Former OHA trustee Moanikeala Akaka, 72, dies

Former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Moanikeala Akaka, whose early activism in the 1970s helped native Hawaiians eventually obtain more than $100 million in trust land revenues, has died.

Akaka died early Saturday morning of cancer in Hilo. She was 72.

“She brought land issues really to the forefront. She was one of the progressive personalities that brought us to where we are today,” said Williamson Chang, an attorney involved in sovereignty issues and a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law.

“People like Moani were outspoken. She never flinched when speaking her mind.”

Edwina Moanikeala Akaka, born on July 4, 1944, in Honolulu, was the daughter of Kammy and Rebecca Akaka, parents who in the 1950s campaigned for the Democratic Party.

She recalled her mother going door-to-door seeking support along with Herman Lum, later the state Supreme Court chief justice, and holding coffee hours at the family home for the late U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga.

Akaka was working as a waitress at the now defunct Queen’s Surf and attending the University of Hawaii when she, along with 31 other people, decided to be arrested in a protest on May 11, 1971, opposing the eviction of native Hawaiians and farmers in Kalama Valley.

“She was concerned about the conditions of native Hawaiians in Hawaii. She wanted to get involved in a land issue,” recalled Lawrence Kamakawiwoole, then a leader in the Kalama eviction resistance.

“She was and remains a dear friend.”

The Kalama Valley arrests raised questions not only about the policies of landowner Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate, a trust established to educate native Hawaiians, but also about the direction of the state at a time when proposed land developments were threatening the eviction of hundreds of residents and farmers in several minority communities.

Historians have identified the Kalama Valley land struggle as the start of the “Hawaiian Renaissance” — the reawakening of ethnic pride and native Hawaiian rights.

Many of those arrested, including Akaka, became members of Kokua Hawaii, a multiethnic group that helped poor communities organize against the evictions in the 1970s.

Akaka was also among the more than 50 people arrested on Labor Day in 1978 at Hilo Airport protesting the state’s use of land entrusted to benefit Hawaiians.

The site of the Hilo Airport was on Hawaiian homestead land that was supposed to provide housing for native Hawaiians and also on ceded lands, a portion of which was supposed to benefit native Hawaiians, Chang said.

Protect Kahoolawe Ohana leader Dr. Emmett Aluli said Akaka was one of the organizers of the Hilo protest and that the state called in the Hawaii National Guard.

He said Akaka had supported the Ohana in its effort to stop the bombing of Kahoolawe island, and he and other members went to Hilo to support the demonstration.

“She instigated the action and called us in to support the action,” Aluli said.

“She was outstanding.”

Akaka, who served as an Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee from 1984 through 1996, supported efforts to negotiate an agreement with the state for its use of the ceded lands, said former trustee Mililani Trask.

“She was always very forthright … and she was always very informed,” Trask said.

After years of debate, a legislative act was passed in 2006 as a temporary measure, providing $15.1 million a year to the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs from revenues derived from ceded lands.

Throughout most of her life, Akaka continued protesting for native Hawaiian rights, and she participated in demonstrations opposing the proposed development of the Thirty Meter Telescope at the Mauna Kea summit.

A celebration of life is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 28 at the Queen Lili‘uokalani Park in Hilo.

She is survived by her partner Tomas Belsky; her daughter Erika “Hooululahui” Perry and son-in-law Cheyenne Perry; brothers Douglas and Loren Akaka; and sister June Martello.