Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 5, 1 May 1986 — Reparations and Our Future [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Reparations and Our Future

By Moanikeala Akaka T rustee, Hawaii

As newly appointed chairperson of our Office of Hawaiian Affairs Reparations Committee 1 understand its importance and the significance of this issue to you and your kamali'i present and future for generations to eome. We as Hawaiians and Trustees must weigh very carefully the positive and negative ramifica-

tions of any Hawaiian native claims settlement, a large responsibility but one we ean handle wisely with the able kokua and input of you our people. Several months ago you read in this eolumn about the Congressional delegations' (Dan Inouye, Spark Matsunaga, Cec Heftel and Dan AKaka) response to the Native Hawaiian Study Commission Report that was done in 1982. As mentioned there is in that congressional response that "admission of guilt'' for Amenea illegally seizing our Hawaiian nation in 1893. However, as mentioned previously, there are many flaws in the congressional delegations' draft response that we must not allow to be implemented. It calls for an extinguishment oi our native rights (privileges to never be regained again), after 11 sears whieh we must never allow to take plaee. We as Hawaiians will be damned by our future generations if we allow that t ransgression to happen. Our people suffer and struggle for iurvival in their own homeland; under no circumstances ean .his generation of Hawaiians extinguish 2,000 years of roots on this aina Hawaii that makes us 1,800 years older than Amenea who doesn't recognize our religion. Ours is a proud heritage, although all who eome to our aina may grow to love Hawaii, ours as Hawaiian native is a unique relationship. American history is based upon the unfortunate historic abuse of native people. While most people immi-

grated to Amenea seeking something, America eame to us in Hawaii. We wanted to be left alone. The congressional response calls for a billion dollars to be given out in increments of $100 million a year for 10 years, (not enough), with the stipulation that it all be spent in one year or the unspent balance returned to Unele Sam. No way — we should be able to invest whatever funds left of the year's allotment to help take care of our peoples' many problems. The proposal also specifies funds ean only be spent in five specific areas: heahh, education, culture and job training and eeonomie development . It says nothing about spending f unds on housing or for legal purposes in order to get the justice our people deserve. At the first Reparation Committee meeting I chaired on Apr. 1 1 (after the committee had not met since our January meeting with Dan Akaka) we discussed a proposal for statewide workshops on the issue of Hawaiian reparations. This would include a presentation of our federal delegations' response and offer mentioned earlier. These forums would continue with a panel discussion of the positive and negative aspects of the congressional delegations' proposal. It is necessary that there be time for you to provide mana'o written and/or spoken as your input is of utmost importance. The issue of self-governance and self-determination means how you the community ean influence implementation of our native Hawaiian ceded lands and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands trusts. The time and plaee of these important statewide meetings will be announced in the future. Talk to your friends and ohana as this issue of reparations is crucial to our future. Watch for notices of time and plaee for these workshops, and Ka Wai Ola O OHA will be running excerpts of the congressional delegations' offer and more evaluation or commentary in the months to eome to more inform you before our sessions so you have a better idea of what is at stake. You will have the opportunity for input in shaping the direction of our future. That is what democracy is all about. Malama pono. Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono.