“Eō e nā ʻŌiwi ʻōlino.
Answer, o Natives, those who seek wisdom.”
Welina! This inaugural “Nā ʻŌiwi ʻŌlino” column is designed to keep our lāhui updated on the work of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ (OHA) Public Policy team. Mahalo to the late Aunty Mālia Craver who gifted the name to OHA in the early 2000s for its Native Rights Campaign. She shared that the intention behind the name was “to have the [lāhui] be people with knowledge and wisdom in everything they do.”
In this spirit, we will spotlight advocacy issues that OHA is currently working on and invite you to join us in taking collective action for our lāhui.
Our team advocates year-round at the county, state, and federal levels, in both agency and legislative forums, to ensure Native Hawaiian perspectives and rights inform important policy decisions.
The state legislative session that opens on the third Wednesday in January is particularly important for advancing policies that improve the conditions of Native Hawaiians and defending against attacks on Native Hawaiian rights.
For the 2026 legislative session, OHA’s trustees have approved the following six bills for our team to champion. We hope the lāhui will join us in supporting these bills.
Relating to Island Burial Councils
The five Island Burial Councils (IBCs) play an integral role in implementing the state’s Historic Preservation Law (HRS Chapter 6E) and protecting iwi kūpuna, including by approving burial treatment plans and recognizing lineal and cultural descendants. Currently, several IBCs have been limited in their ability to carry out these essential functions due, in part, to difficulties recruiting candidates and meeting quorum requirements for voting. This bill proposes reducing static quorum requirements, authorizing OHA to provide per diem stipends for regional members, and extending the timeline for filling mid-term vacancies from 30 to 75 days.
Relating to historic preservation
Act 293 (signed in July 2025) expanded an existing loophole in the state’s Historic Preservation Law by exempting projects on residential properties in so-called “nominally sensitive areas” from review. This new category of properties could be interpreted to cover large developments in areas known to contain a high concentration of iwi. The term “nominally sensitive” could be interpreted to include construction sites where work commenced prior to the enactment of legal mandates to survey or inventory properties for burials. This bill would close this loophole by removing the “nominally sensitive” language and limiting the residential exemption to projects without a ground-disturbing impact.
Relating to the Land Use Commission
The Land Use Commission (LUC) is responsible for placing all land in Hawaiʻi in one of four categories (conservation, rural, agricultural, urban), and ruling on petitions to reclassify land, usually from a lower to higher classifications to enable development. This bill would mandate that at least one LUC member have expertise in water resource management and empower OHA to recommend candidates for the existing Hawaiian land use and cultural practice expertise seat. This would ensure critical water expertise informs land use decisions early in the planning process and give OHA – and beneficiaries – a role in nominating candidates to the Hawaiian expert seat.
Protect reef fishes from commercial aquarium collection
This bill would permanently prohibit extraction of Hawaiʻi’s nearshore marine life for commercial sale as aquarium pets and ornamental aquarium displays, with exceptions for scientific and educational institutions. The proposed ban is consistent with OHA’s existing duties to advance Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights under Article XII, section 7 of the Hawaiʻi State Constitution as aquarium collection is associated with the decline of targeted fish species, including those used by Native Hawaiians for cultural and subsistence purposes.
Amend the Hawaiʻi State Constitution to prohibit live-fire military training
The public land trust is comprised primarily of former crown and government lands of the Hawaiian Kingdom. This proposed constitutional amendment gives the people of Hawaiʻi the opportunity to protect public trust land from further harm through a question on the 2026 ballot asking: “Shall the Constitution of the State of Hawaiʻi be amended to prohibit destructive live fire military training – defined as the discharge of large caliber munitions employing standard, incendiary, high explosive or inert rounds, whether portable, crew-served, or vehicle- mounted – from occurring on the public trust lands identified in Article XII, section 4?”
Because Hawaiʻi does not have a citizen-initiated ballot process, the only way to place the live fire issue before the electorate is by passing a bill through a two-thirds supermajority of House and Senate members. If this bill passes the legislature, this question will go before voters next November.
Relating to rent stabilization
Median rents in Hawaiʻi increased by approximately 80% between 2019 and 2023, contributing to Hawaiʻi’s affordability crisis. Unaffordable housing is a primary driver for the out-migration of residents and decreases the quality of life for the 52.5% of Native Hawaiian families in Hawaiʻi that spend more than 30% of their income on housing. This bill will establish a 3% cap on rent increases, consistent with the average annual cost of living increase received by wageworkers but provides exemptions for owner-occupied properties.
For more information, visit oha.org/advocacy.
This article is reprinted with permission from OHA's Ka Wai Ola newspaper: "Summary of OHA’s 2026 Legislative Package" by Leināʻala Ley, OHA Chief Advocate, in its January 2026 issue, Vol. 43 No. 1. Read more at kawaiola.news.
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