Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 10, 1 October 2008 — Response to Akana [ARTICLE]

Response to Akana

Trustee Akana's comments related to the Nelson v. Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the state of Hawai'i Legislature lawsuit reflects a misunderstanding of the case filed by Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. on behalf of six native Hawaiian beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Conunission Act (HHCA). 1. The plaintiffs are suing the state of Hawai'i Legislature to meet its obligation as stipulated under Hawai'i state Constitution, Article 12, S1 - whieh simply states that the Legislature shall make sufficient funds available to PHHL to pav for its administrative costs and programs. The current wait list is over 22,000 applicants; quadruple the number in 1978

when this provision went into effect. The chronic failure to fund is the primary reason that hundreds of homestead applicants too often die waiting or wait a lifetime for homesteads. 2. Our lawsuit is not about Hawaiians suing Hawaiians. We are suing the state for breaking its clear promise to faithfully administer the spirit of the HHCA in exchange for tremendous eeonomie benefits following statehood. The innnediate winner, should we win this suit, is the PHHL. 3. OHA filed similar lawsuits against the state to enforce promises to pay OHA revenues from state leasing of ceded lands and to prohibit the state from transferring or selling ceded lands. Is OHA's insistence on enforcing those obligations any different or more important than trying to enforce this constitutional promise? Richard "ūiekie" Nelson Kawanui, Kona Ākau, Hawai'i