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Aloha State Daily and the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center.

The primaries are over.

The votes are counted.

And now we look ahead to the general elections this November.

We will hear from the candidates vying to become the Maui and the Oʻahu Trustees on the board of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Here, what they believe are the biggest issues facing Native Hawaiians and what they plan on doing if elected.

Tonight's live broadcast and live stream of insights on PBS Hawaiʻi.

Start now.

Aloha and welcome to insights on PBS Hawaiʻi.

I'm Lauren Day.

Voters have an opportunity to help shape the leadership and direction of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

OHA is a public agency dedicated to improving the conditions of Native Hawaiians, and all Hawai'i residents can vote in OHA statewide Board of Trustees elections.

Tonight, we'll hear from the candidates seeking the Maui and Oʻahu seats.

We look forward to your participation in tonight's show.

As a reminder, you can call in or email your questions, and you'll find a live stream of this program at pbshawaii.org and on the PBS Hawai'i YouTube page.

Now to our guests in studio Carmen Hulu Lindsey is the current trustee representing the island of Maui.

She was elected to OHA in 2012.

She is the owner of Lindsey Realty and Kahulu Productions, a Hawaiian entertainment business.

She is a former administrator of Maui County's Land Use and Codes Division.

Kalei Akaka was elected to represent O'ahu as an OHA trustee in 2018.

She is the vice chair for the Committee on Beneficiary Advocacy and Empowerment.

She formerly worked in the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Keʻeaumoku Kapu is a Lāhainā based cultural practitioner and community advocate running for the Maui seat on the board.

He is the chair of ʻAha Moku O Maui, which advises on traditional Hawaiian resource management and stewardship.

He's also the executive director of the nonprofit Nā ʻAikāne o Maui.

And Hinaleimoana Wong is a cultural practitioner and community leader running for the seat on the board.

She is an award winning creative and filmmaker and a cultural ambassador for the Hawaiian Council.

Thank you to each of you for being here tonight.

I'm going to start with first question.

We'll go around the circle so everyone has a chance to answer.

But what do you believe is the single most important issue that OHA should tackle over the next four years, and why?

I'm going to start with you.

Well, I think some of the top challenges that we have had through time is being able to get the revenue for our chronic government lands or kingdom chronic government lands at the legislature with the share that's been a long time lift, as well as moving things along when it comes to our ʻāina in, and as well as just having overall aloha and unity within the board and having a working relationship that is suitable between the administrator as well as the board of trustees, and what always is the challenge is the communication internally within OHA and externally, and how we're able to best interact with community and be able to advocate as best as we can at the legislature in all levels of government.

I think we'll just go around maybe this way clockwise.

Hina, what for you would be the most important issue.

I do agree with Kalei that it is essential for the Board of Trustees and those front facing public elected officials that are responsible for issues that impact the Hawaiian community.

There's a plethora of them, but no matter what issue there is, number one, if there is no ability within the board itself to engage in a manner that can instill hope in the community, I would anticipate that any issue can bring conflict.

It can bring great contentious moments.

But at the end of the day, there needs to be representation that can not only galvanize the trustee level, galvanize everyone else at that, are employed by OHA and bring community together.

So for me, that's one of the most important things before any of the other issues can really be talked about, because that's that's key.

And I think it over the course of the next 15 minutes, we'll have time to hopefully dive into those issues.

Hulu for you, what would be the most important issue to Tuckahoe?

Well, I'd like to add on to to Hina and Kalei.

One thing about the Board of trustees, if we have dissension, it's only for that issue.

But when we have a meeting involving all other issues, we come together because you have to have that level of intelligence to be able to have the right discussions and think first that we're there because of our beneficiaries, not because of each other.

We don't owe each other loyalty.

We're there to think for ourselves.

And we do.

We we come together.

We've had dissension recently, but it's only on that issue.

We are we are able to come together on budget matters, on helping the community like the the storm and and the the the Kona lose the Maui fires.

You know, we we came together, immediately.

So I feel very confident that we can work through it.

Okay.

Would you agree add anything else to the you know what everyone said?

Well, you know, throughout this past year, because of the line of recovery, I learned a lot working with FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers, networking with a lot of the mainland contractors was literally complicated for us in line because we believe in grassroot community coming together and resolving a lot of the solutions that we're dealing with.

So one of the most important components before I, I settled on the native one is thought Preservation Council.

That was an advisory to the Board of trustees.

