Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 1, 1 January 2010 — DAWN OF A NEW DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DAWN OF A

NEW DAY

After a tough decade, Apoliona calls upon Hawaiians to forge ahead with renewed vigor

HA'I 'ŌLELO • STAT E OF THE OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS

INTR0DUCTI0N Aloha e nā 'ōiwi 'ōlino mai Hawai'i a Ni'ihau a puni ke ao mālamalama. Aloha e nā kūpuna a me nā 'ōpio. Aloha e nā kama'āina a me nā malihini kekahi. Aloha nō kākou a pau loa. Aloha. On behalf of the OHA Board of Trustees and our staff from Hawai'i to Washington, D.C., I am pleased to weleome all of you onee again to our message on the State of OHA and the Native Hawaiian Community. Our first annual State of OHA address began in 2002 as a suggestion from our youngest Trustee, John Waihe'e IV. This year's address, the seventh State of OHA address, comes at a particularly opportune time. We are closing a decade - a difficult decade - and entering a new one. What does that mean for us as Hawaiians? L00KING AT THE PAST DECADE, 2000-2009 This first decade of the millennium, 2000 to 2009, now coming to a close, has been a ehallenging decade by all measures. The year 2000 was a year that rocked the very core and foundation of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, challenging the basic principles of Native Hawaiian self-determination at the level of State governance and further serving to embolden nā 'elele o ka loko 'ino to tie the arm of Native Hawaiian advocacy. 2000 was the year the U.S. Supreme Court held in Rice v. Cayetano that the eleehon of OHA Trustees could not be limited to only Hawaiians. On the heels of that case was another federal court decision that we refer to as Arakaki I, whieh determined that running for the office of OHA Trustees could not be limited to only Hawaiians. It was the first time we were confronted with the reality that there were those who felt empowered by the Rice decision to finish the job to eliminate the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in total. More federal lawsuits followed with additional cases being filed by folks like Barrett, Carroll and Kuroiwa, who challenged OHA's constitutional right to exist; and it remains their intent to use the U.S. Constitution to do it, under the 14th Amendment. Over time we have been able to navigate these waters of litigation. Today only one case is pending, Day v. Apoliona. However, it has been a 10-year minefield of lawsuits that have cost millions of dollars to fight. These lawsuits are not just about OHA but about Native Hawaiians and our legal right to exist as a distinct group of people to manage assets and resources as derived by constitutional and statutory mandates. Another area of difficulty in this first decade of the millennium included uninterrupted receipt of funding that the State of Hawai'i is obligated to pay to OHA from revenue received from crown and government lands, more commonly referred to as "ceded lands." Early in this decade, payments were halted

by then-Governor Cayetano. Those "halted" payments were restored through combined efforts of the State Legislature and Governor Lingle. In 2006, the Legislature also codified a set amount of $15.1 million annual revenue payments for years going forward. To be crystal clear, these revenues are not derived from taxpayer dollars, nor are they part of the general fund of the State budget. This ceded land revenue stream

allows OHA to plan its advocacy in advance as well as continue grant awards to community organizations, as we did this year in the amount of $13 million. Details of this and other accomplishments for 2009 are contained in the supplement distributed to you today with these remarks. These same materials will also be available on OHA's web site, www.oha.org. One languishing issue that OHA has worked diligently to resolve in the second half of this decade is the payment of "the obligated but disputed Puhlie Land Trust revenue amounts" owing for those in-between years from 1980 to 2009. For a third consecutive legislative session, the OHA Trustees are pursuing resolution of this 30-year-old issue by offering a reasonable process for eomplehon. We ask for your support, the eommunity's support, when we renew our efforts at the 2010 Legislature in January. Understanding these key issues from this difficult decade helps give insight to what our role as Native Hawaiians ean and should be in the next decade. The painful challenges of this first decade of the millennium serve as building blocks to fortify our poliheal will and renew our spirit to prepare for the actions that will need to be addressed as we move forward in the next several years. We are, or should be, fine-tuning for the next decade, as we focus on the future. SEC0ND DECADE: 2010 T0 2Ū2Ū For the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a new Strategic Plan for 20 10-20 1 6 approved by the B oard of Trustees in September 2009, has affirmed strategic priorities and strategic results (the Strategic Plan with its priorities and results ean be found on the OHA web site as well). There are six strategic priorities; one of whieh includes Ea (governance), whieh reads, "to restore pono and ea, Native Hawaiians will achieve selfgovernance after whieh the assets of OHA will be transferred to the new governing entity." And the strategic result linked to this specific strategic priority reads, "Transfer Assets to Entity, adoption by the Board of Trustees of a Transition Plan that includes the legal transfer of assets and other resources to the new Native Hawaiian governing entity." The execution of the plan is the kuleana of the OHA Administrator and the staffing he assembles. Administrator Nāmu'o has recruited, interviewed,

