Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 1, 1 January 1994 — Commission chairman brings Lānaʻi into the sovereignty picture [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Commission chairman brings Lānaʻi into the sovereignty picture

Interview bv Patrick Johnston Sol Kaho'ohalahala is chairman of the Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commis - sion and has been an active member of Lūna'i's native Hawaiian community since the early 1970s. (Ed. note: HSAC's report to the Legislature was completed this month und is featured on pages 9, 10, 15 and 16 of this issue in a special pulloul section.)

KWO: You were born in Lāna'i and have lived most ofyour life there. However, you went to eollege in Washington state. How did your experience there affect ihe wayyou view Hawai'i? Kaho'ohaiahala: The thing that realiy changed me was that at one point I was asked about Hawaiians and I realized I had little knowledge about Hawai'i. To be away from Hawai'i and know that you are Hawaiian, that your cultural practices are Hawaiian, your name is Hawaiian, and to know very little about Hawai'i and Hawaiian history bothered me a lot. I could tell you when the Louisiana Purchase was but I couldn't tell you anything about Hawaiian history. lt was probably that question that redirected me back towards Hawaiian culture. I needed to leam my own history. KWO: How have you been active in the Hawaiian eommunity since that time? Kaho'ohalahala: After retUrning from VVashington in 1974, 1 immediately became involved with Alu Like to do a needs assessment survey for the island of Lāna'i. My interest was to be of help to anyone in the Hawaiian community, especially those from the island of Lāna'i,

as I really believed we could benefit a lot from the programs that were being offered to Hawaiians. The Alu Like survey was designed to find out about the conditions of the people and what their needs were with the hope of getting federal funding for programs. My work gave me an opportunity to get involved in the community by going into homes, interviewing families, and personally becoming a little more familiar and intimate with them. Following that, I was involved

with the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana. Our purpose was to bring Lāna'i into the movement, understanding that Kaho'olawe is really a sister island to Lāna'i. I then participated in 'Aha Puwalu and Ho'āla Kanawai whieh led to the creation of OHA. I became very interested in participating in these becau.se I hoped they would give Lāna'i a voice in terms of trying to decide the specific direction Hawaiians would take. The only point of contention I had then was that when I asked whether Lāna'i would be represented with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs it was decided that, based on the formula of one man. one voice, Lāna'i and Ni'ihau would not have representation except through other islands. I then became actively involved in Ka Lāhui, fighting for representation for the smaller Hawaiian islands in their constitution. ...

Following this, my work began to be refocused on Lāna'i, eoncentrating on the preservation of resources and sites that are on Lāna'i, including flora and fauna. In 1984, I created the non-profit organization Hui Mālama Pono O Lāna'i, whose purpose was to understand the cultural resources of Lāna'i, to preserve the sites, flora and fauna, and to gather oral histories. ... Recently, working with the hotels, I have put together a program to educate all of the employees of Lāna'i resort prop-

erties, teaching Hawaiian history with the emphasis on Lāna'i history. In addition to this, part of the design of the hotels themselves was to incorporate Lāna'i artists and the native plants of Lāna'i. I served in an advisory capacity to coordinate the artists and to make sure that all of the plants fit into their

environmental realms. ... KWO: How have you supported yourself on Lāna'i since returning there? Kaho'ohalahala: Part of what made coming back home to Lāna'i difficult was that there was very little work outside the plantation. I was fortunate because I got a job working for the Department of Agriculture, focusing on trying to keep the population of the so-called "pineapple beetle" down. The state anticipated that, if Lāna'i should become a tourist destination, the populahon of these beetles would have to be brought down.

