Native Hawaiians on Kauai being denied

The recent Hawaiian Homes Commission (HHC) decision to deny the Anahola Renewable Energy Project — allowing Green Energy Team LLC to remove invasive albizia trees and plant eucalyptus — is wrong and irresponsible.

This decision ignores the interests of the thousands of Native Hawaiian beneficiary families on Kauai, making us "invisible" to the very political leaders who are supposed to act on our behalf.

There are 4,007 Kauai families on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) wait lists, including 2,150 for agricultural, 298 for pastoral and 1,559 for residential. Since the early 1980s, DHHL has awarded only 47 agricultural leases and one pastoral lease on Kauai.

This decision instead supports the interests of the "community" as organized by the revocable permit ranchers who testified to "Keep Hawaiian Lands In Hawaiian Hands." While everyone agrees with that sentiment, it doesn’t address Native Hawaiian beneficiaries waiting on DHHL lease awards that actually get Hawaiian lands in their hands in the first place.

It also doesn’t address the conflict of those part- or non-Hawaiians testifying of "their rights" to our beneficiary trust lands for which they were only meant to be "temporary caretakers."

Sadly, DHHL and the HHC have once again put the interests of non-beneficiaries before beneficiaries, further demonstrating the mismanagement and government corruption recently covered in the Star-Advertiser. This decision also further demonstrates the failed leadership of HHC Chairwoman Jobie Masagatani, the controversial appointee of Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

The win-win partnership with Green Energy would have returned 356 acres of albizia-cleared lands to DHHL for homesteading in the first five years. DHHL could have awarded 103 2-acre subsistence agricultural leases and 14 10-acre pastoral leases in that short period. And, with the 819 cleared acres returned in an additional 15 years, DHHL could have awarded hundreds more homestead lease awards.

This lost opportunity is a clear failure of the HHC to meet its primary obligation to Native Hawaiian beneficiaries: to move our families onto our lands with 99-year homestead lease awards.

For years, DHHL leaders said they "lacked the funds for land and infrastructure improvements" needed to be able to award homestead leases. Yet, they passed on this opportunity to leverage our lands for $6.2 million worth of land clearing and infrastructure improvements. This is a failure of HHC to meet its fiduciary responsibility to minimize risk and negative exposure to our trust while maximizing the positive acquisition of resources and the ability to serve beneficiaries.

Beneficiaries already won the "Nelson lawsuit," requiring DHHL to demand "sufficient" funding for operations during the state’s budgeting process. Will it take more lawsuits for DHHL to meet its fiduciary responsibility to Native Hawaiian beneficiaries?

It’s time now for DHHL, the HHC and those who helped defeat this partnership under the rally cry of "Gives Us A Chance, We Can Do It Ourselves" to step forward and lead.

It’s time to bring everyone together to figure out how else to clear our lands of albizias — while keeping in sight the primary goal of more than 100 homestead awards in five years.

Those on the Kauai wait list or who would like to help make this happen can contact info@ahhl.org or call 652-3684.