Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 11, 1 November 2010 — ʻĀina at the heart of Hawaiians' future [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻĀina at the heart of Hawaiians' future

Since its creation in 1978, an express purpose of OHA has been to own and manage land set aside or conveyed to it for the benefit of Hawaiian people. OHA acquired its first property in 1988 when Kamehameha Schools turned over to OHA ownership of the l.l-acre Pahua Heiau in East Honolulu. For 18 years, the heiau remained OHA's sole landholding. More recently, OHA began to expand its kuleana of land acquisition and stewardship with a renewed vigor, acquiring a total of more than 27,000 acres in Waimea Valley on O'ahu and Wao Kele o Puna on Hawai'i Island, the latter of whieh was the first ceded lands ever returned to Hawaiian people. The conununity encouraged and supported the acquisition of Waimea Valley and Wao Kele o Puna, and funding was provided by federal and state agencies, community and conservation organizations and OH A. The stewardship goal is to protect the biocultural and natural resources and restore Hawaiians and cultural practices to those sacred lands. " 'Āina is essential to Hawaiian culture," says Carol Hoomanawanui, OHA's Land and Property Manager. "If there is no land base for Hawaiians, it's hard for our culture to be lived and perpetuated." OHA's Land and Property Management Program enables sacred places, such as the tropical rainforest Wao Kele O Puna, to spring forth and increase the physical and spiritual power of the lāhui. And after 22 years of land ownership, "We're not just paying the water bills," says Hoomanawanui. "We're looking for the best ways to steward land, empower Hawaiians and encourage community involvement." In anticipation of the passage of the Akaka hill, OHA hopes to transfer landholdings to a future goveming entity, providing a land base necessary to sustain a nahon. But OHA's Land and Property Management Program is by no means waiting on any particular governing entity to be estabhshed before Hawaiians ean benefit from the land, or 'āina - that whieh sustains Hawaiians. "We are working toward making the lands accessible for cultural practice, education, eeonomie self-sufficiency and mauli ola (health and well-being)," Hoomanawanui says. "And in doing so, we hope to heeome a model of land stewardship for other landholders across Hawai'i." — Sage Takehiro ■

www.oha.org/kwo kwo@OHA.org ' Land and water

[?]