OVERFLOW CROWD SUPPORTS CRABBE AT OHA MAUI MEETING
May 15, 2014 - MauiNow.com - By Wendy Osher A standing room-only crowd gathered at the J Walter Cameron Center in Wailuku on Thursday morning, as Trustees from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs heard often heated testimony relating to native Hawaiian rights to self-governance, the Kana`iolowalu registry, and all encompassing question relating to the legal status of Hawai`i under international law.... ...Many of those who testified asked for direct support for the actions taken by Dr. Crabbe including Maui resident and Kumu Hula Nāpua Greig who said, “I humbly ask our trustees to kāko`o Dr. Kamana`opono Crabbe; to tap into your ancestral knowledge of that great leadership that we count on; that leadership that is ours — that is our legacy alone, not anyone else’s; to put aside whatever personal differences you may have and see what so many of us see so clearly — that he was born to lead us.” “He is the pouhana — the center post that holds the hale upright — and upright he truly is. Without him, the hale will surely fall,” she said. In a written letter from Aaron Salā, a professor of ethno-musicology at UH Mānoa, he states, “In my humble opinion, if you (Dr. Crabbe) have any kuleana (responsibility) to this lāhui (race/nation/people), it was fulfilled when you stepped outside of the process. It is of no consequence to me who knew what, when — these questions could never have the impact they now have were they presented as part of the process.” Salā’s letter continued, “It took a resistance — and not just a resistance for its own sake — it took a resistance from one who plays equally well in both worlds: one who would [don] the suit and a malo; one who is educated at the academy and reared in the lo`i kalo; one whose mind is firmly set in the present and whose spirit is free to roam the past. Sir, my children will know your name, and so will their children, and so will their children after them. This is my honor to you.” |
George Manalani Kamimiola, also testified, asking the remaining trustees to rescind their letter of rescind, and to cease and desist from any other activities of the nation-building process until the answers posed by Dr. Crabbe are received.
Jocelyn Costa was also among the supporters of Dr. Crabbe saying, “It is one thing to say I don’t know; it is another to say I no like know.”
Russell Kahookele, an elected representative for the Lawful Hawaiian Government group in 2007 and 2011 also spoke in support of Crabbe’s actions saying, “We cannot wait for America to tell us, yeah you can. They said it in the apology resolution that we have the right to be sovereign, on our own, without their interference. If we listen to them, we’re going to be Indians…. What is at stake here is our nationality....”
