Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 40, Number 5, 1 Mei 2023 — Aloha mai kākou, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aloha mai kākou,

V 'OLELO A KA POUHANA V ^ MESSAGE FROM THE CEO *

STEWARDSHIP INSTEAD 0F OWNERSHIP Wai (nvs. Fresh water of any kind, stream, river.)

My mom was born and raised in a remote area of Kohala known as Wai apuka ma uka of Pololū Valley. She was the second of 15 children and everyone helped to provide food for family, including working the lo'i kalo. Their lo'i was alongside a kahawai (stream). My grandfather built an 'auwai (small ditch) to divert wai (ffesh water) to irrigate the lo'i. The water flowed through the tiered lo'i, and then back into the kahawai through another 'auwai. Growing up, my mother taught us early on the importance of the kahawai ma uka to ma kai. She made it clear to us that wai was a precious resource and that we all had a kuleana to mālama the wai and keep the kahawai pure, as its waters continued being a resource to other families along the way to the sea. When Native Hawaiians and other Indigenous peoples clash with the government on issues pertaining to the management of land and water resources, it really is a eollision of world views. Indigenous people see our relationship to the earth as familial and management of its resources as stewardship. In contrast, governments and corporations view natural resources in terms of ownership. And owners do things differently than stewards. In Hawai'i, the fight for water rights has been ongoing since western capitalism was introduced in the 19th century. To our kūpuna, the notion that land or water, gifts from Ke Akua, could be "owned" by a human being, was completely foreign. After the Māhele paved the way for foreign landownership, haole businessmen snatched up acres of Hawaiian land for their ranches and plantations and then, in a brazen eeonomie eoup, diverted water from upland streams and rivers to feed their thirsty crops. Thousands were forced to leave their ancestral lands as their farms and lo'i dried up.

The plantations have been replaced by resort developers and so the fight over ffesh water has continued to play out in communities across ko Hawai'i pae aina, perhaps most contentiously on the island of Maui. If policy makers viewed land and water in terms of stewardship, instead of ownership, would policies look different? And would people behave differently as a result of implementing stewardship (vs. ownership) policies? The fight for wai is, ultimately, about eeonomie power and control. And that is why it is critical for Native Hawaiians to have a seat at the table on key boards and commissions - such as the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the

Commission on Water Resource Management. We need people in governance with an Indigenous lens to help shape policies that will serve our lāhui and protect the things that we hold dear: our 'ohana, mo'omeheu and 'āina. i Ownership is a mindset of "me" and "now." Steward- Ē ship is a mindset of "we" and "forever." m

We cannot really own resources that existed before we were born and will exist after we are gone - but we ean steward these resources for the relatively short time that we are here. ■

Sylvia M. Hussey, Ed.D. Ka Pouhana | Chief Executive Officer