STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2809

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2368

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 2368 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Designate the month of February as "Olelo Hawai‘i Month" to celebrate and encourage the use of Hawaiian language;

(2) Require all letterheads, documents, symbols, and emblems of the State and other political subdivisions that include Hawaiian words or names to include accurate and appropriate Hawaiian names, spelling, and punctuation;

(3) Establish references for accurate, appropriate, and authentic Hawaiian names and words, including proper Hawaiian spelling and punctuation; and

(4) Clarify that the full text of bills and other official documents are not required to be written in Hawaiian and that misspelled or incorrectly punctuated Hawaiian words and names shall not invalidate the documents or render them unenforceable and no cause of action shall arise accordingly.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawai‘i Civil Rights Commission, and two individuals. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from two individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies and two individuals.

Your Committees find that the State has reaffirmed Hawaiian as one of its official languages since 1978, and the Legislature has supported efforts to incorporate the Hawaiian language into official state writings, emblems, and signs. This measure will enhance the use of the Hawaiian language in official state documents while ensuring that Hawaiian words and names are as accurate, appropriate, and authentic as possible.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Replacing the sections of the measure which lacked comprehensive support with alternative language proposed by the drafter of S.B. No. 2368, amending section 1-13.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to state as subsection (a) that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides, and the legislature affirms, that native Hawaiians, as the indigenous people of Hawaii, have the right to revitalize, use, develop, and transmit to future generations their histories, language, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems, and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places, and persons; 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 Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2368, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2368, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Government Operations,

________________________________ LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair

________________________________ MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair