Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 10, 1 October 2006 — PLIUHONIA DENNIS KEIKI "BUMPY" KANAHELE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PLIUHONIA DENNIS KEIKI "BUMPY" KANAHELE

Since the 1980s, Mr. Kanahele has worked as an advocate to strengthen the traditional cultural authority

of nā kūpuna (Hawaiian elders) in contemporary Hawaiian society. His capacity to communicate complex issues in the language and values of nā kūpuna has helped to broaden the role of Hawaiian elders in perpetuating native wisdom. Nā kūpuna are more widely recognized as a source of beneficial guidance and insight within modern Hawaiian society, and have reclaimed their natural authority within the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. Over the last 20 years, Mr. Kanahele has worked with a broad cross-section of Hawaiian elders, and has been directly involved in the organization and active facilitation of more than 100 gatherings to empower kūpuna over the past two decades. Mr. Kanahele has also maintained an active

role in the movement to restore and advance the rights of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and throughout the world. For the past decade, he has served on the Board of Directors of the International Indian Treaty Council. As a member of this board, he has advanced understanding and solidarity among minority peoples who have been victims of governmental and corporate negligence. His credibility is strong in Hawai'i, where he has worked with numerous small and large events to keep the peaee and facilitate a flow of understanding and constructive dialog between opposing parties. Mr. Kanahele was instrumental in organizing a Hawai'i/U.S.-sponsored seminar at the Asian Development Bank's 34th annual meeting on corporate responsibility and socially responsible investing. During the ADB meeting, Mr. Kanahele insisted upon and was granted full and respectful inclusion of nā kūpuna in the proceedings. He then entered into constructive dialog with former Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neil, ADB President Tadao Chino, and Secretary Bindu Lohani regarding incorporation into all future ADB meetings the lessons of social responsibility and cultural inclusion learned in Hawai'i. Mr. Kanahele's strategic manner of peacekeeping and cultural inclusion helped pave the way for the ADB meeting in Hawai'i to be one of its most peaceful and productive in recent history. Mr. Kanahele has consistently sought to increase his knowledge in ways that ean help him to empower Hawai'i's most linancially undeserved populahon. For example, Mr. Kanahele has received intensive training at the Federal Reserve of San Francisco on community development underwriting practices. This training included segments on underwriting loans for housing, small business and community facilities. His trainers included experts from the Low ineome Housing Fund, Self-Help Ventures Fund, Illinois Facilities Fund and the Nahonal Community Capital Association. One of Mr. Kanahele's unique accomplishments was the negotiation and signing of the lease for the land at Pu'uhonua o Waimānalo in 2001. In September of 1993, Mr. Kanahele negotiated an agreement in principle with the state Department of Land & Natural Resources (DLNR) for a 55-year lease. A breakdown in communications with DLNR on the lease led to a 15-month land occupation by the Nation of Hawai'i at the Kaupō Beach Park area in Waimānalo. The land occupation started in March 1993 and ended peacefully in June of 1994, when DLNR re-opened negotiations regarding the lease. On March 29, 2001, Aloha First signed a 55-year lease with DLNR. Mr. Kanahele has been very active in eonventional business and progressive in Native

Hawaiian affairs for over 20 years. Pu'uhonua is widely recognized throughout Hawai'i as a consistent voice for the inherent rights, the right to self-determination and self-governance of Native Hawaiians. Married for 30 years, Pu'uhonua is a father and grandfather whose work fosters appropriate and alternative solutions to the poliīieal, eeonomie, social and cultural issues faced by Native Hawaiians.