Hearings for Ceded Lands

Aloha mai kākou,

We previously mentioned that there would be A hearing on Wednesday, February 4 with the House Committee on Hawaiian Affairs for the "ceded" lands bill. There is one hearing for the state House and another hearing for the state Senate.


HOUSE HEARING
Information sent to us from Representative Mele Carroll's office yesterday indicates that the hearing will be at 9 am, on Wednesday February 4, in Conference Room 329 at the Capitol.

The House Bill related to the "ceded" lands moratorium is HB 1667. Click here to read House Bill 1667.

HB 1667 seems to be the second item on the committee's agenda. After this bill passes the House Hawaiian Affairs Committee, it will then go to the House Water, Land and Ocean Resources Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and then to Finance.

Another House Bill also introduced by Mele Carroll is HB 1805, which has been described as "prohibiting the disposition in fee simple of ceded lands." It has been referred to the same committees as HB 1667.


SENATE HEARING
If you click here, you can watch the January 28, 2009, legislative Hawaiian Caucus press conference. At that press conference, Senator Clayton Hee mentioned that he and four of the Native Hawaiian senators in the caucus proposed a full-moratorium bill. This Senate Bill (SB 1085) will also be discussed in a Senate Committee hearing (the Senate Committee on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs)

The Senate Committee Hearing is also scheduled for Wednesday at 2:45 PM in Conference Room 229. This Bill will then go to the Senate Judiciary and Government Operations Committee.

Supporters of these bills can (AND SHOULD) submit testimony online by CLICKING HERE.

Legislative Hawaiian Caucus, postcards

Today was an awesome day and very inspiring. Prior to the 10am press conference for the Legislative Hawaiian Caucus, there was a meeting with different leaders from various Hawaiian organizations. I donʻt doubt that there will be future meetings.

LEGISLATIVE HAWAIIAN CAUCUS
Anyway, the Legislative Hawaiian Caucus Press Conference today was great! Surprisingly, it was about an hour, or slightly longer and the media stayed for most of it. Included at the bottom of this e-mail will our statement to the press. Representative Mele Carroll, leader of the caucus discussed the 10 bills that caucus members are supporting. Rep. Carroll briefly described each individual bill. The tenth and last bill she discussed was the "ceded" lands moratorium bill. There was a good number of people in attendance. There were not enough chairs for audience members and people crowded near the door standing to hear the statements during the press conference.

Anyway, check out the video below to listen to some of the statements from the Legislative Hawaiian Caucus.


POSTCARDS
Mahalo to Uncle Walter and Aunty Audrey Kawaa for their contribution to our efforts. The Kawaaʻs donated 100 postcard stamps that will support our Makawalu Initiative. The Makawalu initiative is our attempt to give our supporters a voice to their elected legislators through the use of postcards. To date, we have mailed out nearly 600 postcards, signed by Hawaii residents and citizens, to their elected officials. Today we mailed out 74 postcards.

If you know 20 people (family, friends, neighbors and/or co-workers) who want to put their names on postcards to tell their elected officials to protect the ceded lands by passing moratorium laws, let us know by e-mailing us at kupuaina@gmail.com and weʻll make arrangements to get those postcards to you.


KUPUʻAINA PRESS STATEMENT
The Kupuʻaina Coalition, an organization led by current University of Hawaii law students and recent law school graduates, is supportive of the proposed full moratorium on the sale of ceded lands. The Coalition believes that, given the state’s history of public policy towards both the public land trust and its relationship with Native Hawaiians in addition to our State Supreme Court’s January 31, 2008 ruling, the moratorium is appropriate and consistent with Hawaiʻi state law.

A moratorium on the sale of ceded lands is a re-affirmation of the Hawaii Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs v. Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii. The introduction of a moratorium bill, on the sale of ceded lands, is also consistent with statements made by the Attorney General Mark Bennett, in addition to statements made in the State Supreme Court’s ruling.

- Honolulu Advertiser (11/23/08) the Lingle Administration believed, and continues to believe, that the claims that Native Hawaiians have should be addressed through the legislative process — through the Legislature and the Congress . . . but not in the courts. - Mark Bennett

- January 31, 2008 [T]he OHA plaintiffs admit that the ultimate resolution of the [N]ative Hawaiian claims must be through the political processes, and it is actively engaged in these processes. But this struggle for justice will be futile if the assets in dispute [i.e., the ceded lands] no longer exist when a solution is found. [T]he plaintiffs are not seeking a judicial resolution of the underlying claim for a return of lands, but [are] rather asking the judiciary to protect the trust assets while the dispute is being resolved by the political branches. - The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court

The Kupuʻaina Coalition organizers are also aware that a good number of Hawaiʻi residents have begun to inform their elected legislators (both Senators and Representatives) by mailing in postcards expressing their desire to have the “ceded” lands protected through moratorium laws. It is our hope that our elected legislators will take heed of their constituents' voices and act accordingly.

Additional information regarding the ceded lands case and the effort to protect the ceded lands can be found at www.stopsellingcededlands.com E-mail can be sent to kupuaina@gmail.com.

Press conference on ceded lands moratorium, and we're presenting to the legislative Native Hawaiian Caucus

PRESS CONFERENCE!
Tomorrow (Wednesday) there will be a press conference at 10:00 am. Originally the idea was to have the press conference by the Queen Lili'uokalani statue. The meeting has now been changed to room 423 in the capitol. If you're planning on coming to the press conference, I recommend checking our twitter updates to the left side of our blog or by going to our twitter page to see if there are any last minute room changes. If there are any room changes we'll be sure to post those changes immediately through twitter. We're going to try and live-stream it on our website.

LEGISLATIVE HAWAIIAN CAUCUS


Representative Mele Carroll, the legislator credited with reactivating the legislative Hawaiian caucus, has asked Kupu‘āina Coalition organizers to speak with the members of the Hawaiian caucus. This discussion is currently scheduled to take place this Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 1pm. We've been told that this will take place in room 423 as well. We'll be sure to update twitter if there are any room chages. We will try to live-stream this on our website also.

We encourage supporters to come to both events on Wednesday and Thursday. Visit us here for updates.