Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 2012 — E komo pū ka māpuna hoe! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

E komo pū ka māpuna hoe!

Put in your paddle, get involved, stay involved!

Aloha mai kākou, e nā 'ōiwi a me nā hoaaloha mai ka hikina o ka lā i Ha'eha'e a i ka welona o ka lā i ka mole o Lehua me nā kama o nā 'āina like 'ole o ka honua ākea o Papa - aloha nō.

I greet you today with mueh hope. For our lāhui, our people, and all those who stand with us, this is an era of opportunity - not because we are experiencing great prosperity and ease, but because it is a time of tremendous challenge. There are attempts by some to erode the laws that are intended to preserve our traditional cultural practices. There are attempts to end federally funded programs aimed at helping Native Hawaiians. And there soon will be deep, sustained federal funding cuts that will have a major impact on programs in our Hawaiian communities and throughout the state over the next several years. So we find ourselves in a time when we must do more than wait for others to help. It is a time requiring us to be purposeful and planful, to be coordinated and unified, but most of all, to be informed and engaged. E komo pū ka māpuna hoe! Put in your paddle, get involved, stay involved! Our goal for Ka Wai Ola is to provide timely and thoughtful articles, commentaries and announcements that educate our community so that we ean stay informed, take aehon i mana ka leo, so our voice will be empowered. This slogan, I Mana ka Leo, is one that you may have seen on T-shirts that OHA is sharing. We are doing this to remind everyone of the power of our engaged voice, whether at the voting polls or in any situation when we are inspired to share our mana'o and take action. To support and facilitate our empowered voices, this Ka Wai 01 a issue focuses on govemance - from crucial self-de-termination efforts to Office of Hawaiian Affairs candidates' views on matters affecting our Hawaiian community. This edition is particularly important because it explores Hawaiian self-governance, the issue that will have the largest impact on our lāhui and that may be the best means to address our many challenges. Today, one of the most important initiatives forwarding self-governance is Kana'iolowalu, a yearlong effort of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission. Its goal is to register a large body of Native Hawaiians, all of us who affirm our unrelinquished sovereignty and who are ready to be involved in the process of nation building.

OHA believes that the Kana'iolowalu roll ean assist all of the various Hawaiian self-governance efforts, because a large registry would confirm that there is broad support for Hawaiian self-governance. There are not merely pockets of small groups who support one or another effort, but ,

a mass of us calling for the formation of a Hawaiian self-governing entity.

What that entity will be is wide open for eon sideration. Kana'iolowalu is not promoting any specific form of self-governance. As for Kana'iolowalu, its kuleana is limited to establishing the roll of Native Hawaiians. Onee the enrollment process is complete, the Native Hawaiian Roll Commis-

sion will dissolve. OHA's kuleana will be to support the process of nation building. This OHA role will take the form of providing information, as with this Ka Wai Ola edition. And in future months, our kuleana will involve a series of educational forums that OHA we will be hosting. The purpose of the forums will be to convene a wide array of Hawaiian leaders involved in selfgovernance initiatives to share their perspectives and proposals for gaining state, federal or internationally

recognized sovereignty. OHA's role in the forums will not be to set the direction or outcome of the various efforts but rather to facilitate the dialogue so that we ean all be better informed. With this education, we ean then make clear decisions about our individual roles. OHA also commits to facilitating an eventual decisionmaking process that will allow our lāhui to collectively determine our course of action to exercise self-govemance. As we do so, let us be inspired by the opportunities ahead to shape a new Hawaiian world founded upon the ancestral traditions, practices and strength of our kūpuna and unlimited in the possibilities that will allow us to incorporate all the best that the world has to offer. E kaupē aku nō i nā hoe, a kō pū mai, a pae ka wa'a. Let us put forward our paddles and draw them back together until we land. Let us stay involved and eonhnue paddling together until we complete our journey.

Kamana'opono Crabbe, Ph.D. Ka Pouhana, Chief Executive Officer

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