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A Maui County Charter amendment proposal slated to go before voters on the Nov. 8 general election ballot asks whether the county should establish a “Department of Oiwi Resources” as well as initiate bilingual government operations.
If the proposal passes at the polls, the department — envisioned as a vehicle to guide the county in making culturally informed decisions regarding things such as place names, cultural sites and iwi burial sites — would be established by July 1, 2024, operating in both Hawaiian and English.
“Just on a simple level, understanding the meaning of our place names, we gain access to a lot of, essentially, traditionally encrypted data, of the spaces around us,” said Keoni Kuoha, who serves as director of the Maui House Initiative for the philanthropic Hawaii Community Foundation and came up with the idea for the ballot proposal.
“The county is responsible for all kinds of resources,” Kuoha said. “Understanding and utilizing traditional and Indigenous cultural knowledge for
resource management
improves resource management outcomes.” The concept of managing natural resources using a cultural lens is becoming a worldwide trend, he said.
Bilingual government operations would generally
apply to the county government’s written communications. It would be up to the Maui County Council to decide which parts of its
communications will be translated, Kuoha said.
“We send hundreds of kids to our immersion schools every year,” Kuoha said. “This will encourage people to learn (Hawaiian). But also, just to reinforce and support those who
have learned our Native
language.”
Kuoha also sees cultural impact statements as an area where the proposed
department could lend its insights.
“Cultural impact statements are required by any sort of significant (land) development happening,” he said. “Another opportunity is that this Department of Oiwi Resources (could) produce these culture impact statements for entire communities in order to lower costs but also to identify the cultural impact of developing in different parts of the community.”
Uilani Kapu, the Lahaina representative for the Association of Aha Moku Councils, fully supports the creation of the Department of Oiwi Resources, as well as transitioning the government to operating bilingually. She hopes that all islands might one day form such a department.
“It’s going to work better with the developers instead of having lawsuits,” Kapu said. “They’re going to know what the area is about and know that in these areas there may be historical properties or waterways that might impact their development.”
But Kapu hopes that if the department is created, local communities will also be sought out to provide input on proposals. “Only the people that live in the area can identify the area,” Kapu said. “Because they live there, they see everything happening.”
The charter amendment proposal calls for creating an Oiwi Resources director’s post. Kuoaha said if the department’s “cultural perspective can be lent to the scientific perspective and the sociological perspective and whatnot, we come out with better outcomes for
everyone.”