STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3416

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.R. No. 42

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water and Land, to which was referred S.R. No. 42 entitled:

"SENATE RESOLUTION URGING THE OFFICE OF ELECTIONS TO AMEND THE CHOICE FOR SELF-DECLARATION TO ALLOW THE AFFIANT TO IDENTIFY AS A PERSON BORN WITHIN THE GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES OF WHAT IS CURRENTLY THE STATE OF HAWAI‘I OR A DESCENDANT OF ANY CITIZEN OF THE HAWAIIAN KINGDOM THAT THE UNITED STATES RECOGNIZED AS A NATION PRIOR TO 1893,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the Office of Elections to amend the choice for self-declaration to allow the affiant to self-identify as "a person born within the geographic boundaries of what is currently the State of Hawai‘i; and/or a descendant of any citizen of the Hawaiian Kingdom that the United States once recognized as a nation prior to 1893".

Prior to the hearing on this measure, your Committees posted and made available for public review a proposed S.D. 1, which deletes the contents of this measure and inserts language to urge all policymakers and residents of the City and County of Honolulu to support the Waianae Sustainable Communities Plan and the preservation of Ohikilolo as an open space.

Your Committees received testimony in support of the proposed S.D. 1 from the Department of Planning and Permitting of the City and County of Honolulu, Makaha Hawaiian Civic Club, Ho‘omanapono Political Action Committee, O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, nine individuals, and a petition signed by over four hundred individuals. Your Committees received comments on the proposed S.D. 1 from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committees find that according to the report on the 1994 "Archaeological Investigation of Lowland Kea‘au Valley on Leeward Coast of Oahu" study conducted by the International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., researchers recorded four hundred sixty-one sites in just sixty acres of Ohikilolo that were recommended to be added to the National Registry of Historic Places. Your Committees further find that native Hawaiians families of the Waianae coast consider Ohikilolo to be part of Kanehunamoku, the sacred lands of Kane, the Hawaiian sun deity, and believe that La‘ila‘i, the first human, was born in this land. In the Kumulipo, the Hawaiian creation story, La‘ila‘i is known to become the mother of the Hawaiian race. Your Committees believe that the archaeological and historical significance of Ohikilolo to native Hawaiians calls for the preservation of these lands.

Your Committees have amended this measure by adopting the proposed S.D. 1, including the amended title, and further amending the measure by:

(1) Clarifying that Friends of Ohikilolo is doing business as Na Kia‘i No Kanehunamoku and has registered as a non-profit organization; and

(2) 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 Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 42, as amended herein, and recommend that it be referred to your Committee on Judiciary, in the form attached hereto as S.R. No. 42, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water and Land,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair