Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 35, Number 1, 1 January 2018 — ALOHA MAI KĀKOU, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ALOHA MAI KĀKOU,

Our primary goal upon assuming leadership of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in February 2017 was to reinforce the foundation of our hale to ensure the long-term stability of our agency. What this fiscal year has taught us is that the foundation of our hale is sound. Despite challenges, our agency made substantial advancements on behalf of our beneficiaries. This Annual Report is testament to what OHA does for our lāhui: provide resources to community programs; advocate for Native Hawaiians on a range of issues; and manage land and trust resources. We touched the individual lives of Native Hawaiians through scholarships for higher education and loans for entrepreneurs and homeowners. We continued to advocate at a 1 1 levels of government to ensure that our natural and cultural resources are protected. For example, OHA has long pushed the State and the University of Hawai'i to address their longstanding and well-documented mismanagement of Mauna Kea. In 2015, OHA entered into a mediated process with the State and UH to address these management failures. Ultimately, the nearly two-year process was unsuccessful, and in November, OHA filed a lawsuit against the State and UH to hold them accountable to their legal obligations to our sacred mountain. This year, our management of OHA's 27,000 acres of commercial, legacy, and agricultural lands was highlighted by our finalization of a comprehensive management plan for Wao Kele o Puna on Hawai'i sland. For several years, OHA staff worked with the community to develop a plan to care for this lowland rainforest that has provided for our people for generations. In addition, OHA was officially elevated to co-trustee status of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Hawaiians finally have a say in high-leve decision making about the management of our kūpuna islands, on par with the State and federal agencies. This was a tremendous victory that comes with significant kuleana. While our hale is sound, we sti 1 1 need to ensure that it ean withstand future adversity. That's why we're moving forward with implementation of our fiscal sustainability plan we've spent the past four years working on. We need to support our beneficiaries while living within our means. This plan will provide direction on how to restructure and prioritize the allocation of our resources in a transparent manner so that we ean continue to f u I f i 1 1 our responsibilities to our beneficiaries into the next century and beyond. Finally, we continue to work with the governor, lawmakers, and the community to ensure that Native Hawaiians receive their fair share of revenue from the Public Land Trust. This has been the most important issue for OHA since its ineephon because it is the main revenue source we use to fund programs and services for our beneficiaries. Clearly, the temporary, $15.1 million eap established ten years ago no longer fairly reflects Native Hawaiians' 20 percent share of the Public Land Trust. According to the State's own reports, whieh omit certain revenue streams, the State generated an average of approximately $173 million annually in Public Land Trust revenues over the past three fiscal years. Twenty percent of this amount is approximately $34.6 million, more than twice the $15.1 million received annually by OHA under Act 178. Addressing this issue is a priority for the agency and will help shore up the foundation of our hale for years to eome.

J0INT MESSAGE FR0M THE B0ARD 0F TRUSTEES CHAIRPERSON & KA POUHANA/OEO

Malama pono,

Colette Y. Machado CHAIR | TRUSTEE, MOLOKA'I & LĀNA'I

Kamana'opono Crabbe, P.h.D. CEO | KA POUHANA