Honolulu
to host its
first Oweesta

The conference is to help
native Hawaiians gain
self-sufficiency

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By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com

A Virginia-based national program that has provided start-up funds for the planned Bank Aloha on Maui will hold its annual conference in Hawaii next month.

First Nations Development Institute of Fredricksburg, Va., which helps native peoples obtain economic self-sufficiency, has scheduled its annual conference in Hawaii on Sept. 23-26 at the Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki Hotel.

"We work with tribes, native communities on culturally appropriate, sustainable economic development -- strategies in which tribes and native communities can gain control of their assets and use them more productively," said Sherry Salway Black, acting president of First Nations.

Black said the conference will be the first Oweesta (Mohawk word for money) in Hawaii, but the nonprofit group has assisted native Hawaiians in the past, and it has conducted workshops here for them.

For example, this past spring, the group awarded $75,000 to Hawaiian Community Assets, a Wailuku-based nonprofit organization that has just begun to offer homeownership and mortgage services to native Hawaiians.

"Our particular support to them was to support the development phase of their native Hawaiian community development institution and the development of the native holding bank, Bank Aloha," Black said.

In recent years, First Nations has awarded grants of up to $5,000 to Hawaiians for restoration of ancestral lands, for planting of traditional native gardens, for assessing the need for residential housing for troubled native Hawaiian youth, and for rebuilding an organic grow house destroyed by Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

Black said the goal of the conference in September is to provide native cultures with a foundation of assets -- specifically, land, culture and money -- that are key for community development. Many of the presentations will be conducted by natives.

Black estimated that between 300 and 500 people will attend the conference, which she said will be a good place to establish networks among native Hawaiians, American Indians, Alaskan natives and other indigenous peoples.

Conference topics include indigenous economics and infrastructures and the fundamentals of development.

Plenary sessions will cover globalization, cultural and intellectual property rights and ecotourism.

Mililani Trask, an attorney and Hawaiian activist who is familiar with First Nations, said the nonprofit group has discussed community-based development with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The group has been involved in work with the United Nations and American Indians, she said.

"We have had some relationships with Hawaiian organizations, even though we've only done those grants," said Black, citing work with OHA, the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and Alu Like Inc.

To register or for more information, call First Nations at (540) 371-5615 or e-mail to info@firstnations.org. Its Web Site is http://www.firstnations.org.