Issue Position: Kou Manao

Issue Position

Let me thank OHA for setting up loan and grant programs, taking on Waimea Falls Park's ownership, and most recently diversifying into income producing properties with the purchase of Gentry Pacific Design Center and the state's settlement of the Kakaako property. Predicting income-producing options, I would like to see some of the following proposals that I support as part of the possibilities that OHA can create to further benefit the Hawaiian people.

Healthcare is always an issue for Hawaiian people given the negative influence of Western diet and disease. The overlooked health benefit that eludes many Hawaiians is DENTAL CARE past the age of 18, and now perhaps 26 with the new health care laws. Here is an overlooked opportunity to greatly help our people, and especially the kupuna who have no coverage in Medicare or Quest programs. Good dental health is directly related to other illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, and to provide a means to fund part or all of dental care package would be a great achievement for Hawaiians health.

EDUCATION through the Hawaiian Charter Schools has greatly improved the opportunity to create the cultural environment that helps Hawaiian children improve and excel in academia. OHA has truly supported them and I would also support and seek more ways to fund Hawaiian Charter Schools. One area I experienced as having the GREATEST NEED IS CAREER PLANNING IN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL. Working as the Kauai Island Coordinator for the Pacific American Foundation (PAF) and their `Oihana Native Hawaiian Career Planning System, using contemporary and cultural models, I have come to realize its importance, especially for rural communities on Kauai. This is a tremendous planning and learning tool to assist our young people on the pathway to finding employment that they will love and therefore build a life that they will love. When I worked with Kawaikini Charter School I got to see first hand what a difference it made to each child that had gone through this program, starting from the 6th grade through 12th grade, and continues into college and beyond.

SELF-DETERMINATION is a model that needs to have the community become more involved, rather than just have them sign up in roll call. We have not created the roll-call units in the community that have a voice, rather we have a board taking names to use for an undocumented dialog carried on by the Top Leadership, without a voice of the people. Several years ago, a vision of creating a Statewide campaign carried on outfitted buses, called "Ka`a Ea", Sovereignty Buses was presented by myself and supporters. This is the perfect time to move into such a method, of connecting us as did the "Ku`e" petition by going DOOR TO DOOR, as they did. They went by canoe, horseback, mule, train, and walking, and these buses can drive to neighborhoods. Let us join together in a shared experience, as did those who signed in UNITY the Ku`e Petition, that still stands as the true measurement buried by business greed and military power.

Recognizing the value of HANAI AND KUPUNA RIGHTS, we need to strengthen family and the rights of grandparents to raise their grand children within the troublesome Department of Human Services and Family Court. It appears that grandparents are not even acknowledged in the shared raising of their bloodline, and in some cases not consulted and given high creditability. I disagree that parents can be rehabilitated and when pleas from grandparents go unheard, then we can see childhood abuse leading to many deaths occurring after the placing children back with parents, especially injury caused by boyfriends and girlfriends or even step-parents.

The non-inclusive involvement of kupuna, goes against our custom and beliefs of our elders role, the grandparents, especially today when many grandparents take on the responsibility of raising their mo`opuna. Without any legal recourse, too often parents return without true concern for the child they left behind and reclaim these children without any respect or compensation to their parent's emotions, time and money. We need to protect these children that are being raise by grandparents and create a policy and laws to give weight to kupuna's value in child rearing. It was the custom for kupuna to "hanai" the first born, so that kupuna could pass down generational knowledge and perpetuate our Hawaiian values. I would like to see OHA help to develop tools and policy to fill this void in our cultural practices within the judicial and social welfare system.

AGRICULTURE AND AINA for many of us means the GMO movement on Kauai. While I do support the benefits of feeding poor countries and combating plant diseases, I support labeling of GMO products. Kauai in particular is living the outcomes of pesticides in run off water and soil pollution, and communities are asking for accountability from these giant corporations. They have tried to patent our Kalo, our ancestral roots and they have done it to other cultures worldwide. This has to stop, this unnecessary greed has to be stopped and the health of our community has to come first. The powers behind this are not transparent and promise great returns to stockholders and little return to communities they come into. Each compound has high security and remains distant to answering the questions of increased illnesses, pesticide use and pollution off coastal shorelines where fields are planted. Can we as OHA step to the plate and bring an end to this disrespect? We must, it is our aina and the very core of our stewardship rights that are violated by this unregulated and unaccountable reign of GMO business owners practices, backed by unbelievable powerful players with unlimited money.

ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND GEOTHERMAL POWER. While working at the Harbors Division as a Planner IV, I was assigned to review energy options, as it pertains to the Harbors. Almost every energy source other than solar or wind, has some relationship to the harbors, with all major fuel lines running through the harbors, as energy supplies (coal, oil, etc.) are delivered via the harbors. While I do see great potential in Natural Gas, the discussion is on the table with Alaska and our own Gas Company because it is cheaper, but we will need to make a change in the JONES ACT. As a matter of fact, the Jones Act is a major reason why our cost are high, because ships from Asia have to go to California, unload and then a ship from California brings our goods in.

Geothermal Power is capable of providing power for the entire Hawaii Island, but is limited by the utility rules as to how much they can produce. Recently, we have learned of New Zealand Maoris owning their energy sources, and we can also do this under the ownership of native rights to mineral deposits, which geothermal energy falls into. I have always advocated OHA to own UTILITY INDUSTRIES as part of the plan to be sustainable and part of self-determination and an area that I am also committed to work on.

UNITY AS A MAJOR GOAL is extremely important, if we are to achieve the continued momentum of self-governance and good stewardship practices, then we must have a system that supports choosing good leaders. The internal dis-array of OHA's organizational and administrative manners has put us at a disadvantage for so long, in a system set up to help us fail. I have said that a statewide election process dilutes the value of each island's political worth and distances each trustee from his constitutes on each island. There are good structural examples set by the Hawaiian Civic Clubs in social and political engagement and recently the Aha Kiole Council provides natural resource management through the division of representation by Ahupua`a. This concept was supported by WESPAC to bring all levels of community to be involved in resource management to help with policy recommendations to NOAA.

OHA'S INTERNAL AFFAIRS has a CEO/Administrator position created by past CEO Naumu, with more power then the trustees that goes unaccountable to anyone. Let's change that; let's create a community collective outside of OHA that will be in a closer and more connected position to the CEO, so that our community can hold him accountable. Let's stop the shrinking of OHA, which has become a small circle of decision makers, let's start expanding and enlarging that circle by to returning to the many committees within OHA as it was in the pre-CEO days.

Mahalo for your time and support in my efforts to be OHA Kauai Trustee. These are my humble observations, and while many good people work for OHA, I do believe that OHA's internal affairs and the political foundation is failing us. I hope we can work together and make these changes.

Hapai au, hapai oe, i luna kakou!
I lift, you lift, together we rise!

Malama pono, Jackie Kahookele Burke

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