Strengthening Kanaka (Native Hawaiian) input on burial councils and approving the budget for OHA to expand/improve its support of Kanaka Oiwi (Action Needed by Monday 1/27/2025)

What's the short version of this issue?

OHA has two bills (SB268 and SB269) that the Hawai'i State Legislature will be hearing testimonies on tomorrow (1/27/2025), and has outlined in an Instagram post what these bills mean, which I've copied/pasted below:

Why do I care about this, and why do I think you should too?

SB268 - Kanaka Oiwi have been burying Iwi Kupuna (remains of Hawaiian ancestors) for time immemorial. They didn't always mark the grave sites and, in fact, the more important that person was, the less likely those final resting places had any evidence (including those who might know about them). As development projects proliferated, so too did the scenarios when unmarked burial sites were unearthed. In response to this, Hawaii Burial Councils were established through (HRS) § 6E, and have been tasked with determining what cultural, historic, or other kapu (taboo) impacts there might be when Iwi Kupuna are disturbed. Until today, I didn't realize that up to 3 seats of Island Burial Councils were designated for large landowners and developers. This bill--SB268--seeks to remove those landowner/developer seats, and I am very much in support of this because it will ensure that Kanaka Oiwi have greater input on Burial Councils.

SB269 - This is a bit more straight-forward of a bill. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) was established in 1978 and is an agency focused on supporting Kanaka Oiwi (Native Hawaiians). It's ultimately just a bill to approve its operating budget, which OHA is requesting an increasing for to adjust for inflation and address some key priorities of the organization, like expanding their staff and programs, increasing the tools they use to evaluate their work to make decisions about what OHA and its programs should be focused on/allocate its resources to. But, I'm also excited about this bill because I'm a data nerd and I saw that specific goals of this bill are to build better (and public!) evaluative tools, which will help tell the story of Kanaka Maoli and of OHA's impact.

What actions can be taken?

You (yes, YOU! even if you're not Native Hawaiian or even live in Hawai'i!) can submit testimony through the Hawaii State Legislature website. You have to create an account (it took me less than 2 minutes), and then (once logged in) you can search for/submit testimony for specific bills. Here’s a helpful video about how to do that.

Template for testimony

SB268/HB409 (Island Burial Councils)

Hello,

My name is <Insert Your Name> and I live in <Insert Your City/State>. I'm submitting testimony today in support of SB268/HB409. I frankly was a bit alarmed to learn that there were seats designated for development/large landowner interests at all, as this seems like it poses a conflict of interest. I believe, as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has indicated, that this bill will ultimately strengthen cultural perspectives on Island Burial Councils by eliminating the seats currently designated for people in development and large landowner interests. Please vote yes on SB268/HB409.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

<Your Name> SB269 (OHA Budget)

Hello,

My name is <Insert Your Name> and I live in <Insert Your City/State>. I'm submitting testimony today in support of SB269.

As the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has explained, this bill to approve OHA's budget increase will allow for:

• Multiple new staff positions which will allow OHA to implement their strategic plan (Mana i Mauli Ola) and expand its programs to support Lahui.

• Expanded use of data-based decision-making. Data is crucial, not only for understanding what's working well in a program, but also for understanding community needs (including those that OHA will address in areas of health, housing, education, and economic development) and adjusting organization/program focus and allocating resources accordingly. This will ultimately make OHA's work more strategic and effective.

• By developing--and making public--a dashboard of key/relevant data, OHA will be able to better tell the story of Kanaka Oiwi, specifically what the greatest challenges, successes, and opportunities are that they're experiencing. This will ultimately create greater transparency and improve public trust in OHA's work. 

Please vote yes on SB269.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

<Your Name>

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