Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 6, 1 June 2014 — Aloha mai kākou, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aloha mai kākou,

We at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs continue to listen to you, our beneficiaries. Last month, I promised you we would bring your concerns about the process we are using to build a Native Hawaiian Nation to our Board of Trustees. I have heard your concerns that there needs to be an extension of time for the Nation-building process and for more education, and consideration of an alternate way to sign up to be on the list of those who may participate in the process. I've brought those concerns to our Trustees. I want to acknowledge Walter Ritte from the island of Moloka'i for being an advocate for thousands of people who could not eome to our puhlie meetings. At the same time, we have heard from many who support the current timetable and process as approved by the Trustees. These issues must have full deliberations before the Board of Trustees. Trustees have agreed to take this up on May 29 (after this issue of Ka Wai Ola has gone to print). We will update you on the process and the decision made next month. In the meantime, our wa'a, our eanoe, continues to move forward with planning for education to inform the community on the process for elections to elect delegates and how you ean sign up to heeome a potential delegate for a Native Hawaiian 'aha, or convention. We are also working to assist with the smooth operations of the 'aha.

We are also planning for the oversight of the elections, 'aha and referendumprocess to ratify any governing documents created to ensure they run flawlessly and the results are above reproach. Over the past month, we have made an aggressive push to get people to sign up on the Native Hawaiian Roll so as many of our people as possible will be involved in the process of Nation building. Now that we made it over the first set of waves, the next part of our journey is to enlighten ourselves about our destiny as a people and as a Nation. This summer, we will be embarking on an educational campaign where we will give more information on what this means, not only through articles within the pages of Ka Wai Ola, but in other publications, online and through social media. We will reach out in many ways in order to reach as many of our people as possible. We all need to learn about our opportunities and the possibilities not only for today, but also for tomorrow for the sake of the next generation. 'O au iho nō me ke aloha a me ka 'oia'i'o, Kamana'opono M. Crabbe, Ph.D. Ka Pouhana/Chief Executive Officer

E D U C AT 1 0 N AND DELI BERATION ARE KEY T0 NATION B U I L D I N G