Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 7, 1 July 2016 — "The Hawaiian Nation has a constitution!" [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

"The Hawaiian Nation has a constitution!"

Trustee 's note: Brendon Kaīeiaina Lee, who penned this eolumn by invitation, is the presiding officer of the historic 'Ahā that produced a Hawaiian constitution. I beīieve his voice needs to be heard as a

matter of thoughtfuī īeadership. — Peter Apo As the chair of 'Aha 2016 I am often asked what was it like trying to keep all those Hawaiians in line. It's funny, that's never how I saw it. From my perspective at the podium I was privy to something truly amazing. It was what I had always hoped to see in my lifetime with regards to the Sovereignty Movement,

and that is actual movement. Never before had I seen Hawaiians eome together, put aside personal agendas, and think of the Lāhui. Now, today, in this moment in time and space I saw a true microcosm of our Hawaiian community at-large being played out on that hallowed ground in Maunawili: a small but loud minority, thinking only of their personal agendas, trying to shout over the majority trying to move our people forward for the first time since 1978. They used their usual tactics of spewing distortions of historical fact and flat out lies to try and pull at participants' emotions to keep the status quo in plaee. To my absolute astonishment, it did not work. For this moment in our history, our people stood together, held eaeh other's hands and took a giant step toward self-determination. It was the proudest moment of my life. I watched as

one-by-one eaeh participant stepped to the microphone as their name was called and proudly spoke about their genealogy, 'ohana, keiki, kūpuna and cast their vote. After 20 days of listening, really listening

to one another, the 'Aha had taken this momentous leap of faith and with 88 voices roared to the world "The Hawaiian Nation has a eonstitution!" Where do we go from here? Well the path has been laid before us. It is now up to the Lāhui to take up this palapala and stand as one to tell the world "We, the indigenous peoples of Hawai'i, descendants of our ancestral lands . . . join together to afflrm a govemment of, by, and for Native Hawaiian people to per-

petuate a Pono government and promote the well-being of our people and the 'āina that sustains us. We reafflrm the National Sovereignty of the Nation. We reserve all rights to Sovereignty and Self-determination, including the pursuit of independence. Our highest aspirations are set upon the promise of our unity and this Constitution." Go to hawaiiannation.com. Read our Constitution and Declaration. Make sure you, your family and friends are registered and verifled atkanaiolowalu.org. Donate to help our people at alohalahui.com. Schedule a talk story to share the story of the 'Aha. The story of how in February 2016 at Maunawili, against incredible odds, Hawaiians did what they all said could never be done; worked together and decided what they wanted. The rest is up to us. ■

LEO 'ELELE TRUSTEE MESSSAGES

PetEP Apo TrustEE, O'ahu