STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2302

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 317

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Technology and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 317 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' DAY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to re-designate the second Monday of October from "Discoverers' Day" to "Indigenous Peoples' Day."

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, University of Hawaii at Manoa's Department of Ethnic Studies, and five individuals.

     Your Committees find that the State should celebrate Polynesian voyagers who truly founded the Hawaiian islands, rather than the European discoverers who subjected the islands to colonization, exploitation, and human rights violations.  Therefore, your Committees conclude that the second Monday in October shall be known as "Indigenous Peoples' Day," rather than "Discoverers' Day," to celebrate and honor the Native Hawaiians who originally inhabited the Hawaiian islands and survived the indignities of European "discovery".

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that Indigenous Peoples' Day shall be in recognition of the Polynesian founders, rather than discoverers, of the Hawaiian islands;

     (2)  Clarifying that Indigenous Peoples' Day shall be in recognition of the countless indigenous peoples who perished worldwide as a result of confrontations between indigenous peoples and Europeans, along with the survival of their descendants; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Technology and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 317, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 317, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Technology and the Arts,

____________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair

____________________________ MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair