Senator Hee’s Remarks to the Council on Native Hawaiian Advancement
Senator Hee addressed the 2007 Convention of the Council on Native Hawaiian Advancement and National Coalition of Asian Pacific American Community Development on August 24, 2007, at the Hawaii Convention Center
E nā kūpuna, nā makua, nā pua, nā po‘e kama‘āina i kēia ‘āina aloha, a e nā malihini e ho‘okipa nei i kēia hoakoakoa mai aloha pū mai kākou. Mahalo no ka ‘oukou kono mai ia‘u i kēia akoakoa no ke kuka ‘ana i ke ola no ka makou ‘āina loa. ‘O au no Clayton Hee he kanaka hapa laiki a, he kanaka hapa kalo.
‘O au kekahi kanaka me ke aloha no ka po‘e mua o kēia ‘āina; a ‘o au kekahi kanaka me ke aloha a me ka mahalo no nā kanaka like‘ole i aloha nā po‘e ‘oiwi kahiko.
Puka‘ana au no ke kula Kamehameha, me ka mahalo nui no ke ali‘i Pauahi. A, pau kēlā, ‘ekolu mau puka‘ana aku i ke kula nui o Hawai‘i me ka mahalo no ku‘u mau makua no ka laua ‘ahonui.
He kumu kula mamua i ka ‘āina ‘o Lanikaula. He ‘elele no ka House of Representatives a he kenekoa ma ke kapikala in O‘ahu i ka wa mua he iwakalua makahiki aku nei. He ‘elele no na kahu waiwai no ka Office of Hawaiian Affairs mamua he ‘umikumamalima makahiki aku nei. I kēia manawa he kenekoa hou i keia ‘āina nei.
Aloha nui kākou.
I was asked to share brief thoughts regarding our place as kanaka in our ‘āina nei. Where once I can remember counting the number of out of state car licenses or blond haired/blue eyed people as a youngster, today that has become commonplace in these islands. I wonder though, are we headed to a time where those with aboriginal blood will become the oddity that the fair skinned haole were fifty years ago?
Where once the kanaka roamed without reservation or trepidation, going forward I wonder what will become of us in an island state where those born in Hawai‘i, meaning all local people, have already become - the minority.
How and what will the future hold for the kanaka in an island state where the million dollar gated enclaves causes us to rethink the meaning of “aloha”? And is the ongoing homogenization of Hawai‘i a good or bad thing?
Before going further let me be clear. “Kanaka” as I have used the word is not the exclusivity of being Hawaiian. It may be to you , it is not to me.
For as one whose mother is Hawaiian and father Chinese, how could I use a different set of rules for half of me and a different set of rules for the other half? If “kanaka” were to mean those exclusively of the aboriginal blood I suspect our discussion today might more appropriately take place before a much smaller audience in a much smaller room.
Just as the ali‘i including Queen Lili‘uokalani and Princess Pauahi, who both married haole, Hawaiians have intermarried where it literally and figuratively has become a “kakou” world today. We need not be reminded that but for Archibald Cleghorn who married Princess Likelike there would not have been a Princess Ka‘iulani. We are today any combination of haole, pake, pūkīkī, kepani, poko liko, pilipino a pela wale aku.
My first kumu kula was Lokomaika‘i Snakenberg, kekahi kanaka kelemania. Other kanaka koko ‘ole include Dr. Pila Wilson, a professor of Hawaiian language; Dr. Samuel Elbert, an author and collaborator with Mary Kawena Puku‘i; Dwayne Steele, a philanthropic icon of Hawaiian language and culture; Sir Peter Buck; and Dr. Yoshi Sinoto a world renown anthropologist and archaeologist; as well as many others who have given their life to bettering the conditions of native Hawaiians ¬now where have I heard that phrase before?
With your indulgence, I offer the following brief remarks on the future through the eyes of a son of Hawai‘i: Let each of us become collaborators to address our opportunities for our future.
