Kupu‘āina Live! Webcast #15

Webisode #15 2003-03-23 Kupu‘āina Live!

In today's Kupu‘āina Live! We explain why the recent SuperFerry ruling isn't something to necessarily worry about in drafting "ceded" lands legislation. We also talk about what we consider to be a "sneaky" change in the language of SB 1677, that most people don't know about.




Mahalo for your support.

House Bill 1667 and Senate Bill 1085 pass out of committees today.

At 9am this morning, the House Committee on Hawaiian Affairs had a hearing on a number of bills including House Bill 1667 and heard testimony. The first person to give Testimony was the Attorney General Mark Bennett. In the photo to the left you can see Committee Chair Representative Mele Carroll, to her left is Committee Vice-Chair Representative Maile Shimabukuro, and to the left of Maile is Representative Gene Ward. Attorney General Mark Bennett was the first to give testimony. Shortly after him, University of Hawai'i law professor Jon Van Dyke (and OHA attorney) provided oral testimony as well while countering comments made by Mark Bennett. The committee brought the two opposing attorneys back together with Clyde Namu'o (OHA Administrator) for some questions. If you watch the brief 3 minute video below, you'll hear Representative Gene Ward describe the debate between these two as a Lincoln Douglas debate.

At any rate, House Bill 1667 passed the Hawaiian Affairs Committee unanimously without any changes to the language of the bill.

A good number of people submitted testimony for House Bill 1667. You can read the testimony by clicking here. If you click here, you can see the "late" testimony.

---

WATER, LAND, AGRICULTURE AND HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Today at 2:45, Senator Clayton Hee called the hearing of the Water, Land, Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs Committee to order. To the right is a photo with Committee Chair Senator Clayton Hee and Vice-Chair Senator Jill Tokuda. The hearing included a discussion on Senate Bill 1085 that provides a moratorium on the sale of ceded lands.
The Attorney General Mark Bennett provided testimony again first. Attorney Sherry Broder, the "lead" attorney for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs also gave testimony. Republican Senator Fred Hemmings asked some very "interesting" questions of both Sherry Broder and former Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Chairman Kali Watson. Despite Senator Hemmings questions, the committee passed Senate Bill 1085. Unlike its House Bill counter-part however, SB 1085 was passed with amendments.

Watch the Vote

There were some younger generation folks out there today who also gave oral testimony to the committee.
- Brandee Aukai (and her two keiki),
- Kelly Anne Beppu, and
- Kanoe D. Enos.

Brandee, Kelly Anne, and Kanoe are graduate students at the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work. All three social work students also submitted written testimony. Click here to read written testimony. To read the "late" testimony, click here.

---

We need everyone to both call and e-mail this guy!


This is Senator Brian Taniguchi. Senator Taniguchi is the Chairperson for the Judiciary and Government Operations Committee.

We need Senator Taniguchi to have a committee hearing on Senate Bill 1085, which is a moratorium bill on ceded lands. We need a committee hearing on Senate Bill 1085 by February 20, 2009 but no later than February 27.

You can call Senator Taniguchi at 586-6460. E-mail can be sent to sentaniguchi@capitol.hawaii.gov

Phone calls and e-mails should be in a civil and polite tone. The first sentence in an e-mail should read, "Please have a hearing on Senate Bill 1085 by February 20, 2009" or "I request a hearing on Senate Bill 1085 before the end of the month.")

If you do not know what to say in a phone call, click here to get a sample phone script.

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.

72 more postcards mailed out, t-shirts info,

I picked up 72 postcards today from a well-known Hawaiian organization and dropped off about 370 postcards to get signed. These postcards, hopefully, will eventually make its way to members of various Hawaiian Civic clubs. Mahalo nui to those of you who responded to our e-mail update offering to send/donate postcard postage stamps to help us in our efforts. Those contributions are greatly appreciated, and as I'm sure you know, there's not much else we can do with postage stamps (unlike money) so please feel free to donate postage stamps and rest assured that we're using those postcards stamps only to give a voice to Native Hawaiians and non-Native Hawaiians who wish to let their elected legislators know that they want the "ceded" lands protected.


ONLINE PETITION
Dr. Trisha Kehaulani Watson, has created an online petition for people to sign. You can sign it by going to the following URL http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/44?m=66d429cd#sign. It doesn't look like you need a facebook account to sign the petition either.