I served in that capacity for nine years.

I'm hoping there is some way on how we can bring that commission back, so we can be more transparent on a lot of the issues that we're facing from the broader perspective, from the community level, it's really important to engage with those communities as well as nonprofit organizations, to kind of help them be successful so they can go out into the community and do a lot more.

And I think as the Maui trustee, we can network that things with working with a lot of the nonprofit organizations that right now are really doing it, especially when it comes to providing provisions.

When the government was in prepared, the community was prepared to make sure that we fed the communities.

So you mentioned Lāhainā fires, particularly for Maui residents, native Hawaiian, Maui residents.

What is something that you feel OHA is not doing that it should do to help those residents affected, and who will give you a chance to respond as well?

Well, I think it's really important that like when we got involved, we went to literally knocked on every door or, you know, we set up one of the biggest resource hubs in Kāʻanapali, catering to over 9000 people and having that support mechanism through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to give us that opportunity to even more of sustainability when it comes to feeding the people, because that first year of complicated.

But, you know, the community came together.

We worked with each other.

We provided provision that came from, you know, a lot of the donation that came out from a lot of different unions.

So hopefully we can really get, the officer affairs to be even way more engaged into providing for the general populace.

I know it's a native Hawaiian initiative, but when we're dealing with multi-generational families, who is Native Hawaiian?

So bigger picture Hulu when it comes to Lāhainā recovery or just kind of summarize repeat the question.

Is there anything that you feel OHA is not doing that it should do to help Native Hawaiians on Maui?

Well, I think that I was able to convince our board that we needed to help.

So we did.

The Board of Trustees, approved $5 million for our Hawaiian people that lost their homes or even the renters.

We were able to, put that aside, and, and, we had a we we had an opportunity to our office to work with a gem.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with Jim.

Jim is a worldwide, entity that helps the destructive areas, and I believe they're in the Ukraine right now.

And he came to Maui and nobody would listen to him.

So he came to see me by chance.

Somebody told him, oh, go and see the OHA trustees.

So he came to see me and I really listened to him.

And it was so wonderful that he was able to give Thursday of dollars to the displaced people to be able to rent their temporary homes.

You know, you don't have to pay back that money just giving.

And then he opened a hub as well, here, in Napoli.

And they started giving out food.

So we, we were in the position to bring a person in to help.

But, you know, we don't go around bragging.

And, and I was very happy to, to meet the gentleman.

But the money's the difference with the money.

We were able to give them out to the people in their hands.

It didn't go to a nonprofit.

And then they wait a whole year for the money to come to them.

It was my desire at the time.

I asked the board permission to to give the money directly to the people, and we were able to give just, just monies that they could use immediately, like $10,000 for the the people that lost their homes and even the people that rented homes, they lost their, their home, the the occupation, the occupation, the the I'm sorry, I'm occupancy of their home.

We they did and all their possessions.

You know and that's got a lot of money, beds and what have you.

So, we were happy to give them $4,000, and we just cut a check in the OHA office and mailed it to every single Hawaiian.

And we advertise an advertiser so that, you know, they could respond to us.

I'll let you jump in and then a little bit and mahalo, mahalo Trustee Lindsay for that.

When that funds was allocated, I think it was great that it didn't go through streamlining to another organization to provide for the general community, people that own homes.

Yeah, they got probably 4000 people that rented main thing that had the native Hawaiian blood.

They would get anywhere between $1,000 or more.

You know, I think that, you know, for me, looking at a lot of the issues that we're dealing with, a lot of our families couldn't afford the permitting.

So when it came to the prayer meeting, a lot of family got a lot of them left.

They went they went to the mainland, they sold.

They sold their properties.

So there was some way of utilizing that funds to at least pay for the permitting and the environmental impact assessment that needs to be done.

Once people rebuild their homes, they would have made things a lot more easier for those families.

So just something to think about.

Yeah.

General question for the four of you just to be switch things up, you know, start with you and then we'll go around.

You know, OHA was founded in the 70s.

Where do you feel it is succeeding and also where it's falling short.

In the 1970s?

Office of Hawaiian Affairs emerged out of a time which is often referred to as the Hawaiian Renaissance.

This was during time of great conflict when it comes to the Island of Love.

But then with the birth of Hōkūleʻa voyaging canoe that breathed much life into our community, it revitalized culture.

It gave.

It became the impetus for language, culture, hula to really thrive.

