Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 8, 1 August 2022 — ECONOMICS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ECONOMICS

NM NM 1/0 1/0 I&mi

Dr. Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, executive director of the Lālākea Foundation, is an educator and cultural practitioner who helped to craft the 'Āina Aloha Eeonomie Futures initiative, a Hawaiian-led framework for Hawai'i's eeonomie recovery, post-pandemic. The abrupt disruption of tourism in the early days of the pandemic, while providing a needed respite for the aina, wreaked havoc economically as thousands of residents lost tourism-related jobs while supply ehain disruptions threatened Hawai'i's food security.

"Food sovereignty depends on viable distribution pipelines and access to the marketplace," said Wong-Wilson. "Most importantly, there must be access to aina and wai resources for small farmers. OHA, state and county government ean work cooperatively to convene the discussion and provide support. It must be a whole system transformation to succeed." Wong-Wilson believes it is time for OHA to take a leadership role in eollaborating with government, business and community leaders. She says that although Hawaiians are a minority in our homeland, we nevertheless retain strong connections with the aina, our language and culture and that this pilina is important to a strong eeonomie foundation for Hawai'i. "The lāhui's eeonomie stability is reflected by the eeonomie stability of the larger community - so OHA's voice in the welfare of the entire community is vital and important. OHA ean provide a strong, culturally rooted foundation for everyone to build upon. 1his is an important strategy to ensure the longevity and viability of our lāhui into the future."