Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 8, 1 August 2004 — Hawaiian cultural center should be priority [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian cultural center should be priority

£ A no'ai kākou. It seems / \ like almost every eomĀ. A.munity in the state has its own cultural center except us. The Okinawans have two of them. The Maui Okinawa Cultural Center and the Hawai'i Okinawa Center in Waipahu serve as a lively gathering plaee for the Okinawan community. The Filipino Community Center in Waipahu was built to perpetuate and preserve Filipino culture. The Japanese Cultural Center in Mō'ili'ili aspires to create a deeper knowledge of Japanese heritage. The loeal Korean community is in the process of building a cultural center of their own where future generations ean learn about their heritage and history. So just why is every community so eager to build a community center? The Filipino community wanted a special plaee where they could feel comfortable participating in social and recreational activities. The Japanese community wanted a plaee where future generations could look back and be fully conscious of their roots. They also wanted a convenient and hospitable gathering plaee for the study, display, demonstration and interchange of such arts, culture, history and language.

The Korean community wants a meeting plaee for the Korean eommunity and a museum to preserve their history. The Hawai'i Okinawa Center provides meeting facilities, a library, an exhibit room and office space. They also have a l,200-seat capacity auditorium and banquet hall, whieh provide a natural setting for cultural shows, performances, banquets, conferences and receptions. OHA's constitutional mandate is to better the conditions of Native Hawaiians by protecting their entitlement rights, land, culture, language, and perpetuating their lifestyle and environmental resources. An authentic Hawaiian Cultural Center should clearly be one of OHA's top priorities. So where is the Hawaiian Cultural Center? The issue has been approached many times by many organizations but nothing has ever materialized. Hawaiians have unique needs and concerns, and yet we are simply lumped together with the general population and expected to assimilate. This borders on the criminal. We are the host culture, the same culture that is sold to the tourists. Shame on us for not creating a plaee of our own. Other Polynesian

cultures have already built focal points for their communities. The Māori of Aotearoa/New Zealand have the Marae, a sacred open meeting area, and eommunal meeting house. The Marae is a plaee with the greatest mana, the plaee of greatest spirituality; the plaee that heightens people's dignity, and the plaee in whieh Māori customs are given ultimate expression. It is the home of traditional Māori eommunity life where official functions ,celebrations, weddings, christenings, tribal reunions and funerals take plaee. Tahitians have open air sanctuaries also known as Marae. All important events of a secular nature such as peaee treaties, celebrations of war or voyage preparations were held at the marae. So what would a Hawaiian Cultural Center look like? In addition to serving to preserve, protect and perpetuate our unique traditions, customs, spiritual values and practices, the center ean also provide a plaee for: large gatherings; a marketplace where Hawaiian-made products and merchandise ean be sold; after school and weekend programs for our keiki and kūpuna; learning about Hawaiian history, language, cultural practices, music, crafts, the environment, seafaring, healing arts and martial arts; and an

archive library and genealogy research center. OHA could be instrumental in getting the state to donate some land for a center or negotiate a 99year lease with the Department of Hawaiian Home Fands. Perhaps even a private company could donate some land. The Filipino Cultural Center is built on land donated by AMFAC. The goal of the center should be to eventually heeome self-sustaining, perhaps by becoming a major world-class visitor destination where anyone ean experience, study and practice our living Hawaiian culture. Sounds like wishful thinking? Think again. Where there's a will, there's a way. I weleome your mana'o on this issue. Please e-mail me at rowenaa@oha.org and let me know how you feel about building an authentic Hawaiian Cultural Center. I mua e Hawai'i nei ... For more information on important Hawaiian issues, eheek out Trustee Akana's website at www. rowe n aakana.org. ■

Rowena Akana Trustee, At-large