And from that, there were so many other things that followed.

Where we are today, there are certain issues that are still very much in the same color, the same schematic.

But now the stakes have changed because the generation of the 70s, our.

My grandparents age, my parents age were the movers and shakers of that time and times truly have have been shifted.

So we need to be able to look at some of our issues that still stem from historic injustices done to our community and the damage that it has done in order to really look at from 2026 forward, how can we address these issues?

Because now we see the onslaught of attacks that come against the Hawaiian community, and I believe that's one of the main impetus for me to put myself forward.

Police had not.

Yes.

Did you add to that?

Yes.

During the time of the creation of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has been much history that has happened since then, and our mission is to better the conditions for our native Hawaiian people.

And that's that is generational lifts that we're having to do collectively.

And I not as I what Hina had mentioned is some of what has happened over time.

It's beautiful to see our people come together when it comes to various issues, and we have been challenged as an indigenous people when it comes to our rights, when it comes to our customary traditions, when it comes to the lands that we come to call our home.

I had mentioned earlier at the legislature what is referred to as a public land trust.

These are also known as the ceded lands of the Public Land Trust, and these lands are Hawaiian Kingdom, Crown and government lands and the pro rata share that we are supposed to receive that was mentioned and is mandated according to the Constitution, is to receive the full 20%.

However, in our due diligence at the Office Hawaiian Affairs, we have found that we're getting closer to 3 to 4, maybe 5%.

And in order for us to fulfill our mission and continue our strategic plan, it makes it rather challenging for us to do that without the proper resources and funding through the legislature.

And it's always a lift when it comes to being able to advocate, and we are always stronger when we have our community alongside us.

Those who are Native Hawaiian and those that are have the aloha for Native Hawaiian people.

Okay.

Where is OHA succeeding and falling short?

Well.

1970.

I think I was about seven years old, but as soon as about 80, 84, 85, I got involved with Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi and kind of worked me up.

And what really woke me up was the conditions for Native Hawaiians under the Sea Land Trust.

Those monies were supposed to be meant for health, housing as well as education.

We don't know where that money went, but I know it's being streamlined and being, you know, utilized in some way.

And I'm hoping that, you know, because of that, we got to go back to the sources pertaining to white or was formed from the beginning for the betterment condition of Native Hawaiians.

Now, if those monies are utilized correctly and we can advance our sustainability on food resources, we can we can broaden our horizon on education.

That's really important.

Yeah, we can prepare our community even more efficiently because I've learned that within these past three years, we can be the beacon using all the people of all with just that mindset of that city land revenue that was meant for the Native Hawaiian conditions and advocate for that.

I've been advocating for it for a long time.

Hulu.

What would you like to say about areas where OHA is succeeding and also falling short when it comes to bettering conditions for Native Hawaiians?

Well, I think we are trying very hard to improve the conditions.

And again, it's based on the kind of monies that we should be getting and we're not getting.

And Kalei is correct in saying that we're getting about 4 to 5%.

And, you know, we've been trying to impress how important that is, because the monies we get from the Public land Trust is for our people to to create, different programs to lift their lives up because we have, you know, we have a high percentage in the prison, we have high percentage with health, with diabetes, heart conditions.

So all of those areas have to be part of this, helping with the with the monies that we get from from our public land trust.

But we're not getting that amount.

So fortunately in the last session, sort of we got the message that we should do a total inventory of the public land trust, and only then will they believe that 20% of that is, in fact $80 million or thereabouts.

We're getting 21.5 million.

Can you imagine what we can do with that kind of additional money?

And what the thing about it is, when we help our people, that's taking the burden off the state.

They don't have to take care of our people if we're taking care of them.

If OHA got that full amount, what would the four of you want to do with that money?

Specifically, I would want to increase everything in in the in our.

Our our education, health.

Alina, we can we can make a big impact on our ʻāina and whatever our goals are in OHA today, we can expand on it with that kind of money.

I think, you know, if anything, we need to be more advocates with the Department of Hawaiian homelands.

So to figure out how we can more embrace each other, goals and objectives and opportunities.

So we're dealing with an organization that deals with a liquid measurement of Native Hawaiians of 50%.

We need to think a little bit more further.

I think now the liquid measurement changed, but the turnkey still has to be 50%, but it can be passed on to the 25% less.

I think we got to focus more on that, so we can know that we have directives to go to the legislation and ask for that public funds to make sure that we're hitting those points in our community to provide for better conditions for our native Hawaiians.

