Office of Hawaiian Affairs
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs was born of a collective and compassionate effort on the part of the delegates to the state Constitutional Convention of 1978. They spoke to a sense of justice, to the righting of wrongs suffered by the indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands for exactly 200 years. The arrival of Captain Cook in Hawaiʻi had brought not only increased contact with the world beyond the islands’ pristine shores, but also diseases that devastated the native population, and a way of life that depressed the circumstances of those remaining.
The terms of statehood considered the plight of the Hawaiian people, specifically in the Admission Act of 1959. Section 5(f) of the Act refers to the crown and government lands of the Hawaiian Kingdom, which had been designated “ceded” to the Republic of Hawaiʻi and then to the United States. The Act conveyed these lands to the new State of Hawaiʻi with the caveat that revenues were to constitute a trust for five purposes. One of these was the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians. By any measure, those conditions were sorely in need of improvement, but, by 1978, they had not changed for the better as the state’s trust obligation went ignored.
Go to OHA’s web site for information about grants, policies, our strategic plan and more.
OHA’s monthly newspaper Ka Wai Ola has news about OHA and the Hawaiian community.
OHA’s radio program Na ʻOiwi ʻOlino is heard on KINE 105 every Sunday at 8 a.m.
2011-2012 Trustee Decisions
Here are just a few of the significant decisions trustees made in 2011-2012. Consult the Board’s agendas and minutes to find out all the decisions we’ve made.
- Adopted a policy to guide development of Kakaʻako makai lands.
- Authorized the purchase of the lands of the traditional birthing stones at Kūkaniloko.
- Voted to purchase the Gentry Pacific Design Center on Nimitz Highway for OHA headquarters.
- Requested banks to put Hawaiian language on ATMs — being implemented in 2012 by Bank of Hawaiʻi.
- Contributed funding to the ʻAha Moku councils established to advise the state Department of Land and Natural Resources on traditional Hawaiian concepts of sustainability and land use.
- Funded the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission to launch its initiative to sign up citizens of the Hawaiian nation.
- Approved the 2013 OHA budget of $39,839,066, with $13.6 million for personnel and fringe, $2.4 for programs, $8.3 for contracts, $10.2 in grants, under $500,000 for travel, $2 million for equipment and $2.6 for overhead.
Read some thoughts on Issues and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.