OHA Chair Apoliona addresses NIEA

Written by Trustee Chair Haunani Apoliona, Friday, 26 October 2007

OHA Trustee Chair Haunani Apoliona addresses NIEA delegates on the second day of their gathering at the Hawai'i Convention Center. - Blaine Fergerstrom photo.

National Indian Education Association
38th Annual Convention
E Ho’i I Ka Piko
Return to the Cultural Honor and Caring

Remarks of Trustee S. Haunani Apoliona, MSW
Chairperson, Office of Hawaiian Affairs
Board of Trustees

Friday, October 26, 2007
Hawai‘i Convention Center

He Mele No Nā 'Ōiwi 'Ōlino Hawaiian chant:

E ō e nā ‘ōiwi ‘ōlino ‘eā
Nā pulapula a Hāloa ‘eā
Mai Hawai’i a Ni’ihau ‘eā
Puni ke ao mālamalama ‘eā ē.
Kū’ē au i ka hewa, kū’ē. Kū au i ka pono kū.
Kū’ē au i ka hewa, kū’ē. Kū au i ka pono kū.
He mele no nā ‘ōiwi ‘ōlino, kū.

(Click here for audio clips of this chant, along with the full fie verses of lyrics with translation. ) 

Ke kū nei au ma mua o ‘oukou me ka hanohano a me ka ha’aheo e ‘auamo i ka ‘ike ku’una me ke kuleana i hō’ili mai ia’u e o’u po’e kūpuna o ke au i hala a me ke au nei.

Translation: It is with great honor and pride that I am privileged to stand before you today bearing the indigenous insight and a responsibility bequeathed to me by my forebearers, past and present.

'O Haunani Apoliona ko'u inoa. He Hawai'i au mau a mau. Aloha mai kākou.

I greet you today as a Trustee and Board Chairperson of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. For those of you who do not know, OHA is a body corporate established in 1978 by the Hawai’i State Constitution and implementing statutes and governed a board of nine Trustees elected by all voters in Hawai’i. OHA has a very broad mandate; Our mission is to mālama (care for) Hawai’i’s people and environmental resources and OHA’s assets, toward ensuring the perpetuation of the culture, the enhancement of lifestyle and protection of entitlements of Native Hawaiians, while enabling the building of a strong and healthy Hawaiian people and nation, recognized nationally and internationally.

Haunani Apoliona began her remarks by chanting the first verse of He Mele No Nā 'Ōiwi 'Ōlino. As she left the podium, OHA Education Division head Hau'oli Akaka rose and joined with Apoliona in chanting the full five verses. - Blaine Fergerstrom photo.

We have all journeyed here from places both near and far … from ancestral homelands in the far Pacific, from northern regions where the sun does not set, from across the vast expanse of the continents stretching from the Atlantic to Pacific Oceans, for a very important purpose:

We are here to envision and affirm the future of our people. We are here to refine and redefine educational opportunity for Native people to nurture and grow thriving, empowered Native communities and nations.

The theme of this year’s convention, E Ho‘i I Ka Piko- Return to the Cultural Honor and Caring, is most important because it is the piko (birth cord lifeline) that for Native Hawaiians links us to our past, present and future.

Hau'oli Akaka offers a maile lei while chanting He Mele No Nā 'Ōiwi 'Ōlino with Apoliona. The entire room stood in recognition. - Blaine Fergerstrom photo.

We are born by our mothers, connected as one with her, through our piko. For Native Hawaiians, the piko is the connection to our lineage and to our self-determined path ahead.

For all Native people that connection to ancestors gives us strength to forge our future even through challenging times.

When we live our cultural values, generation to generation, we find peace of spirit with who we are and from where we come; and, together shall chart a confident, unified course for our future.

Education is key. Native Hawaiians refer to education as “na’auao”, enlightenment.

A culture-based, educated nation, we will move forward, armed with the resolve to determine our future accepting that with “na’auao” (enlightenment), education navigates our course individually and collectively.

For this reason, it is pre-destined that we gather here today so that we can advance together.

Akaka places the lei on Apoliona following the chant. - Blaine Fergerstrom photo.

Culture-based Education is critical in restoring Native cultural identity, academic success, and healthy communities and nations.

Hawai’i, along with other Native communities strives to lead by example in culture-based learning, cultural identity, academic success, and healthy communities.

Here are some fine examples “homegrown” in Hawai’i

The ‘Aha Pūnana Leo (Hawaiian Language Nest) pioneers and early leaders in Hawai’i and in the United States for indigenous Native Hawaiian language revitalization continues the mission: “E Ola Ka ‘ōlelo Hawai’i.” The Hawaiian Language shall live.

Nā Kula Kaiapuni, Hawaiian language schools, K-12, in the State Department of Education -- doing well, but certainly not enough in number and absolutely in need for more resources.

The University of Hawai’i, Ka Haka’ula O Ke’elikolani (Hilo) and Hawai’inuiakea (Mānoa), higher education centers producing bachelor, graduate and post graduate leaders for Hawai’i, pipili me ka na’auao loa a me ke aloha no ka ‘ōlelo Hawai’i pū.

Traveling the road to well-being for our Hawaiian nation, the speaking, the understanding, and the appreciation of our native language is a significant marker. When our native languages live, our native values and our native cultures live and our native nations thrive.

Hawaiian-focused charter schools, have also done a great deal to raise the bar for Native Hawaiians students here in our state. Not only are students thriving in the Hawaiian realm and sense of learning, they are improving by national standards. According to statistics compiled by Kamehameha Schools, Native Hawaiian students in Hawaiian-focused charter schools score higher on test scores when compared with their peers in other public schools and well as in other start-up charter schools.