Clay.

You know, if OHA had more money, what would you be spending it on?

Well, I just wanted to touch more on what I had mentioned earlier and what Hulu had mentioned on is at the legislature, we were capturing Linda Lingle’s administration during that time at 15.1, $15.1 million.

And I'm very proud to say in our leadership, collectively, we were able to raise it up to 21.5, and many doubted that that would even be possible with the funding challenges that they had at the legislature.

However, in our due diligence with the data we provided, we were able to lift that and what she had touched on, that $80 million.

When we had done our audits, we found that that 20% is closer to 80 million.

And the reality of that is that was a few years back now.

So currently we would be far past the 80 million that we should be receiving.

And as well as the amount that we do not receive, that amount does not go away.

That goes into carry forward account.

However, it takes a bill at the legislature in order for legislators to release those funds to us in which we were successful.

At that time, when we lifted the cap from 15.1 million to 21.5, we also got a check for 64 million to make up for the years past that we weren't getting that amount.

And most recently, in this past legislative session, we were able to get the carry forward amount of $55 million when it comes to the federal cuts happening with the federal administration and so forth, and what we can do going forward.

It's always important for us to be able to be in community here, the needs and concerns and celebrations of our people, our native Hawaiian people, and be able to best sue what we can with what we have and further collaborate with other organizations in all levels of government to maximize on that funding and what we're able to do out in the community.

You know, would you add to that any any particular issue that you think OHA should be spending money on, if it had it?

Absolutely.

I'd like to touch upon the topic of housing.

And when it comes to the Department of Fine Homelands, I, for one, do not make that blood quantum.

And so unless our people have some serious discussions about not only changing that reality, but also to become our own financial lender within our own system, that does not require our people to literally become what our people struggle to not be.

In other words, the system that requires us to live and to to think and to exist in the way that fits that system.

If anyone who knows about buying a home or applying for any kind of loan, one of the greatest issues that we will always hear, especially from within the Department of Hawaiian homelands, is our Hawaiians do not get awarded a parcel unless they can afford the loan, and so great attention needs to be paid, and there needs to be a different level of tenacity to hold every stakeholder in that discussion, to ensure that they think beyond the parameters that have existed from the inception of OHA to now, to look far more stringently and and challenge the system.

Why is the system that's the norm now?

Why do we need to accept this system?

And we need to have a system that fits us according to how our people live, the cultural values and the cultural norms.

For example, in a system, we are forced to abandon living as a larger ʻohana because the majority of offerings are either, well, all single family.

And what is multi-generational family housing now is far out of the ballpark financially for our families to afford.

But nobody's taking a really good look at this, if I may.

Yeah.

Can I also read Michael's question because I think I have a feeling it's on.

It's on the same topic.

I have a feeling you're going to answer it and then, you know, everybody else.

Feel free to jump in.

But I want to read some of our viewer questions to Michael's asking, what can OHA do to help get more Hawaiian on land that they can call their own, since we are on the topic?

Okay, so I brought up that issue many times with the Department of Land and as a resource, the possibility of providing homes for Native Hawaiians of lesser than 50%.

And their question was, an agency such as OHA could provide that opportunity for Native Hawaiians of lesser blood quantum were required under 50%.

What about them?

So there's a division within our community, the 50% and the 49%.

What do we do with the 49%?

So now, if all could advocate for that even more, a trustee to advocate for that, to provide home for the lesser native Hawaiians, not the required 50%, but the lesser native Hawaiians, I think it would make.

A life a little bit more comfortable knowing that the agencies are definitely looking for the welfare of our future generation with the lesser blood.

Yes.

And if I may, my mother qualifies to receive a parcel, but my mother will be 80.

And what is the chance for her to be called in any reasonable time frame?

And at that point in time, if she was called while she's still alive, will I be able to immediately access the funding for for wherever it comes from that will adequately put me into a home, even if it was a small, modest home.

So the financial system that we are beholden to now, there is no accommodation, no consideration whatsoever, that fits the models of our families and the diversity of how we live, how we think and how we see our world.

Some of our families take care of multiple other family members.

When you put that kind of financial portfolio or profile, excuse me up for application for any home loan, you don't cut it.

I'd like to add, Dinah is correct in that, you know, I, I spoke with one of the ladies that gives the awards of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands lots or packages.

