Editor’s note: Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwais a candidate in this month’s election of delegates to aNative Hawaiian constitutional convention, or ‘aha, that will determine if a reorganized Hawaiian government will be formed. She delivered the followingspeech at a recent panel discussion at the Richardson Law School.

For me the most important issue is land. We Native Hawaiians need land to live upon!

Even if itis just a place to pitch a tent. We need land from which we will not be evicted and forced to liveunder a bridge to be swept away by flash floods. We need land to live upon where we canpractice our culture and speak our own language!

We need land where we can build our houses,and our schools and our own health clinics. We need land where we can grow our own food. WeNative Hawaiians are in crisis, we , and we need land andhousing now!

Flag waving Aloha Aina Unity demonstrators walk along Kalakaua Avenue on their way to Kapiolani Park for a rally last August. Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Just as bad as homelessness today is the modern diaspora of Native Hawaiians fleeing Hawaii tofind a house they can afford, so that they wont be homeless! Today, 48 percent of all NativeHawaiians live outside of Hawaii because we cannot afford to live in our own homeland, in theland of our ancestors, in the land where our ancestors have lived for 100 generations. Half of mycousins live away on the continent and yearn to come home. It seems like every month, anothercousin decides to move to Vegas or Oregon because the housing is cheaper. How long must wewait for a solution?

Shall we wait another 20 years or until 80 percent of us have to live away?

I am a grandmother now and I worry that my grandchildren will not be able to afford land andwill have to move away. Why? Because right now we have three generations living in onetownhouse where four adults have college education and where three of us have PhDs, but if any oneof us could not work, we could not pay the mortgage.

And I am a full professor! How do folks with less education and less pay make it in Hawaiitoday? The answer is simple, if they don’t live at home, many are moving to Vegas! Housingnow costs so much in Hawaii that shacks are going for $700,000 and many houses on Oahu aregoing for $1 million. Itʻs only going to get worse. How will our grandchildren ever be able toafford a home?

I have had Native Hawaiian friends where each of their three adult children, and their spouses andchildren all lived in one four-bedroom house. That means that mother and father had one bedroom,and each of the 3 other bedrooms had a husband and wife and several children in each bedroom.

There were 20 adults and children that lived in that house and they were so lucky because theywere not homeless! Would they prefer their own house? Of course they would and how do wesupport them in doing so?

We Must Have A Government

So we Native Hawaiians are in a crisis and we need land. And in order to get land we must havea government, a Native Hawaiian government, not a state agency, who can negotiate with thestate and federal governments for land for Native Hawaiians. We must have a Native Hawaiiangovernment, elected by Native Hawaiians, and serving Native Hawaiians — we need an AupuniMālama Hawaii! We need a government who will take care of Native Hawaiians and make surethat we have land forever in our islands to practice our culture, to speak our own language, togrow our own food, and to pass land and housing on to our grandchildren.

So how do we get a government? We have an option before us right now called Naʻi Aupuniwhereby delegates would be elected to write a constitution for a Native Hawaiian government.

Then if that constitution is ratified by Native Hawaiians, an election would be held to seat agovernment. But some folks are saying that is a bad option, and they argue for us to wait forindependence. These folks are Native Hawaiians; some of them are my students for whom Ihave great aloha, so I must consider what they have to say.

One objection to the Naʻi Aupuni process is that it is being paid for by the state agency, the Office for Hawaiian Affairs,and that the rolls being used are from Kanaʻiʻolowalu, also paid for by OHA. Some prefer thatthis process of collection of Native Hawaiian rolls be done by a grass-roots process and not by astate agency so that there be no influence from the state of Hawaii, even though the OHA fundsare the 20 percent of state revenues owed to Hawaiians by state law.

Another objection to the Naʻi Aupuni process is that it could lead to U.S. federal recognition ofNative Hawaiians under American law, and they argue that federal recognition would preventHawaii from becoming independent from America again.

I felt exactly the same way 30 years ago. I was one of the thousands of Native Hawaiians thatworked for free for years organizing Ka Lāhui Ჹɲʻ. , held twosubsequent constitutional conventions, and registered 20,000 citizens. In 1993, we led a march of18,000 to commemorate the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and to call for a return of oursovereignty.

