The trajectory of the current trust proceeding appears to have been limited in its focus on the most important thing: the life and well-being of Abigail Kawananakoa today.
As we assess our kuleana to Kawananakoa and the Abigail K. K. Kawananakoa Foundation, we bring our Hawaiian mindset to this situation and are called upon to first acknowledge that the personal well-being of Abigail Kawananakoa is the most important part of our kuleana, even if we are directors of a legal entity she created and not agents tasked with the legal responsibility for her care and well-being.
We acknowledge our kuleana to address her intent in creating the Abigail K. K. Kawananakoa Foundation and our kuleana to be protectors and stewards of that intent, but our Hawaiian perspective requires us to first consider her personal well-being. We are grateful for the deliberate and intentional way in which she expressed her vision and kuleana to the Hawaiian people, but we first want to ensure that things are pono for her during her lifetime.
To be able to do that, we need the current pending litigation to be suspended for a reasonable period of time as a person’s well-being is at stake and a very significant legacy has not been addressed since the Abigail K. K. Kawananakoa Foundation only recently appeared in the pending trust proceeding.
Kawananakoa established the Abigail K. K. Kawananakoa Foundation at the same time that she established her revocable trust, in 2001. As the foundation’s directors, we are aware that Kawananakoa had extensive research done to better understand the histories of various ali‘i trusts and Hawaiian service organizations and as a result of gaining that information and knowledge, she became resolute and determined to clearly state her intentions so that her wish to benefit the Hawaiian community would come to fruition without falling prey to the follies and failures of past bequests by other ali‘i.
The foundation’s organizing documents identify her intent to foster, maintain, support and preserve the traditional Hawaiian culture in existence prior to 1778, while also recognizing that the Hawaiian people must function successfully in an ever- changing contemporary global community.
She intended for the foundation to be operated and maintained for the benefit of descendants of the people who inhabited the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778, Kawananakoa’s intended “Beneficiary Group.” Her vision included maintaining artifacts and relics, jewelry and other significant items of historical significance relating to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and the Hawaiian people.
We feel strongly that the pending trust proceeding must not move forward without a proper refocusing of the proceeding to address the best interest of Abigail Kawananakoa because she is alive and deserving of whatever time and effort is required to properly address her best interest. Once that has been done, then it would be appropriate to consider her intent as that intent might apply to any person or entity other than Kawananakoa.
