Name on ballot:

Jackie Kahookele Burke

Running for:

OHA Oahu Resident Trustee

Political party:

No answer submitted

Campaign website:

Burke4Aloha.com

Current occupation:

Artist, Musician, Entrepreneur and Planner/ Consultant

Age:

70

Previous job history:

1970 – 1980 – Travel Industry – Tour Director/Manager
1869 – 1990 – Media – Radio, TV & Video, Magazine
Independent Publisher 2004-2007 The `Oiwi Files Newspaper (Statewide)
Entrepreneur – Breakfast In Bed Catering, Ola Productions, Professional Musician/Vocalist
Masters in Public Health and Urban & Regional Planning 2000-2011
DOH – Drug and Alcohol Abuse Division -Program Specialist, DOT – Harbors Division – Planner IV , WESPAC Fisheries – Planner/Consultant,

Previous elected office, if any:

No answer submitted

Please describe your qualifications to represent the people of Hawaii.

A diverse background of skills: academia, entrepreneur, publishing, entertainment, travel, media and Masters Degrees in Public Health and Urban & Regional Planning specific to administration and planning activities. Over 40 years of community volunteer service and participation. Currently serving on Neighborhood Board Kalihi Valley.

What will be your top priority if elected?

Top priority is to remove the 50% blood quantum for Hawaiian Homestead and other federal designated programs for a category called “Native Hawaiian”. To be recognized as one category of Hawaiians or Hawaiian citizens!

What is one specific change you would like to see in OHA’s operations and what would you do to make it happen?

There has been a major re-organization of OHA by the CEO Hussey and this year is the opportunity to make adjustments or to offer another process to realize the value of that particular strategy. It is hard to gauge the over effectiveness as about half of staff left for CNHA positions or retired.

What should OHA do to help alleviate homelessness and increase home ownership among Native Hawaiians?

If you would simply remove the 50% blood quantum, move to affordable rentals and use the Legislature’s money given to DHHL and the lawsuit winnings along with the Ceded land revenue, this puts housing in closer reach for all Hawaiians. We need to move to affordable rentals as a process to sheltering our Hawaiian people and work to ownership status. Ownership is still financially not possible for majority of Hawaiians, but affordable rentals w now gives immediate benefits to build to the future.

What reforms, if any, would you propose to make OHA more transparent to the public?

The most important reform is to have OHA pay for their own election and to have Trustees accountable to the people that vote them in. The present process of having Oahu elect all neighbor island trustees is just out right stupid! The other process is for OHA to lobby for term limits, and stop the recycling of unqualified trustees.

Do you support or oppose the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the Big Island and what should OHA’s role be in the process?

If you have the John Webb space telescope and the Hubble out there, what is there to discover from this planet? Leave Maunakea as pristine and culturally relevant to the Hawaiian people, it symbolizes more than Science, it is the constant taking and using all our pristine lands, as was Kahoolawe, Pohakuloa and Waianae Valley. It represents constant disregard with no compensation to the Hawaiian people in the name of science and military warfare. I don’t understand why the outer space discovery has to do with climate change, ocean pollution and food supply on this planet which are the most urgent needs of this planet for now and the near future. Maunakea is a distraction to survivability on Earth.

What is the most pressing need for the people you seek to represent and what can the Office of Hawaiian Affairs do to address that need?


The pressing need is to mobilize as ONE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE, to take off the blinders to blood quantum divisions and to share all the resources with each other. This support enables all to gain financial stability by providing housing and housing then transitions to
relief on all other social-economic issues. When shelter stress is removed, Hawaiians can focus on their other needs. What is doable is affordable rentals, lets put resources to build them and help all Hawaiians not be “Houseless”!

Is there anything more that you would like voters to know about you?

I currently serve on the board of the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu with a mission of social justice and equality and dignity for all mankind. I have been the Organist at the Waikiki Elks Lodge for 15 years and believe in service to our community. I was a JPO, a Girl Scout and a Lieutenant in the Air Force Civil Air Patrol cadet program. I own two cats and two dogs and am raising my oldest moopuna who is 13 yrs old. I humble ask to serve my community as OHA Trustee for Oahu. Hapai `au, Hapai `oe, i luna kakou! I lift, you lift, together we rise!