In 1994, we wrote a ,and we worked atthe Legislature to ask for control of the Ceded Lands trust. In 1995, we began sending adelegation to the United Nations to ask for international rights to self-determination and fordecolonization (and have done so every year ever since) and pushed for federal recognition underAmerican law in 2000. For 17 years we seated a legislature that met three times a year, on differentislands, and we did all of this without state money.

We believed that there were four arenas of sovereignty work:

1) International – or working at theUnited Nations for formal decolonization;

2) Federal – or working in Washington, D.C., for federal recognition;

3) Organizing our people – or enrolling more people into Ka Lāhui Ჹɲʻ tosupport a governing structure and a call for a land base;

and 4) Native nation to native nation treaty making – or engaging with other native nations to support their efforts for selfdetermination.

All of us were determined to work in one of these four arenas.And we didn’t get one acre of land for our people. Why was that? We did everything right!

Federal Recognition Is Essential

Our problem in Ka Lāhui Ჹɲʻ was that we didn’t have any legal way to interact with theAmerican government. We could not work out a deal for federal recognition, and without it wecould not get any of the powers that be —that is, the American government at the federal level — towork with us. And, we didn’t believe we should work with the state of Hawaii.

Our other problem in Ka Lāhui Ჹɲʻ was that we had no money, and it was just too difficultto sustain political action as a part time effort while working full time to pay rent and buy food.

Now fast-forward 30 years. We Native Hawaiians don’t have land, we don’t have federal recognition, there are still 27,000 native Hawaiians of 50% blood on the waiting list for the Department of Hawaiian Home Landshomesteads, and the other 450,000 of us who are Native Hawaiian (less than 50 percent) are beingforced out of Hawaii in a modern diaspora by the super-rich who are buying up Hawaii.

There are many of us, and I am one, who are very glad that the state wants to give money tosupport social justice for Native Hawaiians, and to help right the great wrong that was done in1893. I think it is a sign of its aloha for us.

It costs money to organize elections, and tohold constitutional conventions. It takes money to hold elections to seat a Native Hawaiiangovernment. And even the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples callsupon the states, or the colonial power, to pay for the costs of indigenous peoples seeking self-determination.

So I do not object to Kanaʻiʻolowalu or Naʻi Aupuni having state funding. In factI am delighted that we can proceed with establishing a Hawaiian nation.

Independence For Hawaii?

So does that mean, as my colleagues would suggest, that I do not want independence for Hawaiifrom the United States of America? No, it does not. If I had a dollar for every time I told a non-Hawaiianthat we still want the country back, and had them look at me as if I were crazy, I wouldbe a rich woman today!

But the independent Hawaii that I want does not seem to be the independent Hawaii that otherswant. I want an independent nation that is for and by Native Hawaiians. I don’t want to evictanyone, and I support giving everyone the basic freedoms of religion and speech, etc., but Ifollow the Ka Lāhui Ჹɲʻ constitution that would make non-Natives, whom we have marriedand whom we love, honorary citizens, with all the rights of Native Hawaiian citizens, but notthe right to vote or hold elected office.

I want an independent Hawaii that honors special rightsfor land, language and cultural practices for Native Hawaiians.

Many others want an independent Hawaii where Native Hawaiians have no special rights toland, language or cultural practices, and wherein all people have “equal” rights. This modelsounds like what we have right now under America—– what would be the difference under independence? Since we Native Hawaiians are still a minority in our homeland, and since independence folks that I have talked with won’t agree to Native Hawaiian rights, I cannotsupport that model of independence.

Here is something else. Both models for achieving independence for Hawaii — eitherdecolonization through the United Nations, or deoccupation through the American military,cannot occur without the agreement of the American government.

Now how long do you think itmight take for America to completely withdraw its military from Hawaii? Will it happen in 30years? In 50 years? In 100 years?

