A Good Day for Hawaiians?

The title of today’s post is a variation of a question that one of my Tweeps (Twitter friends) asked me in response to some of my Tweets.  Her original question was, “A good day to be Hawaiian?“  Keep in mind that Twitter has a 140 character limit, thus the short message.  This was last week Wednesday, when two major pieces of legislation that are important to Native Hawaiians advanced:

• At the Federal level, S.381, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009 (which is affectionately known as the “Akaka Bill”) was introduced in Congress.  The bill creates a process for Federal Recognition of Native Hawaiians.  It has proven to be widely misunderstood, misrepresented, and bitterly divisive within the Native Hawaiian community.
• At the State level, HB1667, Relating to Ceded Lands passed out of the House Hawaiian Affairs Committee.  This is the Ceded Lands moratorium bill that would temporarily ban the sale of any Ceded Lands.  It specifically prohibits the Board of Land and Natural Resources from selling, exchanging, or otherwise alienating ceded lands in the public land trust.  As much as the Akaka Bill has been divisive, this bill seems to be a unifier, drawing support from all over the Native Hawaiian community, including those who oppose the Akaka Bill.

So with both of those things going for Native Hawaiians that day, why would my short answer to my friend be, “No, it’s not“?  Simple: I think many Native Hawaiians and our supporters would feel far better and have a truly good day if we didn’t have to defend Hawaiian Rights, but could assert and reaffirm them.  Don’t get me wrong, with those two pieces of legislation, I am encouraged by that news.  However, there is still Docket No. 07-1372, the Hawaii v. OHA Ceded Lands case for which the U. S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on February 25 at 10 am.

In short, I think it will be a good day for the Native Hawaiian people when we are far past these battles and moving on to unifying our people.  But, as a Native Hawaiian (and a native Hawaiian – I’ll explain the difference later) I think any day that I’m “still vertical” (as one of my friends is fond of saying) is a good day to be Hawaiian.  Now, you have a good day and a great start to your week.

Mahalo!

Disclaimer:  The views expressed here are mine and mine alone.  While I am employed by and affiliated with organizations and individuals, permission has neither been asked nor granted to write on the topics discussed here.

Note:  Today’s post is being sent through the Posterous service, which I am testing out.  If all goes well, you should see this with no problems.  If not, I won’t be using this service anymore.