 Today, to Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Together, I'm Kelea Akina, your host and trustee at large in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. However, I'm here in my private capacity today and don't represent the views of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs nor any of the administration there. Welcome today and we've just finished the 2020 elections. Boy, was that an election cycle. And I'm pleased to say that I was reelected and thank all of you who voted for me. In addition to that, we have today a trustee, a brand new one who was elected to office, Luana Alapa. And we're going to be delighted to hear what she has to say and get to know her. Luana, welcome to the program. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. Well, always. And this is a wonderful holiday season. I see you've got your Christmas tree up already. That was a whole night to take that. We have a lot of things to celebrate. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Right at the outset, what motivated you to move from private life into a public life? You were involved in business before. You were managing your own family. And then all of a sudden you decided to get into the fishbowl and go political. What was it that drove you into that? I think more than anything, it was about going to the second half of my life. My kids are all grown up. My last one, my son is in college and I'm pretty much an empty nester. And moving back to Moloka'i and my dad's property, it's five acres in Ho'olehua. It was an opportunity for me, first of all, to help make my dad's blueprints for the development of his property to become a reality. And while I was there, I've decided that if there's something we'd like to do for our Hawaiian people, it would be something that could give back. My father was always about one of the most important things he taught us, me and my sisters, was that one of the greatest things you could do in your lifetime is to be of service to others. And I thought this would be a wonderful way in which I could implement that and take my father's words seriously and do something that I could give back to the people of Hawaii. And I decided to go for the office of Hawaiian affairs, Moloka'i trustee. And with a lot of support and a lot of prayers every night I pray about it because this is totally out of my comfort zone. But I knew that if my purpose was strictly about serving others, then I was on the right path to doing this properly. So here I am, God, seven months later, it's been an amazing journey. I'll tell you that much, it's just something I would never dream of ever. But I'm so glad that I'm able to do this for all of us, for all of Hawaii. And being a trustee, it's still like, gosh, I can't believe it happened. So very blessed, definitely. Well, Luana, you have been serving all your life, not only your family, but your community. And you've reached out throughout the state. Why political, however? Why go into running for office and become a public office holder specifically? Well, I don't think it was about entering the political arena for states, not like I was growing up and I want to be in the political arena as part of my goals in life. No, it never was like that. It just happens that being involved in an arena of this nature is tied to the political side. And if it's being a service to the Hawaiian people in my community, so be it. I have to enter this arena to be able to do such a thing as becoming a trustee. And being able to uphold the state of giving back and helping others to get to where they need to be all over Hawaiian people are so deserving of a roof over their heads, having the proper education, jobs, training and so forth. There's so much that we need to do. And it doesn't seem like we're kind of moving back as we're trying to move forward. And this is another way in which I felt that I could give a lot more of my time, my education, the things that I have learned over the past years, that I could help our Hawaiian community as well. So that was part of my reason in deciding to run for office. In order to gain the privilege of serving in the office of Hawaiian Affairs, you had to mount a campaign and you had to run against a long term political incumbent. It must have had many challenges. You did not have a political base per se. You didn't have a financial base politically. And yet you decided to run a statewide campaign. What was that like? Oh, my goodness. Where do I begin? Well, one thing for me per se. I'm always about doing something that is different. Being different, meaning I wasn't going to follow the typical standard where it has the certain colors you have to have and you have to do a certain way and so forth. I wanted to stand out in a way in which people remember. Remember me as a candidate. And it's not just the person who I want to laugh about, but the things that I'm doing during this process. And it was always going to be about the people first. So one of the things that I did was, which everyone loved, by the way, and I got to tell you a story about this. It was the pink campaign. And if you saw the pink, everybody knew it. That was Luana. And so the pink campaign was by chance. It ordered my signs, which were of the greens and blues. And when they came back, it was all bright neon pink. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is a general election. If we need to get these signs up. And so I felt like, well, wait a minute, rather than throw them all away, why don't we turn it into something that would be viable that I could utilize this in my campaign. And I knew that the month of October was pink. And that means a pink awareness for breast cancer. And over the many years, I've been involved in helping with breast cancer awareness in the fun runs that they would have, the pink tie ball. And so we're all volunteer for that. So I thought, well, this would be a wonderful way in which we could still raise awareness through the pink campaign. And that's what we have. You saw the pictures there is about the signs. We had breast cancer awareness. And then, of course, the pink for Luana Lapa. And it just worked perfectly. And everybody, and I've had people, women, especially, volunteer to be on my pink campaign because they were breast cancer survivors. And I thought, wow, I was just tickling pink to have them