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The has been a dominant subject of Hawaii’s mainstream media, capturing headlines these past weeks over several hot-button political face-offs.

I tracked the news with the intention to write a column on the OHA issues already under media scrutiny when an April 7 of OHA CEO Sylvia Hussey caught my attention.

The interview included the question; “OHA’s 2021 strategic plan no longer emphasizes creating a governing entity. Is that off the table?”

Her answer seemed to skirt the question, so I curiously referenced OHA’s website section framing OHA’s current strategic priorities. What I found had me in disbelief.

Following the 2018 election the board of trustees proceeded to develop a new strategic plan titled and subtitled OHA’s 15 Year Strategic Plan For 2020-2035. The previous plan included self-governance as one of six strategic objectives.

The new plan narrowed the objectives from six to three. Self-governance fell to the wayside as no longer pertinent to its mission. I was shocked because by removing self-governance from its umbrella of strategic priorities OHA has defaulted on one of the primary reasons it was created in the first place.

OHA was fundamentally created to provide a home for a Hawaiian national consciousness that survived that epic day in 1893 when the Hawaiian Nation was brought to its knees. So in 1978 when OHA was constitutionally created the expectation was that they would lead the way to restoring some self-governance model of nationhood.

It would require generating a statewide dialogue with the Hawaiian people to democratically define what that model would look like. OHA would then pursue building a framework to re-establish some form of a Hawaiian government at which point the baton of authority and assets would be passed to the new governance structure.

OHA was never meant to be forever self-perpetuating. The constitutional lynchpin for OHA pursuing self-governance was a linked provision legalizing a Hawaiians only election applied to both trustee candidates and voters.

That provision was challenged and then struck down by the Hawai’i Supreme Court. This closed the door on what was intended to be a historic opportunity for Hawaiians to exercise self-determination in shaping a preferred future springing from a sense of Hawaiian nationhood.

The loss of the only Native Hawaiians can vote provision created a much steeper climb for OHA to clear a path leading to self-determination, requiring a higher level of planning, commitment of resources, and extraordinary leadership.

The ’78 Con Con

OHA’s existing quasi-independence from many state policies governing state agencies was a gift of the 1978 constitutional convention that created OHA. That provision was intended to give OHA some breathing room from restrictive state policies to exercise a limited level of independence in pursuing some model of self-governance.

But, the existing quasi-independence is not supposed to be OHA’s final resting place. The confusing question keeps popping up whether OHA is a state agency or not.

The answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no. The final answer is left to an OHA-led initiative by which Hawaiians self-determine a preferred model of self-governance.

To be fair, in 2016, OHA provided financial support for a Native Hawaiian community-based constitutional convention which resulted in a constitution to establish a Native Hawaiian government entity.

Referred to as the Native Hawaiian Aha (meeting) the intention was to establish a framework for a process on how to achieve self-governance. Emerging from the dialogue of the 125 delegates was a wide spectrum of ideology on what Native Hawaiians should do.

OHA was never meant to be forever self-perpetuating.

The options went in every direction, which included federal recognition by the United States government, the re-establishment of the overthrown Hawaiian Kingdom, or the creation of an independent nation to name a few. These and other options were left open subject to ratification of the document by the Native Hawaiian community. The document is titled Constitution of the Native Hawaiian Nation.

The Aha adjourned with a call for ratification of the document by Native Hawaiians. It sits in limbo. Next steps are yet to materialize. This might be a great opportunity perhaps for OHA to pick up the baton of self-determination.

I would hope that trustees of the existing board will do the right thing and reconsider the previous board’s abandonment of self-governance. Imua.