The following contract I had gave me an opportunity to move from Lāha'i but I chose to stay. The commitment to stay on Lāna'i meant I had to take whatever jobs I could get. I began with grant projects. I also worked as an adult educator for Alu Like, a paralegal, and a physician's assistant with the doctor at the Lāna'i elinie. Following that I worked as an assistant at the Lāna'i preschool whieh was started and organized by my wife and two other people on the island of Lāna'i in an effort to make preschool available to younger children on the island. I was then asked to work as an assistant manager at what was then the only hotel in Lāna'i. That wās the last job before my

present position whieh is working as director of cultural resources at the Kō'ele Lodge where I try to incorporate Hawaiian cultural values into the design and development of the hotels. KWO: How do you feel about the transition from the plantation economy into the tourist economy on Lāna'i? Have you been eomfortable with that? Kaho'ohalahala: In the Lāna'i community plan, whieh I participated in very actively in the early 1980s, the people of Lāna'i decided that they wanted hotels to be developed on Lāna'i and they even identified the areas. Although I never really agreed with that plan, it became very evident to me that was the direction given by the community. Rather than trying to fight it, I concluded that I should get involved with it to the point that I would be of some help. So in 1984 I took work with Hotel Lāna'i. Little did we know that our planning would have a major impact in the 1990s when Castle & Cooke indicated that they were in financial difficuities and there would be a totally new owner. By 1984, the assets of the corporation were turned over to a new owner named David Murdock. When Murdock arrived he found a community plan for resort development already provided for him.

KWO: How does Lāna'i fit into the sovereignty picture? Kaho'ohalahala: I think, first of all, that Lāna'i is still a Hawaiian island, with Hawaiian people and Hawaiian resources regardless of the ownership of the island. The issue of sovereignty is an issue that the people will make decisions on in terms of how they see their benefits. Lāna'i is not exempt from that. Neither is the island of Ni'ihau or the island of Kaho'olawe. Despite being a pri-vately-owned island, these issues will be raised whomever the owners of the island may be at that time and there is going to have to be some education on both sides, on the side of the owners, and the community, to continued on page 1 7

HSAC chairman Sol Kaho'ohalahala

Sol Kaho'ohalahala

from page 2 understand what the real issues of sovereignty are. The people of Lāna'i have lived under these conditions for years. The issue of sovereignty takes as its basis the wrongs that have been done in the past and, considering our history, Lāna'i is no different from other islands. If you look back at the history of Lāna'i you realize that a lot of things may not have been correct as well, and for those reasons, the people of Lāna'i live in the conditions that they live in today. It's been several generations past but it doesn't necessarily right make things. KWO: What are the greatest challenges, in your view, facing the commission?

Kaho'ohalahala: I think initially for me the challenge was to ensure that there was a voice for small islands. Now, understanding that our commissioners are a very diverse group of people who have various levels of understanding and participation in terms of the sovereignty movement is very important. I really feel the leaders of the sovereignty movement should work together and become a united harmonious group of people even understanding how diverse we are. And I think that we have been able to do this. It hasn't been very easy but I feel comfortable that we have been able to meet the ehallenge placed in front of us and have been able to eome together regardless of our own personal desires. We all eome in with our

own ideas of sovereignty but I think we are all trying to find out what is the best of all parties. KWO: Do you think the absence of Ka Lāhui has helpeā or hurt the commission? Kaho'ohalahala: It definitely has hurt us. Because this is a time to bring together the best minds in the sovereignty movement and not having Ka Lāhui is like leaving out one child in the family. I think somehow we will try to include those people. I can't really say that they are not actively participating. They continue to attend our meetings. Although they are not a direct participant they are actively participating in the process. KWO: Do you feel the Sovereignty Advisory

Commission has accomplished all the goals it set out to do? Kaho'ohalahala: Well, we are trying to accomplish as many of the goals as have been laid out in the mandate given the kind of timelines that we have. It's not been easy to try and deliberate, gather community input, and fulfill all the requirements for the future in the amount of time that we've had. We're talking about the future and yet we were expected to give a decision and establish a direction in less than five months. KWO: Has the commission gone beyond its original mandate? Kaho'ohalahala: Yes. What we have done in our commission is assign a vision committee to look beyond the mandate. I think it's

important to realize that some of the sOlutions for our problems rest outside our present parameters. If there are really good solutions to some of the concems that exist today, they should not be restricted by present parameters that say that even though something may be the best solution, because it sits outside the fence you're not allowed to touch it. When we're trying to be visionaries, when we're trying to look forward with something that many of us are not familiar with and are beginning to learn about, you might find that the answers are just a little bit farther out than you expected. I would say that as visionaries we need to aeknowledge that solutions might be beyond accepted parameters and we should be able to talk about them, to look at them, to touch them, and understand them.