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ANAHOLA >> The federal government is proposing changes to a land trust law passed 95 years ago that was never fully implemented, and Native Hawaiians are being asked to provide input.
The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was intended to give residents who are at least half Native Hawaiian access to a 200,000-acre land trust. Today, 4,000 people are waiting for that access, The Garden Island reported.
Anahola resident Robin Danner went to the White House two years ago and asked President Barack Obama to start the process creating rules to implement the law.
“We’ve all woken up to the fact that no one’s going to save us,” Danner said. “We need to save ourselves. We can’t afford to be lazy activists. We can’t afford to even just be angry, that’s not enough. We have got to redirect that anger into proactive policy engagement.”
Former lawmaker Colleen Hanabusa will be at a meeting Tuesday night to discuss two federally proposed changes that would clarify and amend the law.
Resident Manulele Clarke helped organize the meeting in Anahola and says this is an opportunity for people to educate themselves about complicated proposals.
“This is a big thing that affects the Hawaiian population worldwide,” said Clarke. “I read it and I couldn’t make sense of it. It’s complicated. I just raised my shoulders and said, ‘I have no idea what this is saying.’
“We need to get educated,” she added. “Everything we know about this is coming through the coconut wireless.”
