Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 5, 1 May 2006 — An Open Letter to Members of the Native Hawaiian Coalition [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

An Open Letter to Members of the Native Hawaiian Coalition

In February 2004, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs convened an advisory group that later decided to eall itself the Native Hawaiian Coalition. The group was tasked with determining the steps to fonn a nation. As time progressed, the Coalition was slow in determining the steps to fonn a nation. At eaeh meeting, hours were wasted with haggling over the agenda, refusing to agree to an agenda and re-raising issues that had been decided at prior meetings. Finally, after ten months and five meetings, the Coalition agreed to six main components to creating a nation. Ironically, they were the same six steps that OHA proposed to the advisory group in Ianuary 2004, before the meetings started. Coalition members then decided they wanted more time to flesh out the details of eaeh eomponent. OHA funded more meetings to give Coalition participants time to do that. However, again, the Coalition wasted many hours and meetings haggling over the same things: agendas, rules of order and decisions from prior meetings. For the past year and three months, the Coalition has been stuck on organizing itself. The group has not been able to agree on a leadership structure, eleehon process or pennanent leadership. As a result, the task of refining the steps has fallen by the wayside, and no progress has been made. More importantly, the Coalition seems to have lost sight of the fact that it is a temporary entity tasked only with determining the steps to nationhood. It is not the nation itself, nor are its members duly elected delegates of the Hawaiian coimnunity as a whole. Based on all of this, we have reached a point where OHA needs to make a decision about moving the Hawaiian coimnunity toward nationbuilding, absent the Coalition's ability to move forward and complete its assignment. This is what we observe: 1. The Coalition has completed its task of determining the steps to form a nation. 2. The Coalition has started to refine the steps to fonning a nation but has not completed it. 3. The Coalition is stuck on organizational structure and appears unable to elect permanent leadership or move toward completion of the steps to forming a nation. In addition, the Coalition has cost OHA more than $200,000. This sum could be an acceptable amount if the Coalition was moving forward, but it is not. At the same time, OHA has a fiduciary duty to all Hawaiians, not just the 200 or so people who have been participating in Coalition meetings. OHA has an obligation to move nation-building forward in a timely manner as legal threats against

Native Hawaiian assets continue at a fast paee. OHA recognizes that Coalition participants may need an opportunity to bring closure to the work they started. Because of that, OHA will pay for one more large group discussion that Coalition members are weleome to attend. It is not a Coalition meeting. It is a discussion at whieh Coalition members and others will be given a final opportunity to refine the steps. You may wish to meet on your islands beforehand to discuss refinement of the steps, then share that refinement with everyone else at this final meeting. We will invite Hā Hawai'i and similar groups who have made significant progress in nation-building to attend the meeting, react to the steps and participate in refinement of the steps. The sole item on the agenda at this meeting will be refinement of the steps to building a nation. OHA will facilitate the meeting. The rules of order will be by consensus. The meeting facilitators will follow a timed agenda. If the group is unable to follow the agenda and complete its task by the end of the day, OHA will look to other coimnunity organizations to complete the task on behalf of the entire Hawaiian community. We recognize the Coalition may want to eontinue organizing itself. That is fine. However, OHA will not pay for those meetings as a matter of course. The Coalition is encouraged to apply for an OHA grant like other coimnunity organizations do and be subject to standard grant prerequisites and requirements. We hope you will agree that this is a way we ean move forward as one people toward nationbuilding. If you have signed up with OHA as a participant in Coalition meetings, you will receive a meeting notice shortly, when the logistics for this meeting are detennined. We will mail materials beforehand so you ean read them and be prepared to make decisions. We humbly suggest that everyone leave their egos at home and eome prepared to vote and decide on the steps and their details. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me or our Hawaiian Governance staff. We weleome your feedback on this proposal, and we look forward to a productive meeting in eoming weeks. As a people, we need to move forward quickly to a process that will allow all Hawaiians to elect delegates to an 'aha where governing documents ean be drafted and put to vote for ratification. We must do this quickly, as time is of the essence.

'O wau iho nō, Clyde W. Nāmu'o Administrator

— MAI KA LUNA HO'OKELE • FRDM ĪHE ADMINISTRATDR

IBy Clyde Nāmu'ū ŪHA Administratur