Poll Graphics
Rating prominent public figures

Many Hawaiians believe their community lacks leadership and unity, a position confirmed in a Honolulu Advertiser Hawai‘i Poll ranking of prominent figures among Hawaiians.

The poll of Native Hawaiians on Hawaiian issues found that only four of 19 selected Hawaiian leaders mustered a 50 percent approval rating.

Two stand far ahead of the others: Polynesian Voyaging Society navigator Nainoa Thompson, a member of the University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents; and U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, the elder statesman and brother of one of the most beloved Hawaiian leaders of the last century, the late Abraham Akaka, who was kahu of Kawaiaha‘o Church.

"They are positive, humble, intelligent, articulate individuals," said Maui firefighter Kyle Nakanelua.

Of Thompson, KÃhei resident Wayne Ho added: "He’s a real educated guy, and real straightforward, but he’s not the kind of person who wants to stand out."

Both Thompson and Akaka gained approval ratings from more than 75 percent of those polled. Thompson had a virtually nonexistent disapproval rating of just 3 percent, the lowest in the survey. Akaka’s unfavorable ranking was 15 percent.

The poll comes at a critical time for the Hawaiian community, providing indications of where the Native Hawaiian community stands as a whole on critical issues - from the debate over ceded lands and sovereignty to compensation for the overthrow of the monarchy.

Pollsters randomly surveyed 401 adult residents of Hawaiian ancestry April 18-28. The participants were of various backgrounds from each of the major islands. The margin of error from the results is 4.9 percent, meaning that 95 percent of the time, if the entire adult Hawaiian population were sampled, the responses would be within 4.9 percent plus or minus of those obtained in the poll.

No one else came close to the approval ratings for Thompson and Akaka, and Thompson thus far has avoided political leadership positions.

Search for leaders

As Hawaiians look to the future, it remains unclear from where leaders for the next generation will emerge.

"There’s no doubt in my mind that there are some leaders there that are qualified, but all of this is going to take time," said retired Hawaiian Telephone worker Alika Lambert of Kahalu‘u.

Nakanelua said there are many professionals of Hawaiian ancestry now working quietly at their professions and in community organizations who will emerge when the time is right.

"They’re out there. They’ve just got to step up. They’re so Hawaiian. They do the job, but they don’t want to get noticed," Nakanelua said.

Lilikala Kame‘leihiwa, director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai‘i, agreed.

"There are many good people who are leaders in their own fields of expertise, who will step forward when it is time to do so," she said.

Earning respect

Clayton Hee, chairman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said both Thompson and Akaka are likable men who have worked hard for their positions of respect. Future leaders will have to do the same, he said.

"Leadership tends to be earned. The leadership from within the Hawaiian community will be the product of lengthy public service. I don’t see any magical emergence of any individual. You have to earn the respect of the community," Hee said.

In the Hawai‘i Poll, physicians Emmett Aluli and Kekuni Blaisdell, both active in Hawaiian sovereignty issues, received favorable ratings of just more than half of those polled. But neither was extremely well known, with don’t-know ratings of approximately 40 percent for both.

Aluli has helped lead the battle for the return of Kaho‘olawe to the Hawaiian people and serves on the Kaho‘olawe Island Conveyance Commission. Blaisdell heads a coalition of independence groups called Ka Pakaukau and is a strong advocate of complete independence from the United States.

Many other prominent Hawaiians had either high unfavorable ratings or were not well known by those polled.

Name recognition low

University of Hawaii Professor Haunani-Kay Trask, the woman in the group ranked highest, was favorably viewed by nearly half of the respondents, but a third had unfavorable views of her. OHA chairman Hee had positive ratings nearly as high as hers, with a quarter citing unfavorable views.

More than half did not recognize the names of veteran Hawaiian activists Daviana McGregor, Charles Maxwell, Lilikala Kame‘eleihiwa or Poka Laenui, also known as Hayden Burgess.

Former Bishop Estate trustees did not do well in the ranking by fellow Hawaiians. Dickie Wong and Henry Peters ranked at the bottom of the survey, with their unfavorable ratings running several times the favorable. While former trustee Oswald Stender managed a positive rating, his negatives were still a quarter of all those polled.

More Hawaiian issues

When the Hawai‘i Poll results of 2000 are compared with those of a Hawai‘i Poll taken in 1995, it suggests that Hawaiians know their leaders better today than they did five years ago.

When The Advertiser compared the 15 named Hawaiian figures that appeared in both polls, it found that on average, in 1995 Hawaiians said they could not recognize the names 38 percent of the time. That figure had dropped to 30 percent in the most recent poll.