come on board. Now, those who joined me, a lot of them didn't know who they were. They just wanted to be a part of my pink campaign. And so I said, perfect, just come on down. And we'll give you a pink lay or pink sign. And there you have it. And then it grew into what you're seeing in the pictures. And there's a lot more people that wanted to be involved. And so I was able to get them down there, just hand over a sign. So very blessed that I had such a wonderful turnout of supporters, especially for the women, our breast cancer survivors. And quite a bunch of them were on my team as well. So I'm so happy that they could be a part of that. So the pink campaign was perfect. And then the next thing that we did again to separate is to it was about the flyers. And I didn't want to utilize the flyers as just a who's who and so forth. It was about having just everyone in general being a part of this. I didn't want the celebrities and so forth. It was real people, people that wanted to be a part of my campaign and just volunteer their time by giving me their pictures. I had people from all various backgrounds that sent me their photos and asked me, Luana, can you be part of your campaign? And I thought, oh my gosh, of course you can be a part of my campaign. So I had them send their head shots. And then you see, as you can see on the screen, I mean, there were hundreds of them, a lot of them that came through. And I was so blessed to have been part of my flyer campaign. So it was about everybody in general. I wanted everyone to be a part of it. And as you can see there, I was so blessed that they became a part of my flyer campaign. So that was another thing that separated me from the incumbent. And I knew I had to stand out in that manner because I'm the new kid on the block. And you've got an incumbent's been there over 24 years. So I knew we had to work really hard. And I had an excellent marketing company that did a wonderful job on my campaign and ConnectWorksGroup.com. They were just amazing. So I take my hats off to Orna Craig or Saki did a great, great job. So I'm very blessed to have such awesome people in my corner to help push this campaign forward to make that thing stand out amongst any. You know, Luana, it's hard enough to get the larger population across the state of Hawaii to vote in the office of Hawaiian Affairs election, let alone for the trustee of the island of Molokai. When most people in our state don't live on Molokai and don't immediately recognize that they have a right and a responsibility to vote in the election of the Molokai trustee. How did you face that challenge? How did you get people to see that voting for the Molokai trustee is something that should be put on their map? Well, for me, it was about, you know, it's about education. So when you educate the public about OHA because a lot of them didn't know about it. They didn't know they could vote. They thought they had to be from Molokai to vote. They thought they had to, well, this is a Hawaiian thing so they didn't wanna be a part of it and so forth. So we had to ensure that we had to find a way to reach out to them. And that is through education. So through the flyers, through emails, through promotions and so forth, in print work, we did television commercials and so forth, we had to be able to do that especially for people who understand that this is not just a Hawaiian thing. It's a statewide election office so everybody's involved. Everybody can be a part of this. So we had to make sure that that was going to happen in part of our campaign and being able to do this. So as you can see, the reach was phenomenal. Our marketing company did the numbers. They ran the algorithms and it just showed a huge, huge separation between myself and the incumbent. And so they were on track to promote the most incredible campaign for first time or ever. That was part of my purpose in having to do the campaign. Well, you know, you obviously use technology and campaign strategies in order to get your point across. But how did you communicate to people who said, Nesset, perhaps, why should I vote in the OHA race? Because I'm not Hawaiian. What was your response to them? Well, it was not necessarily because you're not Hawaiian but it is a duty that everyone has the opportunity to vote in the OHA elections and not to ignore it because their vote helps us. It helps us, helps the new elected trustees to get into office and we need everybody because this is a statewide election and everyone should be able to do that and not use the I'm not Hawaiian excuse because their vote matters to all of us and without their vote, I know it probably wouldn't be here. So we want to ensure that it does matter that they should consider being a part of this election and not ignore it. So we had to think of ways in which we could, a lot of it was meetings, we had a lot of Zoom meetings and so forth that was fine but still comes down to their own preference. If they wanted to be involved or not, you can't force anybody to do that. So we wanted to be sure that at least we got our point across and it's up to them to be a participant in voting for OHA or not. That's the best we could do. Well, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, I'm going to ask Luana some questions about her goals, what she sees as the greatest needs of the Hawaiian people, how she hopes to tackle those. Don't go away. We'll be right back after this message. I'm Kelea Akina on Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. We'll see you in a minute. Thank you to Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. My guest today is new trustee at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for the island of Molokai, Luana Alapa. Luana, we were talking a bit about your remarkable campaign that got you into office but now that you're in office, your job begins. And it's important to be able to do something that makes a difference in the conditions of the native Hawaiians. What do you think is the greatest need for these native Hawaiians today? For me, part of my campaign platform was about affordable housing. We still have a huge long waiting list of Hawaiians on the HHL Homestead list. And I know as a beneficiary because I really have and very fortunate to have my own to be able to live on Hawaiian Homestead land and so forth. I know the value of that. It is a shame