Though Native Hawaiians have made progress in education, health, economic self-sufficiency and other areas, there remains work to be done on nation building and overall community improvement, Kamana‘opono Crabbe, chief executive officer of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said Wednesday in his State of OHA address.
"OHA’s success is being consistent with purpose," Crabbe told a capacity audience at Central Union Church. "That means staying true to our mission of advocating for Native Hawaiians to improve their well-being, providing targeted resources that fulfill our mission and to facilitate collaboration among organizations and agencies to enhance communities’ collective ability to better the conditions of all of our people."
By doing so, it is possible to build a strong nation recognized both nationally and internationally, he said.
"This can only be achieved by investing in relationships with others that share a common purpose to collective action and by earning the trust of our community," Crabbe said. "If we stay focused, we stand together and as aspire for greater integrity, we can and will achieve broad lasting change that empowers Hawaiians and strengthens Hawaii."
Afterward, Crabbe said his main point was that the community must remain focused and committed to improving conditions for Native Hawaiians.
"I think we only can do that by investing in relationships with each other as a community and really provide good leadership internally within OHA to strive for those goals," he said.
The event also featured the investiture ceremony for the five newly elected OHA Board of Trustees members along with the four current members, which included new board Chairman Robert Lindsey.
Lindsey, a former state legislator and Kamehameha Schools agent, was elected to the chairmanship Tuesday, succeeding Colette Machado, who stepped down as chairwoman earlier this year. Machado with two years remaining on her term as trustee.
"I was enlightened by what he had to share," Lindsey said after the address. "I think we’re on the same page in terms of providing leadership and when we move forward it’s going to be that we celebrate our people and advance our strategic plan, promote our mission — do good things, not only for our people but for all the people of Hawaii."
Lindsey takes over after a challenging year that included an awkward moment when the OHA board rescinded a letter written by Crabbe that was sent to Secretary of State John Kerry requesting an opinion on whether the Hawaiian kingdom still exists as an independent sovereign state under international law.
In May, Crabbe wrote to Kerry saying he was requesting a formal legal opinion on the matter because recent legal and diplomatic proceedings suggested OHA and its trustees may be open to criminal liability in the pursuit of a Native Hawaiian governing entity.
The nine trustees immediately voted unanimously to send a follow-up letter asking the State Department to rescind the letter. Machado had said Crabbe exceeded his authority and that his letter did not reflect the position of OHA or the trustees. Board policy also requires that he consult with trustees on such matters.
Lindsey said he looks forward to working with Crabbe to improve communication within all of OHA and avoid such situations in the future.
"That will be a focus for us — working together, understanding clearly that our mission is to better conditions for our people, and just stay focused on that, looking forward rather than behind us," Lindsey said.
Among those in attendance was new Gov. David Ige, who said he looks forward to working with OHA and its leadership.
"There are many issues where there’s complete alignment between what the Office of Hawaiian Affairs desires and, I think, what the people of Hawaii want," Ige said. "If we focus on those areas of common goals and common understanding, I think we can move all the people of Hawaii forward together."