Perhaps because of the publicity Hawaiian issues have received in recent years with the Bishop Estate scandal, the Rice vs. Cayetano lawsuit and other trials of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, battles over ceded land issues and more, all but two of the 15 had lower "don’t know" rankings.

Among those with the improvements of greater than 10 percent: Navigator Thompson dropped from 33 percent to 19 on the "don’t know" rating; OHA chairman Hee from 39 to 27 and OHA trustee Frenchy DeSoto from 45 to 28; Sen. Akaka from 17 to 8; former Bishop Estate trustee Wong from 50 to 28, and his former colleague Stender from 72 to 34.

The only people on the list to lose recognition were attorney Laenui/Burgess, who rose from 55 to 57, and former OHA executive Kamaki Kanahele, from 14 to 45.

Most Hawaiians want burial artifacts that were removed from the Bishop Museum returned there and not reburied.

The Honolulu Advertiser’s Hawai‘i Poll of Native Hawaiians found that by a 5-4 margin, Hawaiians believe such items, even if associated with burials, should be available for public view and for study.

The museum turned over the rare artifacts, also known as the Forbes cave artifacts, to Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai‘i Nei in February, sparking controversy that today remains unresolved. The 83 items fall under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which provides for their return to Hawaiians. Four organizations, including Hui Malama, had been negotiating with the museum for the artifacts. The items were taken from a cave in Kawaihae in the 1900s.

The museum said it released the artifacts to Hui Malama until a final decision is made on who should get them, and members of the organization have reburied the pieces in a cave on the Big Island.

The poll specifically refers to burial artifacts (items manufactured by humans) - not human remains, asking poll participants if they feel the objects should be returned to where they came from or kept in collections.

It was not an easy question for many to answer.

"Those items were stolen back in the early 1900s. I don’t like the idea of bones and funeral-type objects being on display like they have been in the past. But I’m very interested in being able to research the past," said poll participant Alika Lambert, 65, a retired Hawaiian Telephone worker from Kahalu‘u.

It is not clear which, if any, of the Forbes caves artifacts were originally in the cave for safekeeping and which were in association with burials.

"It is difficult to determine whether they are funeral-type objects," Lambert said.

Nine Hawaiian groups have now filed claims for the artifacts, among which are a carved wooden female figure, two stick ‘aumakua (family or household gods) and two bowls decorated with human teeth.

Fifty-one percent of Hawai‘i Poll participants said burial objects should be kept in collections; 41 percent said they should be returned to where they came from.

Among Hawai‘i Poll participants, those with more Hawaiian blood favored keeping such items in the museum for view and study, while those with less than one-quarter Hawaiian blood were split, marginally favoring reburial.

Older Hawaiians strongly supported keeping the items in the museum. Young Hawaiians did, too, but those aged 35 to 54 were split on the issue. Women were considerably stronger than men on the side of retaining such items in the museum.

Pollsters randomly surveyed 401 adult residents of Hawaiian ancestry April 18-28. The margin of error from the results is 4.9 percent.

When asked about the future of Hawaiians, Hokule‘a navigator Nainoa Thompson understandably falls into an analogy of the voyaging culture.

When planning a voyage by canoe, first decide where you want to go, and why. Then decide what kind of a canoe you need to accomplish the task, he said.

Among Native Hawaiians today, Thompson is admired like no other. His approval rating in the Advertiser’s Hawai‘i Poll was the highest.

In discussions of the future of Hawaiians, Thompson would look first at what needs to be accomplished, then use that to shape a government or programs.

Thompson has no image of the form of sovereignty he favors, although he feels the Hawaiian people had their land taken from them and deserve to get it back. Beyond that, he thinks in terms of the needs of future generations, and that means thinking of the needs of children, he said.

"Once you think about children, you have to think generationally, and once you think generationally, you have to think about stewardship. You can’t get away from that," he said.

Giving young people of Hawaiian ancestry a sound background in their traditional culture is a part of that, he said.

"I really think that the reason why culture is so important is because it is the bridge ... You are who you were. It is important to be proud of who you are, your history and culture. (Knowing the past) will let Native Hawaiians choose how they want to live today," he said.

Thompson’s views on many of the issues facing the Hawaiian community are seldom heard. He agreed to talk to The Honolulu Advertiser only after a series of preliminary discussions to ensure his views would be properly framed. He has not involved himself in sovereignty battles or politics. His attention is locked on the Polynesian voyaging culture, and its ability to educate and uplift Hawai‘i’s young people.

