SupportKamehameha.org

Message from Trustees and CEO

Aloha mai kakou,

It has been an eventful week for all of us connected to Pauahi’s Legacy, with much to rejoice in, but also something that many deplore.

This time of year always reminds us of how blessed we are to have Pauahi’s legacy. It is when several hundred students on our campuses and in the Hawaiian-focused charters schools we support receive their diplomas, passionate about their heritage, well-prepared for their future and fully committed to carrying forward Pauahi’s legacy. The pride in our young graduates’ faces makes us feel proud as well. So does the easy blend of Hawaiian language and culture in our commencement ceremonies, and the knowledge that thousands of pre-school aged Hawaiians are better prepared for Kindergarten and that hundreds of college-aged Hawaiian students have the financial support they need to continue their education.

This time of year also reinforces that we have many thousands more to serve, a resolve that was only strengthened by another assault on our private legacy last week.

As you know, a private attorney cast a hook for plaintiffs in a class-action suit, and the media eagerly swallowed the bait, offering this attorney a generous amount of free publicity. We know their hope is that we will respond in kind. We will not. We have, by resolving the Doe lawsuit, solidified our protection at the Appeals Court level. Negotiation over terms of a theoretical lawsuit is unnecessary.

So our response will take place not in the form of a published Op-Ed, but in the form of this communication to Pauahi’s intended beneficiaries and those who have stood strong as supporters of our policy and our mission. We know the rightness of our cause. We know that we are not a publicly-funded “social service,” but a privately funded trust set up to provide an educational remedy for the Indigenous people of these islands. We know that by directing our resources to those Pauahi intended us to serve does not make others “second-class citizens.” On the contrary, it was the Native Hawaiians who were marginalized in their own homeland and whose resurgence into vitality and health Pauahi envisioned.

We wish we could offer this attorney – and any who share his view — a chance to visit the homeless encampments where so many of our people reside. We’d offer him a visit to the state’s prisons and crowded homesteads and to spend a day in the public schools that are failing the standards set by No Child Left Behind. Where is the equality in these places, which are so over-represented by our people?

We wish we could offer him a visit to the charter schools we support and the programs run by our private collaborators and partners. We wish he could see for himself the great strides that are being made in Hawaiian-focused charter schools – even as many of these schools operate in difficult conditions on makeshift campuses. We wish he could witness the interaction between our parents and caregivers and their kamali’i, and see for himself how these bonds will become the foundation of confidence that leads to success in school and in life. We feel certain that he will understand that by following Pauahi’s vision, her legacy is truly shared by all.

We wish we could help him see the narrowness of his vision. This is not about race. It is about restoration.

That’s our wish. Our reality is that we will not let this skirmish distract us from our mission and purpose. Let us all take every chance to educate others about our history and our mission. And when there is no chance for understanding, let us simply move forward to put what we know to be right into practice.

Me ka ha`aha`a,

J. Douglas Ing, Chair, Board of Trustees
Nainoa Thompson, Vice Chair
Diane J. Plotts, Secretary/Treasurer
Robert K.U. Kihune
Corbett A.K. Kalama
Dee Jay A. Mailer, Chief Executive Officer