HILO — The organization that convened a gathering of Native Hawaiians last month to draft a constitution document announced Wednesday that the delegates themselves will be responsible for finding a way to arrange a ratification vote.
HILO — The organization that convened a gathering of Native Hawaiians last month to draft a constitution document announced Wednesday that the delegates themselves will be responsible for finding a way to arrange a ratification vote.
“The participants have evidenced a remarkable willingness to identify leadership … and respectfully support the voices of many divergent opinions,” Nai Aupuni president Kuhio Asam said in a statement. “It is for those reasons that we are deferring to the aha participants to further advance their work.”
The decision made by Nai Aupuni, a private organization formed to organize the convention, or aha, is also grounded in the legal challenges the group has faced over the past months.
Aha participation was initially limited to elected delegates from each island. That was challenged in court by a group of both Native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians who said that a race-based election was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court issued an injunction preventing votes from being counted, and the case is currently being appealed.
After the injunction, Nai Aupuni opened the aha to all delegate candidates, with more than 150 ultimately attending the monthlong gathering in February.
Bill Meheula, Nai Aupuni legal counsel, said the group hopes the case will be dismissed now that the election has been canceled and the ratification vote won’t be conducted.
Kelii Akina, one of the lawsuit plaintiffs and a Native Hawaiian, criticized the decision.
“After the millions that have been spent on the state’s nation-building process, from the marketing and lobbying efforts to the aha, what do the Hawaiian people have to show for it? An unconstitutional race-based election effort and a ‘constitution’ that the state seems to want to wash its hands of,” Akina said.
But those who participated in the aha said they felt having delegates work on outreach and education regarding the ratification vote was a natural next step.
“This is an opportunity for those people who participated in the aha to carry it forward,” said Amy Kalili of Hilo, one of 24 Big Island delegates. “Nai Aupuni was there to provide a mechanism and a means to come together and engage on that level, but it became very clear in the first, maybe the second week of the aha that there was a sense of unity forming from participants.”
“The way I’m perceiving it is that yes, the delegates would be able to do it,” said delegate Lei Kihoi of Captain Cook.
Kihoi said the mood on the final day of the convention, when a constitution document was adopted via an 88-30 vote, with one abstention, was one of elation.
“We felt really, really good about it,” she said. “We were very excited about the fact that we completed our mission.”
Moving forward without Nai Aupuni will mean the delegates must secure additional financial resources. Grant funding from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs that had been allocated for the ratification vote will be returned.
Kalili said fundraising talks are already underway. A post-aha organizational meeting has already been held on the Big Island, Kihoi said. Other islands are holding similar meetings, she said.
The constitution document itself allows room for recognition by the U.S. government while holding out for the possibility of independence.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.