STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3561

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    GOV. MSG. NO. 894

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred Governor's Message No. 894, submitting for study and consideration the nomination of: 

 

Island Burial Council, Islands of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau

 

G.M. No. 894

NATHAN KALAMA,

for a term to expire 6-30-2016,

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     Your Committee has reviewed the personal history, resume, and statement submitted by the nominee and finds Nathan Kalama to possess the requisite qualifications to be nominated to the Island Burial Council, Islands of Kauai and Niihau.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of the nomination of Nathan Kalama from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Halau Palaihiwa o Kaipuwai, and seven individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that Mr. Kalama has a vast knowledge of ancestral Hawaiian remains and has embraced the extraordinary responsibility of caring for ancestral remains.  Mr. Kalama has provided the protocol ceremonies for the re-internment of ancestral remains in the last five cases before the Island Burial Council, Islands of Kauai and Niihau.  Mr. Kalama served a short interim term on the Island Burial Council, Islands of Kauai and Niihau, from September 2010 to March 2011, and wishes to continue his service.

 

     Mr. Kalama is a respected kumu hula on the island of Kauai who knows the Kauai community through his businesses, cultural enterprises, and community involvement.  The nominee founded the Malie Foundation, the Malie Scholarship Fund, and the Malie Awards to promote, perpetuate, preserve, and educate the public about native Hawaiian traditional and contemporary practices.  Through the Malie Foundation's acclaimed Kauai Mokihana Festival and other educational programs, Mr. Kalama has touched the lives of Kauai residents, visitors, and young people.  Your Committee believes that the nominee will bring to the Island Burial Council a peace-centered perspective that recognizes the dignity of ancestral bones.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee, after full consideration of the background, experience, and qualifications of the nominee, has found the nominee to be qualified for the position to which nominated and recommends that the Senate advise and consent to the nomination.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

 

 

 

____________________________

BRICKWOOD GALUTERIA, Chair