She told me that many times she's gone through a hundred Hawaiians because they cannot, they cannot qualify.

And I think because of that, they're trying to make changes in Hawaiian homes.

I, I sense that as I go to some of the award meetings in that they're, they're allowing, let's say, Hina’s mother to transfer her her application to Hina.

Hina don't have to buy it right now, but she may be if anything happens to her mama because her mama is aged.

She she's not going to lose that position on the on on the list.

And this is what they're doing Hawaiian homes.

And I was very grateful to see that, you know, and the other thing is that we are looking at how we can find the kind of monies, and this is what we were talking about in the public land trust, bulk of money where we can help our people with the down payment.

That's where they're stuck, you know, and so many people live from paycheck to paycheck.

So how can we help them?

We have to provide a venue, you know, some some kind of way for them to qualify for.

I don't want if I may, there's there's much that all has sent through the years when it comes to, providing up to $3 million annually and that is that has been a lot of money over to Hawaiian.

Yeah.

To our native, our department of Hawaiian homelands, as well as a, as a, as office affairs is active at the legislature during the open session and even off session in reviewing thousands of bills and proud to say what we do is constantly advocate when it comes to that quantum.

That's something that we have done through the years.

And when it comes to the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, when they receive that $600 million, that was during the time that Trustee Hulu and I were very active at the state legislature, and seeing how we can lift up the cap amount that we've been receiving, that was capped at 15.1.

However, when a number, a figure was thrown out in terms of how much we were, how much it would be good for the office to receive, 600 million was brought up.

However, that $600 million was then allocated to the Department of Hawaiian Homelands.

But all of that to say is that we as Native Hawaiian organizations, in order to fulfill our mission and our strategic plans, we need the funding from the legislature when it comes to our government lands and being able to get the full amounts that we are supposed to have in order to do what we are created to do.

But there are other programs that OHA has created from our program when it comes to down payments and so forth, and even just having conversations and meetings the last couple of weeks.

When it comes to what other options we have with the funding that we are provided with in order to look at how we can more.

So how's our Native Hawaiian people and what we can do legislatively to widen that conversation so that we can work collectively with our our governments?

Let's talk a little bit about education, our viewer, Tena says, and is asking one way to improve life for Native Hawaiians is to provide access to education for all Hawaiians at the highest level.

We cannot rely on schools.

How would the candidates help provide or pay for the education Hawaiian keiki deserve?

Anyone can jump in.

Yeah, we've worked on this for a while.

Ever since the act was formed in the legislation, the call for the council system and council system, we looked at the educational component and how we can bridge the gap with not just another little programs, the Native Hawaiian schools, but also the Department of Education, the private schools.

Yeah.

By incorporating traditional resource management within the fabric of educational component, because we're having a hard time getting students to the fishponds to teach them, you know, the methodology about fishpond actually getting them to do the work, even putting them in a patch, we hindered by liabilities from the Department of Education to just get the kids from the schools to go to one taro patch.

Well, they're not putting them on one of the canoes, teaching them celestial navigation, those kind of things.

We got a bridge, those basic understanding with our homeowner because it's rooted within their blood.

These are the kinds of things that can educate, bring education to a different level when it comes to the children of Hawai'i, a different, different kind of level.

The perpetuation of our culture is important for our children.

I believe that's what is saying.

Well, we do have the charter schools.

We have the Hawaiian charter schools that teach more of that, but we don't have enough charter schools.

For example, in Maui, we don't have a charter, a Hawaiian charter school at all where every other island has, you know.

So I think Maui is missing, but it's not easy to get teachers to, to teach.

And yes, coming out of the four of us on this table, I may have spent the longest in education at the community level.

I've taught in incarceration at Hālawa and OCCC.

Correctional institutions here on this island taught 13 years at local public charter school.

And I'm very grateful for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs having provided that supplemental funding.

However, there are elements that really get into the weeds and the nuances of the relationship that schools in general private schools, public schools, public charter schools and the Department of Education, all of those weeds really need to have some solid address that is backed by the the Board of trustees, as well as ensuring that we challenge what is currently considered or what currently constitutes as education.

That is right and good for our community.

Example, there are students, our young people that will tackle all of your should quote unquote traditional math, English, science, etc.

in just public education.

But then the charter schools taught us that you can have people getting into the tower patches, into fishing, into farming.

What does that teach us?

That teaches us that the system needs to be reviewed and needs to be challenged?

As to what exactly do we offer our students?

