Questions
1 What are the top three issues facing the Native Hawaiian community today?
2 OHA’s mission is to improve conditions for Native Hawaiians. What skills do you offer to help OHA fulfill its mission?
3 How can OHA better ensure that Maunakea and its cultural and environmental integrity are appropriately protected?
Nonpartisan Special
AGE: 50
Community Outreach Advocate
shaneforoha@gmail.com
www.shaneforoha.com
- The top three issues Native Hawaiians face are economic resilience, self-governance, and sustaining resources that support our community. We need to rebuild a new, sustainable, and resilient economy, so we can focus less on surviving and strive for self-governance. And when we are self-determining, we can grow and sustain the resources we need for our community. Ola kānaka, ola Hawaiʻi. Hawaiians thrive, Hawaiʻi will thrive.
- OHA’s boardroom needs leaders with skills who balance the needs of both our culture and economy, assert our rights as we navigate this “new normal,” and restore the pilina between the beneficiaries and the trust’s decision-makers. Decades of doing community work, 15 years in tourism, and nearly eight years at OHA will help do this. I commit to applying my knowledge of key issues across Hawaiʻi, facilitate difficult discussions on complex matters, effective grassroots advocacy strategies, strategic thinking and execution, and team- and relationship-building to the board.
- The future of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunkea is uncertain. The immediate term, continue to dialogue and engage with the University of Hawaiʻi, the State, and the County of Hawaiʻi. Long term, OHA can advocate to broaden project development and approval processes to include community in the initial planning phases to address concerns early on, bridging decision-makers and community engagement in good faith, we can work toward maintaining cultural and environmental integrity, mitigating negative impacts, and realizing benefits for all.