In 1990, as a new member of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the trust corpus was 19 million dollars or so. By the year 2000 the corpus grew in excess of 400 million dollars and soon, if it hasn’t by now, will approach a half billion dollars.
Let us consider expanding the representation of OHA. Let’s discuss one to another of a new governing body; one whose make up is 25 as opposed to the present 9 member Board of Trustees and where the voting is by specific districts instead of at-large. Now that the Rice v Cayetano case is behind us let us discuss reapportioning the Board of Trustees along the already existing Senatorial Districts ¬25 strong! Let us discuss the expansion so that other voices ¬ including yours ¬ are heard for the betterment of the native Hawaiian people and where an OHA trustee ¬ maybe you - will now reside in your senatorial district.
Isn’t it interesting that since the Rice case was decided by the US Supreme Court in 2001 that voters have elected part Hawaiians regardless that anyone can run and vote for OHA Trustee? So let’s discuss expanding the representation and let us also talk about electing the OHA Administrator as opposed to being handpicked by the trustees. That way, a natural “check and balance” on trustee policy decisions can be debated. Allow the Administrator the authority to respond to decisions of the OHA Board of Trustees just as the President, Governor or Mayor responds to decisions made by the congress, the legislature and the city council.
And let’s do more.
Let us consider a natural partnership between the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and OHA by constructing an over arching umbrella which links the two agencies as co-equal entities who serve the same beneficiary class of people. Allow for the DHHL to continue to be advised by their Commissioners under the new association not unlike the Departments of Agriculture and Land and Natural Resources are advised by their own board members but co-exist under the over arching umbrella of the Governor’s office.
With the combined guaranteed statutory income stream for Hawaiian Homes of 600 million dollars and the present OHA corpus in excess of 400 million the new Hawaiian entity immediately becomes a billion dollar agency-corporation able to compete on a basis worthy of global implications. Allow this new corporate entity through the discussion of everyone, including you to truly build affordable housing on and off of state lands.
Allow this new entity to form a for-profit arm to engage in business relationships with all developers in and out of State to build affordable housing where ever the market will allow ¬ in and out of Hawaii nei. In the long run let us be the navigators of the affordable housing market place and our economic future.
And let’s do more.
Let us begin to look at education through the eyes of those who see being Hawaiian as more than a “feel good” concept. Let us look to my alma mater Kamehameha to lead.
As we have learned Kamehameha Schools was one of the first English immersion schools whose first Principal, William Oleson, an Annexationist, established that studies were to be conducted in English only. As an English immersion school it is no secret that the first students often ran away not wishing to speak a language foreign to them; that when King Kalākaua paid a visit the students on their own accord stood and sang Hawai‘i Pono‘i a song of sovereignty for the nation of Hawai‘i. And it is also known that when Queen Lili‘uokalani drank coffee from a cup at Kamehameha no one not a single student would touch the cup in reverence and loyalty to their Queen.
Let Kamehameha consider Hawaiian language competency as a condition of graduation. Let Kamehameha lead the revitalization of our language - distinct from all others whose phrases embody all that we do, why we do it and who we are, as a people Hawaiian and otherwise. Only then can we speak without reservation of our culture for as anyone can easily understand the piko of our culture is the embodiment of our language.
For many years I have had the privilege of working with the Aha Pūnana Leo, a non-profit language nest whose sole interest is in saving our language.
As a public institution Pūnana Leo does not determine who can and cannot attend by virtue of blood quantum. Everyone is invited under one condition ¬ Hawaiian is the language spoken there. The results?
Over 95 percent of their students are of some Hawaiian ancestry. And the other 5 percent? They are welcomed with open arms because there is room enough for everyone. Several of their kumu like University professor Pila Wilson a haole is an embraced leader of Pūnana Leo. And of the rest, including those who are Hawaiian who do not wish to learn through their native language? There are many other schools to attend.
So let us become a people who understands the first language spoken, its cultural nuances, its hula, its music and its oratory. Let us no longer be facsimiles mimicking the songs and dances without understanding that with which is sung danced or spoken.