And I dare say that through no fault of our Hawaiian community, Hawaiian language, for example, through language we perpetuate culture.

But at the onset of the resurgence of culture and language, we went insular.

And that was sort of a natural thing for our community to do.

But if I have my way, I would ensure that all of our children in Hawaiʻi receive minimal level of education.

You can go anywhere in the world to countries that still have their language.

As a primary language, it doesn't matter what ethnicity you are.

So when we look at an Office of Hawaiian Affairs that now everybody can vote, I would like to think that everyone who comes to Hawaiʻi should want to avail themselves to learning some basic fundamentals that come through Hawaiian language, because that way it brings everyone who ends up coming here, which will get in, get us into account of worms.

But those who come here and those who are of here, the gap is far and wide depending on what day it is, and situation can get very challenging to mitigate.

But when you build, when you offer a bridge that helps to bring people closer, imagine what Hawaiʻi would be if more than just the Hawaiian community understood, what exactly does Aloha ʻĀina mean?

And how do we train up a different generation of people to love our land and honor and respect our culture?

Anything you would add to how we can help improve education for Native Hawaiians?

Yes, it comes down to advocacy and funding as well.

In 2023, up until recently, there were there was a bill or bills when it comes to our ‘Ōlelo makuahine and implementing that and being required in the public school systems, the conversation at the board, raised different topics in terms of how that would be wonderful to proliferate our language.

And then there are also comments when it comes to the challenges that students have just to graduate and continue on.

I'm proud to say as well, the Office of Mine Affairs has provided funding up to about $3 million annually in order to fill the gap in what the DOH hasn't been providing to our charter schools when it comes to our our Hawaiian immersion schools, and coming from a family that has been a part of, I can say firsthand the challenges of funding when it comes to school busses.

That's something that we've dealt with for decades where we have to fundraise as a family, as a collective, as a kula.

I also, when it came to the basics of having books and having texts where as families with the kumu, we would be in the hours after school hours where we're cutting the strips of paper and taping them down into the books, and so that the children would be provided that resource.

That is a basic, right, that other other classrooms are given in the English speaking classrooms.

And I think it's important for us to be continually to be funding.

And we've worked very closely with Taffy Wise and Kalo to be able to see the best ways in which we can best fund our charter schools and our Hawaiian immersion schools, and then also learning some nuances, too, that I didn't realize so recently that maybe the word charter is not the preferred way of being represented or being referred to.

And as these lands are, most of these schools are on our Hawaiian Kingdom, Crown and government lands.

The office Hawaiian Affairs does have a say when it comes to the rights and what is provided to our children on these school campuses, and when it comes to learning about our traditions, we're learning about our customs.

And yes, learning about through our language of who we are, our history, our customs, our traditions that can be taught in the low, that can be taught at at our fishponds.

It could be something that is incorporated from stem steam in all different types of ways.

And I have found that our schools throughout the state have been very creative in being able to incorporate that.

And we as office affairs, it's always lovely to be able to interact with the with the harmony and the kumu so we can best see how we can best within our means and abilities fund as we can with the budget that we have.

I'd like to say one more thing, and this is about teachers, and I've been very critical about this point.

I've brought this up to do leadership.

There have been aggressive programs that called teachers from the continent and bring outside teachers, and that's disturbing for me because we often hear our island people, Kānaka and other Carmina alike, say that the, the, the fabric of our community and the feel of Hawai'i is changing.

Well, part of the reason is you continue to dilute our our people's way of being and interacting the norms and you change it.

How?

By influencing the next generation.

So I would get behind an initiative to aggressively fund programs that will call teachers in every sector, but that give credence to pulling from here right now, there's there's not enough done to raise our people's desire to become teachers within our own community.

There's always this push to have everybody come from the outside.

And that's not even trying to be negative to them, but it's about home grown, home based.

And Hawaiʻi is my pico.

Hawaiʻi is my center of the world.

So anything and everything that we should be addressing, there are solutions here that are Hawaiʻi based.

So education, yeah, we can have a real discussion about that.

I'm sure we could probably do to add to that as well.

As recently in speaking with Kumu, we've had the the challenge of Kumu needing to have certain and education.

However, what is not being looked at is the vast experience that they have and the years of service and what they can provide.

That is more than just that palapala.

So I think that needs to be further reviewed and taken a more into consideration from the Doe standpoint.