"I have been involved with Hokule‘a since 1974. I was just out of high school. In a lot of ways, I don’t know anything else," he said.

"I need to stay focused and do my work really well. (That is) the reason I don’t get involved in all this other stuff."

Addicted to learning

Thompson eschews activism, but he and Hokule‘a helped launch the modern Hawaiian revival, unrest and demands for justice.

Now middle-aged, he was ready to retire from voyaging and move on. But in last year’s Hokule‘a voyage to Rapa Nui something happened to him. He speaks of it quietly, reverently, and without detail.

But it changed his future. He has unretired, he said. He is addicted to learning, and of the canoe, Thompson said, "Hokule‘a is still teaching me."

And he has thought deeply about Hawaiian issues, but he says he doesn’t have the answers.

Focus on children

For Thompson, the preferred Hawaiian future is one in which there are healthy communities, in which children - children of all races - are able to learn, are not threatened with violence in home or community, are free of drug-related challenges, are healthy.

"When I look at why I do what I do, the picture, the image, in my mind is really about children, even though I don’t have my own children. ..."

The Hawaiian community has rediscovered pride and the strength of its own culture.

"We have shifted from a sense of apathy and powerlessness. That has changed. (These things) have revolutionized our relationship to the place we call home. It has been a huge change.

"We come from a very rich history, the Hawaiian people. Their being, their genetic makeup, was tied to this place. Knowing who we were has been woken up in the past 25 years and has been a driving force for change," Thompson said.

He gives credit to the Hawaiians who have stood up, marched and spoken out.

"I want to commend and honor those who came forward and said this isn’t right and it has to be changed. As someone who is not heavily involved in the sovereignty movement, I commend those who are.

"There are these people out there defining the edge. Somewhere between where we are and where they’re at, is our future. If those people did not bring up the outer edge of the envelope, there would be no change," he said.

Thompson said he does not want to be the one who tries to dictate how the future for Hawaiians will turn out.

"I need to listen a lot more to what the pioneers (of Hawaiian activism) are trying to say, and that means all of them, the Bumpys and the Mililanis and the Kekunis and the rest. They are smart. They’ve studied the issues."

Working for consensus

Thompson agrees with many of the larger majorities expressed in the Hawai‘i Poll, and he emphasizes areas in which Hawaiians are unified.

"It seems to me that there is a certain clarity in the vision of the Hawaiian people about their future. There is the beginning of a consensus to at least create a vision ... a vision to make us set aside the things we disagree with in order to maintain the things that we hold deeply important to our future.

"The mechanism (for bringing about a consensus) is essential, I think. It requires everybody’s participation. I don’t know how you do that. Ideally, philosophically, we need to allow people to say what they have to say and ensure they are being heard. It will take courage. It will take time."

Avoiding ethnic divisions

Many Hawaiians have already agreed on a number of things about their future, he said.

"There is consensus on certain issues. One, our ability to govern our own future; two, getting back the land that was taken and which we deserve; and three, kids. "Prevailing over all the issues I see is a need for education and communication," he said.

For Thompson, a final but critically important goal is to not let the Hawaiian movement lead to divisions between ethnic groups in Hawai‘i. Determining the future of Hawaiians should be about ensuring the survival of ethnic identity while celebrating diverse cultures, he said.

Hawaiians are not just Hawaiian, but also part of the larger society.

"There are things that define us as a distinct people of this land, and also there are things that define us as part of the universal culture" and young Hawaiians must be prepared to live in both worlds, he said.

"In the ocean, who are my teachers? A Micronesian, a haole, and my first teacher in the ocean was pure Japanese," he said.

Hawai‘i’s future, in Thompson’s mind, is one in which the Hawaiian community resolves its own requirements and moves forward under good leadership. The traditional navigator himself is most comfortable on the ocean. He is distinctly uncomfortable being portrayed in the role of a community icon. And he is clear that despite his strong support in the Hawaiian community, he will not be the political leader.

"I’m not going into formal politics, period. I really believe in education, and I want to stay focused there. I’m not the voice of the Hawaiian community. I’m just one Hawaiian. I’m just responding and thinking thoughts and asking questions. I’m not trying to define what someone else’s future might be," he said.

"I don’t know if leadership is going to come from a single individual," he said. "When you get into the communities, you’ve got Hawaiian people in there doing really good work.

"I disagree with the statistics if they are expressed in a way that says we don’t have good leadership. We do."

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