Originally 40 participants were to be elected to meet for two months to create a constitution. Instead, 130 of us unelected participants met for one month. A paper constitution was railroaded through the attendees in a few weeks. This aha was designed to make us an Indian tribe, federally recognized by the Department of the Interior. The DOI rules, introduced months before the aha, state that the federal and state governments have sovereign immunity and cannot be sued by Native Hawaiians. Nor can we obtain state or federal land which is really our stolen Hawaiian nation’s land — a nation recognized since 1870 internationally by over 30 countries. Is this what we want?
We aloha our Native American brothers and sisters, and sympathize with their treatment as “wards of the state” by America. These natives have no control over their own destiny because treaties with America are repeatedly broken or ignored. They live at the whim of the federal government within a demeaning form of federal recognition. In islandwide DOI hearings over 95 percent of Kanaka Maoli expressed “no desire to be under the DOI.”
This evolving aha entity is supposed to replace the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Yet a sitting OHA trustee and many OHA staff, including attorneys and law students, were active aha participants and strong promoters of federal recognition. Makalehua members along with Kanae Olowalu (appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie for the Hawaiian roll) and others subsidized by OHA have a conflict of interest and should never have been a part of this aha. These groups gave birth to the aha, nurtured it, and controlled the agenda throughout. Consequently, the unelected aha participants’ “constitution” was rammed through in a few weeks.
Although there are some positive points in this document, it should not be ratified by our people in its current form. We Kanaka Maoli need a constitution that is more pragmatic and visionary: Section 5 Relating to Criminal Prosecution references — defendant has to pay for his/her own lawyer. Translation: Poor people arrested are guilty. Knowing so many of our people are impoverished, our Hawaii Nation must provide independent public defender services to those who cannot afford them. How are these legal services to be paid for? The Hawaiian Nation should retrieve at least a half million acres of the 1.6 million acres of our ceded (seized) lands the Department of Land and Natural Resources now controls. Some of that aina should be income producing to pay for desperately needed programs including legal fees for impoverished litigants. A nation needs aina to exist — more than just Kahoolawe, as recently offered by the US government.
This constitution focuses on restorative justice principles and cultural values of Puuhonua, Malama and Hooponopono as alternatives to standard incarceration. Hilo’s E Hoopakele championed by the late kupuna Sam Kaleileiki, uses this alternative for victimless crimes only; not capital crimes like murder and rape.
Most importantly, a serious examination of the separation of powers between the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches of government must be undertaken.
Also, traditional and cultural intellectual property rights are noted, but there is nothing to guarantee individual intellectual property rights.
Representation by population, land base and residency must be examined and modified — a very complex issue.
My four-and-a-half decades of experience on the front lines of Hawaiian activism and as an OHA trustee for 12 years, leads me to believe that the proposed constitution should be rejected. Currently it is a draft, needing modifications. The Nai Aupuni Aha has, however, initiated the needed serious discussion.
Moanike’ala Akaka is a resident of Hilo
My Turn opinions are those of the writer and not of West Hawaii Today