And in our recent travel last years to Tahiti, we also learned that our cousins across the way have a are experiencing the same challenges when it comes to those from what's considered considered their continent, their mainland, and in France, where they have those that are coming to to teach.

When it comes to the Tahitian culture and language, however, they're not they're not used to to it.

So they might not have that same understanding that those that are born and raised, or those that have truly divulged himself into the dedication when it comes to learning our language and culture, to be able to provide that properly to our mana.

So I think that really needs to be looked at and reconsidered.

We time is tight.

We have a lot of viewer questions.

Do you think we can attempt kind of rapid fire answers to get through a couple of topics?

Doctor Stan from East Oʻahu is asking, how are you going to restore the trust the community has and what you do, given that a lot of the corruption in the last couple of decades have all been related to Hawaiian entities, anybody can jump in short, quick answer so we can get there a couple of hours.

I think our people are native, are beloved Native Hawaiian people deserve to see hope and leadership, and to have a board that is able to discuss matters and be able to do that with aloha, to treat one others, one would like to be treated and to be able to have healthy discussions when it comes to our mission and comes to a strategic plan.

And I think, I think in many ways we're able to do that.

However, there constantly are challenges with various perspectives and that can be healthy.

However, being able to do that in a manner that is polite, civil and with aloha, I really enjoying this conversation because be several hours long I'm sure.

Yeah, well, it for me, it starts at home and not only at home but within the community.

So a lot of the farming community, for instance, let me use that as an example.

They're having a hard time compete because we got medicine coming in and bringing in food resources from the mainland.

So our farmers are struggling.

And why that's important is because we can get the food from our place provided for the school system.

Yeah.

So there's a bridge of understanding where everybody can be supported with each other when it comes to the long term missions and goals of where we need to go, especially when it comes to education, especially when it comes to better living conditions in our homes.

You know, even the health and welfare of our people can even rise up, because now there's a there's a there's a unity going on within the dynamics of corporate, ways of looking at things.

And I think that even more that if we can bridge the gap with the community, with the families, with the students, then a happy, community, happy environment, everybody come together.

We know exactly how to resolve the situation that we face.

Some schools, like the charter school, they accepted to having food resources being provided from the farmers.

So it all trickles down on how everybody needs to kind of work together.

If not, then we're going to be priced out of Paradise.

We're going to be leaving home a lot of our farmers not going to be successful.

So we got to look at that as a positive, you know, for you, how you'd restore trust.

There are forces that are political and economic in Hawaiʻi and they are not exclusive within the Hawaiian community.

So any of the issues that people can raise about corruption or anything else, the Hawaiian community is no more or no less prone to any of that.

So let's be clear about this.

Yes.

And I, I won't say the word offense, but it becomes needles under my skin to hear this because sentiments such as this continue to be a thorn in the Hawaiian community side because of perceptions.

And when I say that political and economic power, we need to consider the possibility of a healthy Hawaiʻi that's governed, led and informed, driven by not only within the Hawaiian community, but Hawaiian value understanding that does not have to be exclusive for Native Hawaiians.

What's good and makes a healthy Hawaiian community.

Sustainability means a healthy Hawaiʻi.

So let's let's call a spade a spade that for too long, the divisions have been thrust within and upon us in the Hawaiian community by those who wield political and economic power.

And it's about time to shift that, but with the intention to bring people into the fold.

For anyone who lives in Hawaiʻi sustainability and a healthy community, that's something that Hawaiians have the key to.

So what is good for Kānaka can be good for everyone else to do.

Anything you'd add on trust.

Getting the community to trust.

Trust you.

I wouldn't add anything more.

Sometimes I think that our community has their own ideas of what's going on, and and it may not be factual because I read a lot, like I read a lot on on Facebook and Instagram and, and and how I news and Hawaiʻi press, Hawaiʻi press, whatever, civil beat and some of those things are not truthful, you know, and if you read the newspapers and watch the TV news, it's not only the Hawaiians.

Everybody has problems.

You know, maybe some of our Hawaiians have gotten into trouble.

But you look at all the other ethnic groups, I think they're just as bad.

So everybody has weaknesses.

So, yes.

And if I may interject, what can we do within Hawaiʻi to increase the reliability?

How can our native Hawaiian population rely on everyone else in Hawaiʻi to care about us, to actually give credence to the institutions, for example, like the revenues that are supposed to come to us?

How do we we instill faith within our Hawaiian community?

