Rowena Noelani Akana
Jan. 15, 1943 – Nov. 6, 2025
“We cannot continue to let others decide our future,” wrote longtime Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) trustee, Rowena Akana. “We will be one nation and one people. Let us embrace each other’s views no matter how different they are from our own.”
Known as a passionate, strong-willed and outspoken advocate for Native Hawaiian rights, Akana came from humble beginnings. Born during World War II, she grew up in Pālolo Valley on Oʻahu.
A proud Roosevelt High School “Rough Rider,” upon graduation, Akana moved to the continent, enrolling at New York University. A haumana of nā kumu hula Puanani and Leilani Alama from Kaimukī, she had the opportunity, while living in New York, to perform at the 1964 World’s Fair. She later continued her formal education at Kapiʻolani Community College and UH Mānoa.
In the late 60s Akana got married and started a family. Her husband, an air traffic controller, was later relocated to Guam and the family lived there for two years.
They returned to Hawaiʻi in the aftermath of the 1978 Constitutional Convention. It was 1979 and more than a hundred candidates were vying for one of the nine trustee seats for the newly created Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Akana’s friend, Rodney Burgess, was one of them. He asked Akana to be his campaign coordinator.
This was the catalyst for Akana’s political awakening. In a 2018 interview on ThinkTech Hawaiʻi, Akana recalled first learning about Hawaiʻi’s political history through workshops provided to educate the community by attorneys John Waiheʻe, Sr., John Van Dyke and Judge William Richardson – information she described as “eye opening.”
As she came to understand the hope for change that OHA represented, she increasingly focused on the fact that, since its establishment, OHA has been under-funded by the State of Hawaiʻi.
“OHA had a difficult time with the mandate to ʻbetter conditions for Native Hawaiians’ [because] they had no money. The state was just giving them peanuts and Hawaiians began to get disenchanted with OHA thinking, ʻwell this is our great hope and nothing is happening,’” Akana said in the 2018 interview.
This, along with her growing activism, prompted Akana to run for OHA herself in 1990. She won an At-Large trustee seat, eventually serving for nearly three decades (from 1990 through 2018). She was re-elected seven times and during her tenure she twice served as both board chair and vice-chair.
Throughout her political career, Akana was a vocal advocate for Native Hawaiians. She was an early critic of Maunakea’s mismanagement; was involved in a kūpuna health care task force; and advocated to exempt Kuleana Lands from property taxes – as a result, the maximum property tax on Kuleana Lands is $100 per year.
In 2007, her advocacy for Hawaiian soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan influenced the creation of the Army’s Warrior Transition Units to coordinate care for soldiers with serious physical or mental conditions.
Akana was known as a formidable opponent who did not shy away from controversy.
“Rowena lived her life as a voice for Hawaiian people. She was strong but always open to hearing positions contrary to her own. A worthy opponent and good friend,” said attorney Mililani Trask who served as an OHA trustee with Akana in the late 1990s.
Beyond politics, Akana worked as a federal grants reviewer, a substance abuse counselor, a radio newscaster and a substitute teacher. She also served for a time as the Pacific Region representative of AIANTA (American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association).
While serving on AIANTA’s board, Akana got to know Pohai Ryan, a tourism executive with the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHHA). Ryan convinced Akana to travel with NaHHA to the Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB) Berlin, the world’s largest annual tourism expo.
“She was very committed to economic development for Native Hawaiians,” Ryan recalled. Akana and Ryan later traveled together to AIANTA conventions held on tribal lands.
“Unforgettable. That is how I would describe former OHA Trustee Rowena Akana,” said Ryan. “She was very strong willed, and she enjoyed representing the Hawaiian people.”
As a resident of East Oʻahu, Akana was active with the Niu Valley Community Association and the Hawaiʻi Kai Bobby Sox Softball League. She also belonged to the Musicians Association of Hawaiʻi, the Society of Hawaiʻi Entertainers, and performed as a singer and emcee for the Tavana Polynesian Show in Waikīkī.
“Mom was a force,” said daughter Toni Nickens. “She was a straight shooter and wore her heart on her sleeve. Her methods were not embraced by everyone, but you knew exactly where she stood. You could criticize her approach, but never her heart for our lāhui.”
Akana’s heart for the lāhui is best understood through manaʻo she shared in a September 2017 Ka Wai Ola column:
“What we face today as Hawaiians, the Indigenous people of our lands, is no different than what occurred over 100 years ago. We are still fighting to protect our culture, rights to our lands, and our entitlements. Times may have changed but people are still the same. Greed is still the motivation behind efforts to relieve us of whatever entitlements we have left. The fight is even more difficult now that our enemies have become more sophisticated in ways to manipulate us and the law.
“We are one people. We cannot afford to be divided, not when so much work remains to be done. The struggle to regain our sovereign rights requires unity and the strength of numbers. Let us work together for the cause of nationhood. Let us agree on the things that we can agree to and set aside the things we differ on and move forward together for the future generations of Hawaiians yet to come.”
Rowena Akana is survived by her daughters Toni Akana Nickens and Ann-Marie Tomisato, and her three grandchildren, Cheyenne Noʻeauonalani Nickens, Nathaniel Tomisato and Micah Tomisato. A hoʻolewa and celebration of life will be held at Kawaiahaʻo Church on Thursday, January 15 (her birthday). Visitation at 10:00 a.m. and services to follow at 11:00 a.m.
