Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 11, 1 November 1993 — Sovereignty commission to hold second round of public meetings [ARTICLE]

Sovereignty commission to hold second round of public meetings

The Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission will eonduct a second round of commissioners' public meetings statewide at the end of November and early December. They will report back to the Hawaiian eommunity on the ideas gathered during their first round of public meetings held Oct 12-14 and Oct. 18-21. They will also explain how they plan to incorporate Hawaiian mana'o in preparing their recommendations to the 1 994 state Legislature. Last month, commission members held 1 6 public meetings with Hawaiians on the different islands. The meetings were publicized in radio, newspaper and

television announcements and through Hawaiian organizations. Neighbor island attendance in the first week of meetings ranged ffom 40 to 80 eaeh night. Meetings began with an overview of the commission's tasks, progressed to small group discussions and concluded with sharing eaeh group's ideas with the whole. Hawaiians expressed general support for the mandate of the advisory commission, yet asked for more community education about what sovereignty means and how it will affect them individually. They also expressed eoneem that any future election and apportionment give equitable representation to the

neighbor islands. An HSAC brochure explains that the purpose of both sets of community meetings is to gather mana'o to help the advisory eommission set up a process for all Hawaiians to participate in deciding about Hawaiian sovereignty, so they ean examine such questions as:

• Should a Hawaiian convention be held to draft an organic document for a Hawaiian sovereign govemment?; • If the majority of Hawaiian voters say they want a convention, how should election of delegates to the convention be set up? The commission's brochure stresses that it is not making

these decisions on sovereignty. Rather, it is setting up a process so the Hawaiian community ean make these decisions. The eommission will also seek eommunity mana'o on: • apportioning voting districts; • establishing eligibility of eonvention delegates; • conducting Hawaiian voter education, a voter registration drive, and research for the convention; • establishing the size and eomposition of the convention delegation; and • establishing the dates for the special elections. With the mana'o of the Hawaiian community in the spirit of self-determination, and under

the terms of Act 359 whieh established it, the Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commiss-ion will then present to the Legislature its proposals and recommendations for future action.

For the schedule of the upcoming second round of public meetings of the Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission, eall the commission office at 587-2834.