OHA calls The leader of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is warning state legislative candidates to get up to speed on the ceded-lands issue because Hawaiians will use their vote to help elect people who will support native entitlements and rights.
ceded lands
top election issue
Hawaiians will likely vote for
those who support native rightsBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comHaunani Apoliona said restoration of ceded-land revenue funding to OHA will be the top priority of many Hawaiians next legislative session.
Hawaiians make up the largest minority population in the state, she said.
"We in the Hawaiian community have an opportunity to define the political landscape for the next two to four years," Apoliona said yesterday. "That's very important for us to understand. And therefore, it's very important in that process to hold the candidates who are running accountable to how they will handle Hawaiian issues."
OHA, with backing from the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, the Royal Order of Kamehameha and other native groups and coalitions, launched its Hawaiian rights and entitlements education campaign yesterday.
Foremost on its calendar was the Hawaiian-issues gubernatorial forum held yesterday at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The forum was taped and will be aired on KITV at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. That will be followed this fall by presentations to community groups, posters and essay contests, another gubernatorial forum and briefings for incoming legislators and the next state administration.
"We are very supportive of what they're doing," said Ray Soon, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands chairman.
Also, there will be an opening-day rally at the state Legislature on Jan. 15, and a vigil when the session ends next May. The entire campaign will cost less than $100,000, said Clyde Namuo, OHA administrator.
Namuo said this will be a grass-roots effort, and OHA is not looking to use beneficiary money to restore ceded-land revenue.
"We really are looking for support from our sister agencies, as well as members of the community," he said.
"We don't think it will be right to spend a lot of beneficiary money or to create flashy campaigns."
The campaign is aimed at restoration of a ceded-lands revenue law that the Hawaii Supreme Court declared moot on Sept. 12, 2001.
That ruling -- which declared Act 304 of 1990 invalid because it conflicted with a federal law that took precedence -- came a day after the terrorist attacks and was a "terrible blow" to Hawaiian self-determination, rights and entitlements, Apoliona said.
OHA was created during the 1978 state Constitutional Convention to better conditions for native Hawaiians, and began operations in 1980.
After more than a decade in court, seeking revenue from public trust or ceded lands, the state and OHA agreed in 1993 on a $130 million settlement that formed the corpus for OHA's current $325 million trust. Since 1991, OHA has received annual revenue payments from the state, ranging from $10.8 million in 1991 to $25 million in 1995 to $8.2 million in 2001.
Further legal action and direct negotiations in recent years between the state and OHA over additional sources of ceded-land revenue have been unsuccessful.
OHA has not received any ceded-lands revenues as of July 1, 2001, because of the Hawaii justice ruling.
A bill to restore interim revenue funding to OHA died this spring in the last days of the state Legislature. Rowena Akana, an OHA trustee, attributed the lack of legislative support to the "devastating" midsession OHA board leadership change that ousted Clayton Hee as chairman and returned Apoliona to chairwoman.
Apoliona said there are legislators who support Hawaiians, but there are those who are not knowledgeable about native issues over the past two decades. That is where OHA hopes to fill in the gaps, she said.
"You've got to look at it over the last 20 years. And everything we do together, as we move forward, is about connecting each action to the next action so that we work at it together," Apoliona said.
