Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 6, 1 June 1999 — Sovereignty workshop for Hickam leaders [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Sovereignty workshop for Hickam leaders

By Jayson Harper ON MAY 10, OHA Chairperson Rowena Akana and Trustee Aide Louis "Buzzy" Agard joined more than 40 senior officers at Hiekam Air Force Base for a presentation on Hawaiian issues. The two-hour session followed an incident in March when a base newsletter described a hypothetieal airfield maneuver in whieh "the wing apprehended two armed sovereignty group members." Some 2,000

base personnel read the item before it was canceled. OHA became aware of the situation after a Hawaiian civilian worker on base called and complained about the newsletter. Hiekam Base Commander Colonel Ann Testa apologized personally and in writing for the incident to the OHA board. "The person who edited the article, being new to Hawai'i, was ignorant, absolutely ignorant ... And she was unaware that there was both an organized sovereignty movement and an official group in Hawai'i," she

said during her formal apology to trustees. Subsequently, the Air Force requested more information on the sovereignty issue, an invitation whieh OHA Chairperson Akana accepted. She began her presentation with a brief history of the islands and followed with a summary of the ceded lands dispute with the state. Questions from the audience touched mainly on the ceded lands issue, and the audience seemed generally supportive of OHA's position. Louis Agard added to the discussion with

his history of the overthrow and the events leading up to it. In her closing remarks Chairperson Akana spoke about the different models of sovereignty and then showed an OHA video on the ceded lands. Many in the audience expressed the desire to eonhnue the dialog between the Air Force and the Hawaiian community, whieh could lead to a program to educate Hawai'i's military personnel on the ongoing social, political and eeonomie issues facing Native Hawaiians. ■

PHOĪO: JAYSON HARPER Col. Ann Testa, who formally apologized to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board last month, joined OHA Chair Rowena Akana at a two-hour Sovereignty workshop at Hiekam Air Force Base.