Let Kamehameha do it now. Require its students to enroll in Hawaiian language classes in each year of instruction in grades 7 through 12. If Pūnana Leo is the example, over 95% of the students and probably more will be Hawaiian ¬ and let it be known to everyone ¬ children of non-Hawaiian teachers were welcomed as classmates when I was a grateful student at Kamehameha i ko‘u wa mamua.
For me, these ideas are not if, but when. They are not why but how. Some of these provocative ideas will require changing the State Constitution. OHA was constructed in 1978 during the last Constitutional Convention held. The question of convening another constitutional convention will come before voters in 2008 ¬ sooner than you think. How will you vote?
Other changes require the collective collaboration, discussion and will of the majority. For me, the die was cast when an out of court- settlement was struck between Kamehameha and John Doe on the eve of consideration by the US Supreme Court. The question is how many more millions of Hawaiian dollars will be spent until the next and the next and the next John Does appear and at what cost to the Kamehameha Schools, the Hawaiian people and their supporters?
If, at the end of the day, the “Hawaiians only” preference is struck down by the US Supreme Court, and based on the Rice v Cayetano decision there is every reason to believe it, why not proactively plan for those who wish to learn their identity and recapture their dignity through their native language by considering the successes of others like Pūnana Leo or the DOE’s Kula Kaiapuni Program?
Do it because it is the right regardless of John Doe. Do it because it is pololei. Do it because by anyone’s standards Kamehameha is supposed to be a Hawaiian institution.
These points I raise are enhanced by transparency and debate. These ideas are just that ¬ one person¹s thoughts. Like any government, state department, body politic or organization shining the light on ideas invites everyone to become a stakeholder. These ideas and discussions become meaningful through thought provoking debate and community collaboration. In point of fact our government becomes better through community participation as cumbersome and uncomfortable as it may be at times.
Just as any new housing developments by Hawaiian Homes or OHA or legislative initiative should include the collaboration and debate of its beneficiaries so too should all of us shepherd our own discussion on the future of Hawaiians as a long time minority in our homeland.
One hundred and twenty years ago in 1887 King Kalākaua wrote: In the midst of these evidences of prosperity and advancement it is but too apparent that the natives are steadily decreasing in numbers and gradually losing their hold upon the fair land of their fathers. Within a century they have dwindled from four hundred thousand to a little more than a tenth of that number of landless, hopeless victims of greed and vices of civilization.
They are slowly sinking under the restraints and burdens of their surroundings and will in time succumb to the social and political conditions foreign to their natures and poisonous to their blood. Year by year their footprints will grow more dim along the sands of their reef-sheltered shores until finally their voices will be heard no more forever.
I am not so naïve to believe that these ideas are embraced without any reservations. For example, there may be some here that have already concluded that 9 OHA trustees are problem enough and that 25 would make it worse or that OHA was constructed by the Constitutional Convention and that OHA could be lost if another convention was held. In short, it is far easier to find fault with ideas than to consider what might be possible.
In 1917 near the end of her life Queen Lili‘uokalani in surveying the profound changes in the loss of a Hawaiian nation said, “I could not turn back the time for political change, but there is still time to save our heritage. You must remember, never to cease to act because you fear you may fail.”
My friends the time has come to raise our voices collectively to be heard and to hold our leaders and ourselves accountable. The time has long since arrived to take the necessary risks, to be bold, and finally to assert ourselves as one people, as leaders, in order to save our heritage in our homeland.
No laila, mahalo no ka ‘oukou lokomaika‘i a ‘ahonui i ka‘u wala‘au ‘ana i kēia la. Nui ko‘u mahalo piha. Na ke akua e mālama ia ‘oukou pakahi apau.
Aloha.
Hawaii State Senator Clayton Hee represents the 23rd Senatorial District (Kahuku, Laie, Kaawa, Kaneohe) on the Island of Oahu.