KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM Participating in the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement's Native Hawaiian Forum and Roundtable yesterday were, from left, Rick Bissen, Micah Kane, Gov. Linda Lingle, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, George Lindsey and Robert Piper.

Lingle plans to lobby
for Akaka Bill

She intends to clarify what
Hawaiians want at national meetings
in D.C. next month

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By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com

Gov. Linda Lingle said she will lobby Congress and the Bush administration for passage of the Akaka Bill next month when she is in Washington, D.C.

While officials there are aware of the bill that sets up a process of federal recognition for native Hawaiians, they do not have a deep understanding of the issue and its importance in protecting existing native programs, Lingle told participants at a native Hawaiian roundtable meeting yesterday.

Lingle made a campaign promise last fall to travel to the nation's capital to lobby for the bill, stalled in the U.S. Senate the past two years over concerns it is race-based.

Not all facets of the Hawaiian community support this plan to restore a native government, but it is seen as the best and most efficient route toward silencing legal challenges to programs for Hawaiians offered by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Hawaiian Homes Commission.

"I would say I want to get across the point -- and this has to be the most important because it's what's holding it up -- and that is that this is not a racial issue," Lingle told reporters after her warmly received speech.

"This is a historical issue, based on a relationship between an independent government and the United States of America, and what has happened since and the steps that we need to take to make things right."

Lingle will be in Washington Feb. 22-27 to attend meetings of the National Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association. The trip includes a dinner hosted by President Bush at the White House.

"I think a Republican voice from Hawaii would be very important," said Haunani Apoliona, chairwoman of OHA, which was one of 60 native groups and agencies that participated in the two-day forum sponsored by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.

Lingle, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona and Micah Kane, Hawaiian Homes chairman-nominee, were presented with a laundry list of Hawaiian issues attendees felt most important for the Lingle administration to address.

The long list includes an overhaul and reform of the state public education system, increased partnerships between the state and Kamehameha Schools and a mandatory "Hawaiian 101" course for all of the state administration.

In other areas, Hawaiians want the governor to push for the cleanup of the entire island of Kahoolawe when it is returned in November. They also want her to appoint Hawaiian representatives to the Board of Land & Natural Resources and to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

"A lot of the things that were outlined in the subject areas are things that either we're working on or we'd like to work or that we need help on," Lingle said. "And so their offer to actually be a part of finding the solutions to some of these challenges was really encouraging to me."

Lulani Arquette, co-chairwoman of the council's board of directors, said Hawaiians have struggled to retain their culture and practices over the years. Many see this new era as an opportunity to make advances on many fronts.

"I believe that this dawn of the new century is our time," she said.