OHA's pseudo-sovereignty process behind schedule


The Star-Bulletin reports that "Efforts to create a new native Hawaiian government are behind schedule. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs had expected to hold an aha, or convening group, beginning next month, but hasn't elected delegates yet. The delegate election was supposed to take place last month as the first concrete step toward a government for native Hawaiians that would be somewhat similar to mainland Native American tribal governments." OHA administrator Clyde Namuo tries to put a positive spin that it is not because of resistance, but in fact many Hawaiians are strongly and vocally opposed to OHA's efforts, they just don't have OHA's budget to push their agenda.

OHA chairwoman Haunani Apoliona said in an announcement last spring that OHA took the lead in the effort because it is the only elected body representing native Hawaiians. But remember, OHA trustees are elected by the population at large and aren't required to be Native Hawaiian themselves, so they don't actually represent native Hawaiians any more than the state legislature does.

And the larger issue is that a government of this type — "similar to mainland Native American tribal governments" — is completely inconsistent with Hawaiian history and the legal order of the Hawaiian Kingdom which has never been extinguished, and it is Hawaiian nationals as a whole, not just native Hawaiians, who are the national population with the right to restore their government.

Paul de Silva makes this point in a letter to the editor in the Advertiser, saying that "the government that was overthrown belonged to a multiracial sovereignty" and a racially based sovereignty "just isn't fair to the excluded descendants of citizens of the Kingdom of Hawai'i."


Posted: Wed - December 17, 2003 at 08:40 AM    
   
 
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Published On: Dec 27, 2005 10:12 PM
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