The ‘Aha Ki’ole Advisory Committee, in its letter, urged the president, “to please listen to the people of the CNMI as you never listened to the Native Hawaiians. We will forever mourn the loss of our Northwestern islands. Please do not inflict this heartbreak and outrage on another Pacific culture.”
According to the committee, Native Hawaiian communities have “followed the progress of Pew’s attempt to establish another marine monument…with anger, trepidation and despair.”
The Pew Group is the main proponent of the Marianas marine monument.
The committee said Bush created the national marine monument in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands “without the participation of the Native Hawaiian people.”
It noted that all of the CNMI’s top elected officials, including the four mayors “emphatically said ‘No’ to the monument. As leaders elected by the people to represent them, why will you not listen to them?”
Department of Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Ignacio Dela Cruz said he and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s member on Saipan, former DLNR Secretary Benigno M. Sablan, as well as Wespac’s CNMI onsite coordinator, Jack Ogumoro, met the officers and members of the ‘Aha Ki’ole, during the council’s 143rd meeting in Honolulu last month.
The ‘Aha Ki‘ole Advisory Committee was created by a Hawaii state law. According to the Molokai Dispatch, ‘Aha Ki’ole is an ancient form of government begun over 1,000 years ago. Its traditions are now being adapted by the Hawaiian community in order to advise the state Department of Land and Natural Resources in resource management using traditional practices.