It's no secret that our Hawaiian community aren't the highest voters in amongst the populace, on top of being a minor minority in our own home.

But our people don't have faith because whenever we do raise our voices, we are nominated by everyone else.

On the topic of voting.

Since we've got just about five minutes left, one of our viewers wants to know, how do you address the fact that many non Hawaiian voters may cast ballots in OHA races with limited knowledge of the candidates, or even Hawaiian issues?

In other words, what would you guys say to non Hawaiian voters thinking about voting for the OHA seats?

Why should they care?

I'll give my $0.02.

I think that they should care because we're all one community.

We're one family they chose to live in in Hawaiʻi.

So they should embrace the rights that the Hawaiians have and and know that they can help us and we can help them.

We live together with all different races.

I don't separate our Hawaiians from non Hawaiians, so I think that they should research the candidates just like we do the representatives and the senators.

How many Hawaiians do you think we have in in the legislature?

Not too many, but people are voting for them and that's what they need to do.

They need to research the candidates and make their decisions.

Our my whole life, for my family, we're kind of reinstitute allies to be a part of the sugar cane corporations, the big five, all those things at the same time, growing up and actually learning the truth of what actually occurred.

So that's why I always talk about the multigenerational families in that kind of setting when it comes to like, the cane life or the pineapple life.

We've been we've been able to kind of network with each other.

Although you had the Portuguese community, the Chinese community, the Japanese community, we're still one.

So because we're still on it, because we learned from each other the values of how to survive on an island, and that only brought in even more the how we need to network with each other in the community.

So Hawaiʻi is going to bond dances.

Yeah.

How ain't going to Filipino events.

Right.

So we intermingle.

This is a melting pot.

We need to realize that.

And the voters that really lacked understanding of why should they vote or are they voting adequately enough?

Oh, I think we got to kind of rewind ourselves to say how we were able to peel with each other, to network each other so we can understand the issues and problems that we face so we can go forward united at one.

Colina anything you would add to either say to voters or encourage them to come out?

The voters should consider casting their vote for this body of politically elected officials such that we can empower our culture, our language, and our history to not only benefit Native Hawaiians, but everyone else by this one single word that is all too often capitalized.

That word is aloha.

Anybody can slap aloha onto something and sell it.

But unless people really understand what aloha requires of us Kānaka that live in the community, when you when we require ourselves to live by Aloha, our Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese neighbors all around us, we don't leave them out.

Even the Caucasian neighbors that come.

We may not always agree, but aloha requires us to give consideration.

So in the time of loss, in this time of, the, you know, the, the flood, natural disasters, Lāhainā fire, everybody comes together because it is our way.

And that way is defined by that term aloha.

So yes, voters should pay close attention to the Office of Foreign Affairs, and they should elect those of us whom they feel can carry this forward.

Unfortunately, in Hawaiʻi we all we've always had low voter turnout just in general to play for you.

What would you want to say?

I and I'm in alignment with Trustee Hula Lindsay, what she had mentioned when it comes to those doing the research, when it comes to any office, including the office affairs, to do your research and look at candidates that are in alignment with your values and what you'd like to see, that would further our mission and our strategic plan.

In my experience, through the decades campaigning on various campaigns, including my grandfather when he was in Congress, as well as when he was in U.S.

Senate.

When we go out into the community, oftentimes what was said is that, hey, can you please vote?

Register to vote?

Whatever you do, just please vote for, however, for me, what I what I learned and I realize and what my message was to the people of Hawaiʻi our native Hawaiian population, as well as those that have come to call home, is to do your research and vote for those that you best feel will best represent you and your community, your hopes and dreams and vision for your ʻohana and your community as a whole, and how we can best be able to be represented by those that would be your representative or your trustee.

On that note, I have to think of all four of you for for coming here tonight.

We could probably go on for for hours on end on the topics.

We also want to thank our viewers at home for tuning in, asking your questions here in studio.

Just as a quick recap, we have the candidates for the Maui seats for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Carmen Hulu Lindsey and Keʻeaumoku Kapu, and for the Oʻahu Seat Kalei Akaka and Hinaleimoana Wong .

Next week on insights, we're going to continue our general election coverage, so don't forget to join us then.

I'm Lauren Day for insights on PBS Hawaiʻi.

Have a great night.

Insights on PBS Hawaiʻi is by Carlsmith Ball.

Aloha State Daily and the University of Hawai'i Cancer Center.