussed the original reasons behind the founding of the agency and expressed their continuing support for OHA today. "The formation of OHA was a very historic point in the march toward Hawaiian self determination," said Waihe'e, the state's first Native Hawaiian governor. "It was the first time since the overthrow that Hawaiians had an opportunity to control their own resources, and therefore their own destiny."

"The 'Con-Con' delegates very sincerely and strongly felt that they owed it to the Hawaiian people to develop some of their own control and funding that eame from ceded lands," said Paty, who was president of the 1978 convention. "The delegates saw this as an opportunity to be able to bring some funding forward to use for the betterment of the Hawaiian people — one that in my opinion stands today and will play a very key role in what will happen in the Hawaiian community."

Nū Hnii

Frenchy DeSoto, Bill Paty and John Waihe'e review the reasons behind the 1978 establishment of OHA.