selected and hired a Chief Operating Officer and four Line of Business Directors - in Resource Management, Research, Puhlie Communications and Advocacy - to address identified priorities. These leaders, chosen by the Administrator, will be responsible for Operations focused on "managing for results" as the innovative approach whieh replaces the former govemment process we know as "management by objectives." The eighth State of OHA Address in 2010 will report on our

progress. Readiness for building with the community a Native Hawaiian governing entity, enabled by passage of the Native Hawaiian Govemment Reorganization Act (also known as the Akaka Bill) is a responsibility that OHA has championed for the last nine years by advocating passage of this monumental and far-reaching legislation. When enacted, it will be up to ALL Native Hawaiians, whether residing in or outside Hawai'i, to ensure that the enabling process is one that includes all Native Hawaiians who wish to participate, and that the process produces an outcome and end result that present and future generations of Native Hawaiians will use as a tool to better conditions for their 'ohana and all of Hawai'i nei. Another focus area for OHA in this new decade will be to advance OHA's LLCs - limited liability corporations. In addition to managing Waimea Valley and improving Makaweli Poi, the LLCs will serve as incubators for new Hawaiian businesses and nonprofits, helping to seek and apply for federal, state, county and private funding to reach outcomes of self-sufficiency. Accomplishing the latter will strengthen the economy of the State of Hawai'i as a whole. As a Hawaiian community, we ean look forward in this coming decade to the APEC meetings - Asia-Pacific Eeonomie Cooperation meetings - that are coming to Hawai'i in 2011. Hawai'i has been selected! What a tremendous opportunity for Hawai'i and Native Hawaiians to help enlighten the global community! Leaders of the world will be coming to Hawai'i to reflect on what the eeonomie future for the Paeihe ean and should be. As the host culture, Native Hawaiians are blessed with the unique opportunity to take a leading role. We are the reason people eome to Hawai'i. Our honorable culture and our Hawaiian values blending with diverse cultures and peoples are what make Hawai'i unique from any other destination in the world. When APEC leaders are here, we ean plant Hawai'i seeds of ideas, and that spirit nurtured in Hawai'i ean blossom in and impact far-reaching corners of the world. Native Hawaiians ean significantly affect what See STATE 0F OHA on pagE 20

Video of the address ean be seen in the December Ka Wai Ola Loa at oha.org/kwo/loa

OHA Chairperson Haunani Apoliona, Norma Heen, OHA Trustees Walter Heen, Boyd Mossman and Oswald Stender join John Renke and the rest of the congregation in singing "Ka Na'i Aupuni." Pictured in the second pew are Aulani Apoliona, 0HA's Lead Advocate for Kau Inoa and Community Outreach, and Claire Hughes, an advocate for Native Hawaiian health. - Photo: Liza Simon

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Ali'i Sir Edward Akana, KGCK, kālaimoku, or high officer, of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I, stands third from left. With him, from left, are Bill Souza and Kaipo Pomaikai. - Photo: Elaine Pergerstrom i

Edith Kanekoa and Waimānalo kūpuna. - Photo: Elaine Pergerstrom

I OHA Chief ExecuI tive Officer Clyde I Nāmu'o,who I addressedthe I crowd,andhis I wife, Pauline, a member of 'AhaI hui Ka'ahumanu. - I Photo: Uza Simon

