Advocacy
Legislation
As part of its mandate to advocate for Native Hawaiians, each year OHA submits a package of proposed bills to the Hawaii State Legislature, and the agency's Board of Trustees also votes to take positions on a wide variety of legislation impacting the Hawaiian community.
Advocay > Public Land Trust Revenue Report
Public Land Trust Revenue Report
This report contains a chronology of the events surrounding the negotiations for settlement of OHA’s claim to past due and future payments on income and proceeds from the lands of the “public land trust.”
In 2010, OHA will ask the legislature to satisfy the past due obligations by enacting legislation establishing the past due obligation and providing the manner of payment over time.
If enacted, the legislation will establish the debt at $200 million and provide for annual payments of at least $30 million beginning July 1, 2015 until the debt is paid. The bill would also require the State to pay interest to OHA beginning July 1, 2010.
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The Public Land Trust Revenue Report
Advocay > Federal Recognition
Federal Recognition
Unlike other indigenous groups in the U.S., such as Native Americans and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians have never formally received recognition of their special status from the U.S. Congress. In recent years, this ambiguity has opened the door to lawsuits by those who would like to see Hawaiians stripped of their existing programs and assets.
Since OHA’s trustees have unanimously agreed that federal recognition is the best way to counter these ongoing legal attacks, the agency has made it a top priority to support Hawaii's congressional representatives in their efforts to gain federal recognition for Hawaiians. most notably through the U.S. senate measure known as the Akaka Bill.
Advocay > Ho`oulu Lahui Aloha Hawaiian Governance Initiative
Ho`oulu Lahui Aloha Hawaiian Governance Initiative
As the aboriginal indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Native Hawaiians have the inherent authority to reorganize themselves into a governing entity if they so choose. Hawaiians’ ability to organize a political body is not necessarily dependent upon the passage of a federal or state law, but on the Hawaiian electorate.
Holoulu Lahui Aloha (To Raise a Beloved Nation) is the title of OHA's initiative to foster the process of creating a Native Hawaiian Governing Entity representative of all Hawaiians, if Hawaiians choose to create such an entity. The discussion and creation of a Native Hawaiian Governing Entity will provide Native Hawaiians with greater control over their destiny as they move toward self-determination and self-sufficiency. Read more »
Advocay > Kau Inoa
Much has been accomplished over the past 30 years in developing the Hawaiian community’s ideas and perspectives on Native Hawaiian sovereignty and self-governance. Today, the establishment of a new Native Hawaiian government is on the horizon and can be achieved with the will and support of the Hawaiian people. The first step in building a Native Hawaiian governing body is to gather a list of people of Hawaiian ancestry who are willing to participate in the process. Those who register will eventually be able to help shape the nation to come.
