Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 7, 1 Iulai 2016 — APOLIONA, HAUNANI [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

APOLIONA, HAUNANI

>► Q1 RESPONSE Opportunity must be aligned with a community readiness eommited to achieve accountable outcomes for positive change to occur. Physical, mental and spiritual health of our Lahui, tested over time by diverse issues, stifled collaborative solutions for eommon concerns. Opportunities exist now for identihed and willing Native Hawaiian leaders

and collective people power, resources and a shared commitmentto solutions to enīiee Native Hawaiian leaders of two major land preservation trusts - Kamehameha Schools and The Nature Conservancy (Hawai'i) to collaborate with Native Hawaiians in implementing an environmental strategic plan for Hawaiian lands guiding generations to eome. Opportunities exist now for OHA scholarships, educational/ community development grants to expand mentoring of leader and worker skills in planning and implementing community and naīion building capabilities for state, naīional and global impact. Opportunities await our collaborative attention. Readiness in communities, with OHAcollaborating, is the key. >► Q2 RESPONSE: The naīion building strategy initiated in 2015 by Native Hawaiians appeared headed for the eleeīion of delegates and convening of an 'Aha (Native Hawaiian Convention). The ongoing pursuit of naīion building was forced to strategically redirect its efforts due to litigation hled by the "Grass Roots Institute" and two additional Native Hawaiians in Federal Court to halt the planned Convention. Ironically, two of the three Native Hawaiian litigants suing OFLA are now running for election to OFLA in 2016. A draft Constitution and Referendum by registered Native Hawaiians are planned and nation building remains a work in progress. As a current OHA Tmstee I am committed to OHA's majority-approved position. However, as a re-elected Tmstee I am committed to rehning existing strategies consistent with additional input we seek from the majority of Native Hawaiians. >► Q3 RESPONSE: Native Hawaiian ancestors foresaw the role of our Lāhui to ensure survival of our cultural values by enabling mutual respea and peaceful collaboration among nations (and culmres) of the world. Native leaders dispatched to other global communities engaged and learned skills in readiness for impacting Hawai'i's future.Modem technology enables Native Hawaiians to witness peoples and cultures without even leaving Hawai'i yet understand that person-to-person contact is the preferred medium of eommunieation. PVS's Hōkūle'a world voyage (supported by OFLA) is a critical base from whieh Hawai'i's impaa on island nations and global survival is emeial. OFLA's decade role with Papahānaumokuākea and its global status is a catalyst for expeditiously investigating the rising oeean tides issue whieh gravely affeas Hawai'i and Paeihe archipelagos and adds cultivation of marine resources (on land and in oeean) critical to the hfelines of island nations globally. The East-West Center and the UH Matsunaga Peaee Instimte provide Native Hawaiians (and Paeihe islanders) an instimtional arena for mediation centers to address resolving differences/disputes among island nations and global countries. I