3ĪAĪE 0F OHA Continued from page 10 the Hawai'i of the future will be. In this Paeihe Century we ean take leadership roles in government. Just as our forefathers who traversed the Paeihe Oeean were trained in the Far East and Europe to become leaders, in our motherland, in their century, we ean be leaders in this century. Let us reach deep within our spirit and na'au to surface and rekindle that depth of leadership and . . . navigate again. This coming decade ean trigger the start of the next Paeihe century. Hawai'i and the Native Hawaiian community ean choose to demonstrate leadership to APEC leaders on many fronts. Areas of focused leadership ean address: • Managing threats from global warming industries since Paeihe Islands are in imminent danger of rising tides; • Safeguarding intellectual property of native people in the global competitive market; • Developing policies and regulations whieh carve out native rights in telecommunications and limit destruction of cultural sites and island lifestyles; • Developing guidelines for emerging bio-agricultural and aquamarine industries, both in shore and up to the edge of the 3-mile limit; • Ensuring sustainable island fishing and marine life for future generations; and • Building partnerships for green energy, alternative energy sources and related technologies in the eontext of island economies for Paeihe

Island peoples. The evolution of Hawai'i on the world stage is valuable not only to Native Hawaiians but to all people of Hawai'i. And we, the people of Hawai'i, have mueh to share with the rest of the world. All of Hawai'i ean enlighten the world. As we look forward to this next decade, our focus should be on building. We as Hawaiians ean become more fully aware and more fully a contributing partner for the future. Ua ao ka pō, ua eo ka pō i ke ao. ( ' Tis the dawning, darkness is overcome by daylight). We have opportunities in our hands. Let us not squander them. Or as Queen Lili'uokalani's words remind us, "Never cease to act for fear you may fail." These times eall for Hawaiian leaders to move with resolve, focus and discipline. We at OHA eall for an expanded unified effort by ALL the Ali'i Trusts, Hawaiian Public Trusts, and Hawaiian-Serving Institutions and Agencies. We must,

collectively, demonstrate the effort to work together to move the Hawaiian community forward. With our eolleetive poliheal will elevated by acting together in joint efforts - "managed for results," this new decade and eentury will be one of success for Native Hawaiians and all Hawai'i. CL0SING As I bring my remarks to a close, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge and reflect upon a kupuna who passed away this fall, a kupuna who was very dear to many of us during her lifetime of 82 years. That kupuna is Auntie Mary Mālia Kawaiho'ouluohā'ao Craver, who now sleeps the sleep of summers and winters and takes her plaee among the ancestors. For many of us who are products of the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s, Auntie Mālia Craver was a beacon. As a pure Hawaiian and mānaleo, native speaker, Auntie Mālia freely shared eompelling mana'o from her kūpuna and homeland of Ho'okena, South

Kona, Hawai'i, and profound eultural wisdom that is getting harder for this generation to find in eontemporary Hawai'i. She was a gift to all of us who were lucky enough to know and experience her. There are two things Auntie Mālia often said: "Get a grip," and "leave a legacy." "Get a grip" was her instruction to all of us to honestly assess where we are, determine what we want to achieve, decide what we are going to do about it, and take action. Even harder than "get a grip" is her instruction to "leave a legacy." As we begin a new decade and look forward to 2010-2020, we are on the cusp of what could be another Pacific Century - a golden Pacific Century. What legacy will eaeh of us leave as individuals? What legacy will the Office of Hawaiian Affairs leave for Native Hawaiians and the rest of Hawai'i? What legacy will Native Hawaiians leave for the State of Hawai'i

and the rest of the world as the new decade unfolds and global leaders discover Hawai'i anew as the treasure and beacon for nurturing diversity, tolerance and world peaee? A new decade is a new dawn. Hiki mai ka lā i Ha'eha'e. (The sun appears at Ha'eha'e . . . 'Tis the dawning). I challenge us in this coming decade to rise with determination to produce good from all of the opportunities we are given. "Leave a legacy," a kind of legacy that would make our ancestors proud and one that they would bless. "Leave a legacy" that makes Hawai'i and the world a better plaee for us having been in it doing what we do eaeh day. Hiki nō? No laila, hiki mai ka lā i Ha'eha'e. Ua ao ka pō; ua eo ka pō i ke ao. The sun appears at Ha'eha'e. 'Tis the dawning; darkness is overcome by daylight. Aloha and mahalo. ■

featuring native hawaiian news, features and events ka wai ola | the living water of OHA

The women of 'Ahahui Ka'ahumanu. - Photo: Elaine Fergerstrom

OHA Trustees, from left, Walter Heen, Colefte Machado, John Waihe'e IV, Boyd Mossman, Oswald Stender and Chairperson Haunani Apoliona. - Photo: Elaine Fergerstrom