Federal Recognition And The DOI Rules

I feel really guilty that 30 years ago I opposed state support and moving ahead. I was wrongthen, and I want to right that wrong decision. I canʻt wait another 30 years. I want to see aNative Hawaiian government in my lifetime, an Aupuni Mālama Hawai‘i who will mālama mygrandchildren, and I want that government to apply for U.S. federal recognition for NativeHawaiians.

I have read the DOI rules (75 pages) and I find them quite fair, especially in their care for thepreservation of the rights of the Native Hawaiians (50% blood quantum) to the 200,000 acres ofHawaiian Home Lands. Given how few people of any ethnicity vote in Hawaii, I consider thenumbers required to ratify our new constitution are too high, but others say I am mistaken.

Will U.S. federal recognition prevent us as Native Hawaiians from achieving independencefrom America in the future? Will it stop the Kingdom of Hawaii that includes non-Hawaiiancitizens from achieving independence from America in the future? The answer is no, but only ifthat is what the people want.

As a historian I have seen the political boundaries on mapschange frequently over time. It was once said that “the sun never set on the British Empire,” andnow it does. Those countries that were part of the British Empire were told they could neverbecome independent, but when the people of India wanted their country back, there was nostopping them.

Peopleʻs desires and political opinions make for political change, and laws andconstitutions are rewritten. That is how the world really works.

It seems that there are 1,300 Ahupuaʻa in the Hawaiian Archipelago and I want land for ourNative Hawaiian nation in each of those 1,300 ahupuaʻa. I want those lands put into trust so thatthey can never be sold. I want a Native Hawaiian government that will work continuously tosecure the decommissioning of the military bases.

I want the 1,300 acres of Bellows Air Force Station inWaimanalo and the return of our sacred lands at the Mōkapu Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where inthe Kāne tradition, the first Hawaiian man was made. I want all of our sacred mountains put intothis trust – Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Hualalai, Haleakalā, Puʻu Kukui, Moaʻula, Lānaʻihale,Kamākou, Kaʻala, Konahuanui, Kānehoalani, Waiʻaleʻale and Pānīʻau.

I want the AupuniMālama Ჹɲʻ to have co-management of all the lands and waters of Hawaii, includingʲ貹Բܳǰ.

I want the federal monies that go to federally recognized tribes for housing, health andeducation. I want us to build our own houses and schools. Did you know that today 40 percent of allchildren in the DOE schools are Native Hawaiian, but are learning almost nothing about our ancestralculture and barely able to pronounce our ancestral names? And did you know that out of all thechildren in the DOE schools only 1 percent are in Hawaiian Immersion? Do you think that ourancestral language will survive another 30 years of DOE mismanagement?

I want each of us who are Native Hawaiian to ask those who oppose the Naʻi Aupuni process andU.S. federal recognition to show us their plan and their timeline for securing land and housingfor Native Hawaiians.

Some who oppose this process have Hawaiian Homelands; will they invitehouseless Hawaiians to come live on their lands?

Others own lands in fee simple; will they giveland to my grandchildren? If one argues for no dealings with the state or the federalgovernments, will they give up their jobs at the university? Will they give up their federallymandated Hawaiian Homelands? I don’t think so, because we all have children and we are all onepaycheck away from being homeless.

Naʻi Aupuni Constitutional Convention

So I ask all of you who are Native Hawaiian to vote for those leaders who want to write the bestconstitution possible. I recommend that we begin to study various constitutions and documentsthat declare allegiance to fundamental rights and to the support of Native Hawaiian lands,language and cultural traditions. We should look at the Ka Lāhui Ჹɲʻ constitution, and the that enshrined the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We should look at the that doesn’t allow non-Tongans to own land inTonga, or to the that does not allow the buying and selling of land.We should look at and constitutions that give free medical care andeducation to their people.

We should proceed to make our Native Hawaiian nation and ensure that we survive as a distinctpeople and culture in the land of our ancestors. We should invite our cousins to move home fromthe continent, making sure that they have land, too. When we have 1 million Hawaiians inHawaii and we are in the majority once more, and when we can show the world how weMālama ‘āina and Mālama kanaka, then we can apply for independence.

Aloha nui kākou.

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