His Statement

Aloha ‘Aina

I am concerned for the life of our islands. Our economy is at war with our natural resources. Unsustainable economics are killing the goose that lays our golden eggs, depleting the corpus of the trust, destroying our mother, neglecting our kuleana to Haloa. The disappearance of our wildlife and traditional plants from our forests has caused us to be the endangered species capital of the world.

We can no longer drink the waters in our streams. The ‘opae, hihiwai and o’opu in our streams are gone. Corporations are diverting rivers away from our traditional food production uses in our taro lands and fishponds. Corporate industrialized development and farming are turning our lands into chemical laden dust bowls, which run into the ocean and cover our reefs. Our major source of food along the shoreline such as ‘opihi, ahukihuki, limus, crabs, shrimp, lobster and fish are all but gone. Our state legislature and governor are beginning to support the wrong side in this war on our natural resources.

OHA can provide leadership and resources, by tapping into its 2,000 years of indigenous knowledge, to help solve Hawaii’s problems of food security, climate change, self-sufficiency and resource management. We need effective ecosystem-based management plans for all of our vital natural resources based on the proven values of the ahupua’a, kapu system, sharing, eliminating waste, adaptive management, and ecological engineering. Aloha ‘aina is a matter of our survival.

Sovereignty

We need to deal with the unresolved and un-relinquished sovereignty of Hawaii. In 1893, the United States supported and helped to overthrow the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii with an illegal resolution. These illegal acts cannot be the foundation upon which we build the future for our children. It is like building our house on sand. OHA needs to educate and organize the Hawaiian people and build our nation from the bottom up. Our Ali’i Trusts need to lokahi and broaden their scope of responsibility by providing leadership for the well being and betterment of the Hawaiian people. I want to bring my skills and experience to help Hawaii and its people, and to malama our future generations.

Mahalo nui.