Conclusive, scientific evidence tells us, Hawaiian-Focused Charter Schools are working. These learning systems offer our Native Hawaiian students proven options. But, ultimately, Hawaiian-focused charter schools instill hope.

And a final example, the statewide, community-based program

Nā Pua No’eau, exercises education enrichment opportunities for Native Hawaiian youth that contribute significantly to the growth and development of Hawaiian leaders who will contribute to the state of Hawai’i and the Hawaiian nation. Nā Pua No’eau aligns with the Governor’s initiative for STEM, a program to encourage students to go into the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

The culture-based learning strategies and systems that I have cited are but a few of many that showcase success in revitalizing Native Hawaiians, our families and communities, and lay the foundation for our maturing Hawaiian nation.

Our native culture, our native values and our native language will endure, but only, if we work at it, together.

Haunani Apoliona sits with beloved Hawaiian kupuna (elder) Auntie Betty Jenkins. - Blaine Fergerstrom photo.

So my message to convention participants on the threshold of this second day is: be far reaching in your vision. As Native people let’s focus on what will move us forward collectively. I believe our ancestors and elders would be pleased in knowing of our common efforts in this generation.

Native Hawaiians, like American Indians and Alaska Natives, in our motherlands, long before European contact, lived in a highly organized, self-sufficient, social structure with a sophisticated language, culture, religion and land tenure system.

Although we come from different regions and different experiences, American Indians and Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians share in a similarly proud history, a pre-contact history strongly rooted by our ancestors in cultural education and learning passed for millennia from one generation to the next.

Regretfully, we also share a similar and storied post-contact history. And though today we are showing increased signs of progress and power, we, as Native people, still feel the pain and loss of our suffered past, grave tragedies, genocide, land displacement, colonization and threat to or overthrow of our native governments.

Historically and presently, disparity dwells in systems, opportunities, and investments as they apply to Native people. Such inequities have done more than disenfranchise Native people they have dispossessed us of our rightful heritage.

There are those of an ideology who work even now to dispossess us through their well-funded, national movement to erode and eliminate all native entitlements as well as dismantle civil rights, either by policy or through the federal and state courts.

These ideologues want to “homogenize” and “amalgamate” us into ONE U.S. Census category entitled: “multi-racial”. They attempt to steal our “diversity”.

Let us heed the “signs”, the “hō’ailona”. The time is now for aboriginal, indigenous natives of this land, to unify for our collective survival and for the reconciliation of the needs of all native people.

The past and its lessons must be honored and celebrated; and, that wisdom of experience must steel our discipline and focus us to act, undeterred, moving forward strong and unified.

In the words of Queen Kapi’olani, we must “Kūlia I Ka Nu’u” (strive to reach the highest). We must come together to find opportunities so that we will advance.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is excited to continue its work with the NIEA to implement new possibilities for Native Hawaiians, Alaska Natives and American Indians.

Jointly, we are inspired to find innovative solutions to protect our ancestral homeland, our native people and our inherent right to self-determination.

One hundred fourteen years ago, our Hawaiian Kingdom, governed by Queen Lili’uokalani, indigenous leader and only woman in a line of eight kingdom rulers that followed Kamehameha I, suffered the humiliating and diabolical overthrow of her Hawaiian Government.

Today, Native Hawaiians are closer than ever to creating options for reorganizing Hawaiian governance for the next 114 years and beyond.

American Indians and Alaska Natives, have traveled this road to self-determination, have led and have walked a well worn path. You are the elders, we are the youth embarking on our journey. I am certain that seemingly insurmountable challenges and obstacles emerged along the way.

We, Native Hawaiians, are on the cusp of determining our own future.

Ultimately though, it is we who need to determine the course that is right for us. Native Hawaiians are taking the first steps toward shaping a cohesive vision of what we want done and how we are prepared to organize to make it happen.

As we move forward in our quest for self-determination, we will seek wise counsel and guidance in the process of rebuilding our nation.

Congratulations to the National Indian Education Association, as you approach your forty year milestone and for your distinction as the oldest national association devoted to the education of indigenous people of the United States. We further acknowledge that for the first time in nearly four decades, in the year 2006, your Board elected a Native Hawaiian to serve as President, Dr. Verlie Ann Malina-Wright. Mahalo nui loa.

In closing I extend our mahalo (thank you) to the officers, board of directors, administration, staff and membership of the NIEA for your continued support of Federal Recognition for Native Hawaiians. You have stood with us. And you have reconfirmed your support by joining us in our homeland today.

We are grateful for the hundreds of letters sent to the U.S. Congress supporting passage of the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, along with the 2003 NIEA Resolution supporting Federal Recognition for Native Hawaiians and passage of this legislation.

The U.S. House of Representatives this past Wednesday, October 24, 2007, voted 261-153 to approve HR 505, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganizations Act and now we await the U.S. Senate to act. We need everyone’s support.

I ask you to continue to stand with us as we advocate to protect what we have for future generations of Native Hawaiians.

Support for the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2007 is the right thing to do.

The voice of all Native people must reach all corners and borders of this nation chanting the message that the United States of America has an enduring obligation to the aboriginal, indigenous, natives of this country.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs stands confident in the spirit of service and partnership with the NIEA.

In Returning to our culture of honor and caring, we move forward focusing our spiritual will to take up our responsibilities, our kuleana.

Our vision and commitment will link our past, present and future.

Our actions, in pursuit of fairness and justice, will give voice to our ancestors and kūpuna.

Our accomplishments, through compassion and resolve, will move us closer to finishing the work that our ancestors and kupuna did not live long enough to complete, and will serve our generations to come.

Mahalo for the opportunity to fortify our mission and vision – as partners, and as Native people.

Aloha and mahalo.

Haunani S. Apoliona
Trustee Chair
Office of Hawaiian Affairs