DOCUMENT:hawaii.txt U N I T E D N A T I O N S WORKING GROUP ON INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS 1989 Trustee -- Office of Hawai'ian Affairs -- Hawai'i Moanikeala Akaka Thank you Dr Daes for the opportunity to speak and also for you bringing to my attention that such an important indigenous gathering was taking place in Geneva when you spoke at ICC in Greenland last week. I am Moanikeala Akaka, Trustee for the Office of Hawai'ian Affairs, one of nine representing the indigenous peoples of Hawai'i. I was elected by over 23,000 registered Hawai'ian adults, and as Trustees it is our mandate, "to better the condition of the Hawai'ian people." Though our office is supposed to be receiving 20% of the revenue from our Ceded Land Trust from the State of Hawai'i, in actuality we only receive a paltry 1% of which 2/3 ends up being spent on administration costs, while we elected Trustees receive no salary. Worse is that it leaves little to pass to my people at this point. There are also federal U.S. claims for land and money to be rectified as well. Like other natives we remain "strangers in our own homeland" while most who have come to our island shores as immigrants have done very well for themselves -- at our expense. By right as native peoples we have many resources, only we have not had access to them in what has come to be known as America, so-called land of "justice and freedom". There is no justice and freedom for us as native peoples, and our lands, for it is we who have been, and continue to be, exploited. Our native value system is based upon sharing and helping one another out, whereas this dominant Western system that has been imposed upon us is based upon competition and greed, creating a conflict of values. There was no such thing as private land ownership before Western influence, for our lands were owned communally. Hawai'ians today struggle for survival as now our homeland is priced far out of our reach. Food, land, housing and electricity costs are the highest in American while our wages are very low. Yet this last State Legislature gave the Governor a 25% increase in salary, but failed to raise the minimum wage. Previously our Hawai'ian nation was self-sufficient, today 95% of food in the State of Hawai'i has to be imported. For islands this is suicide for if the ships were to stop coming in to Hawai'i for a few weeks, people would be fighting each other for food. Service industry, minimum wage jobs such as those at McDonalds, Seven-Eleven or working as hotel maids are the only jobs available to most of our people. The Tourist industry is creating more and more of a caste system of haves and have-nots, while they want us to be the servant-class. Our best beaches are taken over by resort developments, and for $300 to $400 a day the rich can stay in luxurious hotel rooms while we are expected to wait on them. On my island of Hawai'i very little ocean frontage is accessible to our people as the tourists get preference and priority. Large corporations and more and more Japanese and other foreign investors are buying out our islands. They have little respect for our land, peoples and culture and are only interested in profits. The Japanese Yakuza (Mafia) are buying out agriculture land to build golf courses for the land-poor, yen- rich Japanese so that they can fly to our islands in order to play golf. They pay many, many, many thousands of dollars as membership fees to join these clubs, while local Hawai'i golfers cannot afford the high fees. Japanese investors are also buying out many existing hotels in our islands. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, today they conquer us by buying out our islands. On a more positive note, because of much Hawai'ian and community concern, we were recently able to stop the development of a hotel at Honokahua, Maui. Over a thousand of our ancestors remains were being dug up for yet another hotel; this sacrilegious act was halted and our ancestors are being returned to their resting place. Aloha Aina is our traditional value system. It means "if you live in tune with and take care of the land, the land will take care of you." These are common values we indigenous share for our ancestors since time immemorial used conservation practices. They took only what they needed, for tomorrow was another day. We natives did not pollute or exploit our land and its resources. At a time when the world as we know it is being threatened by ozone depletion and the Greenhouse Effect the industrialized nation states should pay heed to our native value of Aloha Aina. There is really no choice for the sake of global survival, yet the recent Summit of so-called world leaders refused to deal seriously with this global Greenhouse and ozone-depletion threat. I am proud to announce that the Office of Hawai'ian Affairs is in the process of evolving into a sovereign entity. We feel it is necessary to self-determine our own destiny and management of our resources for the State and Federal Governments have been negligent in fulfilling their responsibilities to our people. We should not be at the whim of the state legislature whom we are now forced to go to for funding while they cheat us out of 19% of our owed revenues. In spite of this the legislature demands we match every dollar they release for our programmes at OHA. It is imperative we become more self-sufficient. Upon receipt of our long overdue resources, we will be able to fund directly needed viable housing, education, job-training, culture, land, health and economic development programmes that will help uplift people from their dismal plight, so that they may live in dignity in their own homeland. It is time for justice, fairness and moral right to come into play. Sea-mining to be done my multi-national corporations off the coast of the island of Hawai'i which I represent threatens to turn our ocean into "the Pittsburgh of the Pacific". The mining and toxic waste dumping from this polluting venture is dangerous and exploitative and will do irreparable damage to our people and sea life. Because we are island people in the middle of the ocean, out of sight and out of mind, these corporations think they can get away with this plunder. The Native Way should be an example of how the peoples of the world should live, instead the powers that be have been exploiting us for generations and try to assimilate, decimate and destroy our way of life. Enough is enough! Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono, which means, "the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness." Mahalo, thank you for this opportunity to share with you our situation as indigenous peoples of Hawai'i. Moanikeala Akaka Geneva, 3 August 1989 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: -= THE FOURTH WORLD DOCUMENTATION PROJECT =- :: :: A service provided by :: :: The Center For World Indigenous Studies :: :: www.cwis.org :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Originating at the Center for World Indigenous Studies, Olympia, Washington USA www.cwis.org © 1999 Center for World Indigenous Studies (All Rights Reserved. References up to 500 words must be referenced to the Center for World Indigenous Studies and/or the Author Copyright Policy Material appearing in the Fourth World Documentation Project Archive is accepted on the basis that the material is the original, unoccupied work of the author or authors. 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