T-SHIRTS

The Pa'i Foundation is also selling the popular red HEWA! t-shirts. You can buy the HEWA! shirts at the following website, https://paifoundation.ejoinme.org/MyPages/HEWATshirt/tabid/127188/Default.aspx.

You can also buy the Ku I Ka Pono - Protect Ceded Lands Shirt also by going to https://paifoundation.ejoinme.org/MyPages/ProtectHawaiianRights/tabid/123495/Default.aspx


KUPU'AINA LIVE!
Don't forget to watch our live-streaming webcast today at 5:30pm.

Mailed more postcards. "Ceded" Lands Informational Session w/ Mark Bennett, Clayton Hee, John Waihee, Bill Meheula and Bill Tam

Yesterday we mailed off 156 postcards that will be delivered to the State capitol tomorrow. Or at least it should reach the capitol by Monday, January 26, 2009, and reach the various legislators they sent to. At the bottom of this blog entry is a list (by last name) of people whose postcards were mailed out yesterday. If you see your name on the list, we encourage you to call your legislator and follow up with them.






We're proud to announce that we now have complete video footage of our January 7, 2009, "Ceded" Lands Informational Session that had the following panelists: Attorney General Mark Bennett, Hawai'i State Senator Clayton Hee, (former) Governor John Waihe'e, and attorneys Bill Meheula and Bill Tam. The event was moderated by Neil Hannahs.

You can watch the video from the "Ceded" Lands Informational Session below. The video is long and may take a while to load. You can also watch it by going to http://tinyurl.com/dx9rpe

---

The list of names of people whose postcards were mailed out yesterday (Saturday) is as follows: (please call your legislator to follow-up)
Ah nee, Edward, Aiona-Wilson, Kiele, Amona, Lydia, Arce, Yun (?), Baker, Mary, Branco, Mikela, Campbell, Pono, Carvalho-Aweau, Kawena, Coito, Wayne, Cox, Sara, Cuba, Kekoa, Dela Cruz, Abbie, Derit, Beverly, Doane, Jocelyn, Donlin, Amanda, Donn, Kawika, Ebanez, Darcy, Ebanez, John, Egger, Chad, Egger, Roger, Garces, Micah, Gohier, Damien, Herndon, Sandra, Hiapo, Kalani, Ho, Kenneth Jr., Ho, Roseline, Ho-Lastimosa, Ilima, Honda, Clarice, Ingram, Pamela, Johnson, Keone, Kaha, Aleysia-Rae, Kahiapo, Dorothea, Kahoalii, Kaiolu, Kahuanui, Ekela, Kalima, Haywood, Kamakawiwoole, Douglas, Kauanoe-Sagapolutele, Tippany, Kaupu, Leivallyn, Kealoha, Donavan, Kekipi, A Lehua, Kema, Paul, Keonaonaona-Ah Ching, Wallace, Kon, Stephanie K, Laikona, Glenn P, leu cordy, Dominique, Lincoln, Lancelot Haili, Long, sarah, Lyons, Daniel, Macomber, Kahiwa, Macomber, Steven, Manoi-Cuban, Leialii, Manuwai, Kaiulani, Marfil, Sanoe, Matsuura, Aubrey, McAleavey, Margaret, McMillan, Mary, Mei-En Chen, Hilary, Midado, Victoria, Mikkelsen, Patricia, Mora, Kealoha, Morgan, Donna, Nahinu, Laverne, Nakama, Nedrick, Nakamoto, Alberta, Naone, Shawn, Nihipali-Day, Nohea, Novikoff, Kahili, Obrey, Steve, Olpa, Eri, Ondayog, George, Onekea, Kaui, Paaoao-Bowman, Jeff, Prade, Nicoleta, Roldan, Keanuenue, Roynesdal, John, Ruffin, Madison, Salangdren, Noriko, Saranillio, Dean, Seeger, Leinaala, Serrano, Joshua, Seto, Kaohu, Solomon, Shanelle-Leilani, Souza, Joana, Sproat, Kapua, Stevens, Jan, Tavares, Sherilyn, Tim, Alexa, Tui, H. Hanakia, Unu, Malia, Uyeoka, Cady, Waialeale, Uluhani, Weems, Angela, Wendt, Edward, Wendt, Mahealani, Wilcox, Gordon, Williams, Pamela, Wilson, Kalani, Wond, Royce, Wong, Kehaulani, Yasuhara, Kaina, and Zuern, John

MAHALO NUI FOR YOUR SUPPORT!