Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 3, 1 March 2006 — Challenges of preserving our native homeland [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Challenges of preserving our native homeland

Bnyd P. Mūssman TrustEE, Maui

Aloha kākou. As I travel between Maui and O'ahu, I have occasion to see and hear many visitors to Hawai'i and recent residents chat amongst themselves. More than onee I have heard the phrase, "We just fell in love with this plaee so we moved here." Reflecting upon this statement in the context of Hawaiian rights and the past, present and future of Native Hawaiians, one might wonder what is being done to allow Hawai'i's native people to preserve their heritage and to remain here in their homeland. A mason friend of mine said to me that he has realized that as he builds mansions for wealthy new residents on Maui that he is working himself out of Hawai'i. This is

because he will never be able to afford a home of his own and may need to relocate to somewhere on the mainland where he ean provide a home for his family. Also on Maui where eight of ten of the first residents at a new senior housing complex were from the mainland, what recourse do Hawaiians have? It is a difficult predicament we find ourselves in today, and as a people we need to be looking to partnerships, sovereignty and cooperation with other organizations to preserve for us our land, our families and our future. At OHA we are working to address the needs of our people in a variety of ways. The most obvious are the grants, aid and support we give to Hawaiian organizations dedicated to helping Hawaiians in education, employment, social services, legal services, heahh, language, culture, business, etc. We are also seeking to preserve our rights to ceded lands revenues and other state funding by working with the Legislature and administration, as well as positioning ourselves for the eventual transfer of our resources to a Hawaiian governing entity. In this regard OHA accepts that federal recognition is the only sure way to secure and preserve for us what we have today and open the way to more help for our people. Absent same, we face the real threat of loss of all we have today in the way of assistance from government and ultimately our identity as a people. Thus it is imperative that OHA continue amidst the cries

of the opposition to press forward and at least secure federal recognition. Thereafter, we ean prevail in the lawsuits against us and then a government of Hawaiians will be able to carry on our efforts to focus on the needs of Hawaiians whieh ean only benefit all of Hawai'i. While we do this, we need to also heeome more involved in providing affordable housing to my mason friend and so many other Hawaiians from the homeless to the laborers to the carpenters, polieemen, firefighters and all who work so hard to provide for their families here in their 'āina and who aren't able to afford a home in their own land. We thus are seeking from the Legislature the right to provide housing to our people without the restrictions currently imposed by government red tape. That is not to say that we are not working with both state and county agencies to work toward a eonunon goal of providing affordable housing to our people. We have found a mutual eoneem amongst these agencies with whom we may be able to partner and work together on housing in the near future. And so working together with Gov. Linda Lingle, the Legislature, our congressional representatives, our county mayors and councils, all of whom support federal recognition, as well as with the private sector, we hope to be able to secure for our people a plaee of abode, a sense of permanency and a foothold to the future. E3

LEO 'ELELE • TRUSTEE M ESSAGES