to see our people not able to have a roof over their heads and to begin to enjoy the quality of life that they so desperately need, especially in their own ancestral land. So affordable housing to me is at the top of my list. And I've got to explore the ways in which we need to work with other entities, other companies, other partnerships that we could utilize so that our people have an opportunity. And I'm talking about moving this forward immediate, not in like 10 years from now. We're talking in the next couple, maybe four or five years or less that we can make this happen. So I've been very blessed to have people coming to me after the election and talking to me about affordable housing. And I think we'll talk about that in once we have our first board meeting. But the affordable housing to me is vital for Hawaiian people because it begins to help them set up the quality of life, like I've said, for everyone. We're all deserving of living in beautiful Hawaiian islands and to live the quality of life we're also deserving of. The second thing for me, of course, is about self-sustenance in agriculture and I live on ag land in Ho'olehua. And the pandemic was a perfect example of how much we rely on outside sources to survive. And it shouldn't be like that. You know what I mean? The Hawaiians of all, they didn't survive with anyone else. They survived within themselves and within their own lands that they were able to hunt and fish and so forth. It's not like we can do that. Not everyone has the opportunity to hunt and fish. I know in Molokai we do a lot of that, but not everyone can do it. So we have to find other ways to sustain our lives. We have a lot of land that needs to be developed. But guess what? It takes money. And I can't even develop my father's Ho'olehua agriculture a lot because it takes money to do that. So you gotta go through grants and other forms in order for us to get our agricultural a lot up and running and the things that we have planned there. So if we become an example of that, all of our Hawaiian people who are fortunate to live on agricultural land can do the same thing too. But it does take a little bit of knowledge and know-how and to also educate our Hawaiian people. So they too, those that are fortunate enough to have an agricultural land, they too can begin to develop their own self-sustenance not just for themselves and their family but for all of their community as well. So two things. Obviously Luana, across the Hawaiian islands, Hawaiians are in need of housing as well as economic development. But on your island in particular, Molokai, with the economic situation there and its impact upon social demographics, what are some unique problems to Molokai residents that you might address as a know-how trustee? Well, it's not unique because it's been around for so long. Jobs, there's a lack of jobs opportunity there. There really isn't anything. Tourism is pretty much out the door because of COVID and so forth. But even before COVID hit, it was still at the bottom. So they really didn't have much of me. Almost 90% of the island is on state assistance. So how are we going to turn that around? It's gonna be very difficult. Even if you were to introduce some form of tourism, it has to be more of a control type so that let's say for example, we're bringing groups to come into Molokai and they spend the day there and we'll take them throughout to experience and to see what we do as Hawaiians as we live, just visit the old fishing ponds, to go and hike up into Halawa Valley and so forth. At the end of the day, we fly them back out and they go back to their hotels on a while wherever they came from. So there's that, but you still need support from islanders. They are so in dire need and wanting to work and to live on Molokai instead of moving away and never coming back. And those that do come back like me for example, but I came back for a reason is because they want to live the rest of their lives in the beautiful Molokai, but then you also need to live to survive. You need to, your monies, you need to survive in a way that you can feed yourself and so forth and not rely on outside sources. So we have a work cut out and on Molokai it truly is about jobs. They needed badly there. When you ran for office, one of the planks you ran on was greater transparency and accountability at the office of the line of affairs. What is your thought as to some of the things that the Oha trustee board needs to deal with as you come on board in your first term? Well, I think first of all, you know, you have a new energy myself. I guess I am the new kid on the block and we also have the big island, right? Keola Lindsey, he's gonna be coming on board. So when you're dealing with the new energy that means the personalities, you have nine different personalities on the board and everybody has their own mindset of what they see, what they like, you know, different personality types and so forth. So all about, first of all, is about getting to know each other. And that's how it should be because to me it's like a team and it's working together for the common goal of working towards the betterment of Hawaiian people. And every day that we meet, we have to make sure that we have come to the terms by the end of this meeting that we've come closer to the goal of reaching that, whether it's gonna be on the topic of affordable housing, jobs, education, whatever it may be. But we have to have that in mind so that at the end of our meeting, we can feel good, we can go home and sleep good at night. Knowing we've come this much closer to our goals as a whole. When people see that you have a board of trustees that are close knit, they've worked out their differences because it's not about the I, it's about the we and it's about everybody and us serving them. They have to keep that in mind. For me, that's my mantra. It's about service to others constantly. Nothing else should supersede that. So when people talk about all the audit and we need to see the numbers and so forth, sure. Of course, there shouldn't be any reason why we would hold that back because this is what a state funded public agency, correct? So now we wanna make sure that everyone knows that we're all on the same page and this is what's going on and so forth. So they feel confident and comfortable knowing that we as trustees have their best interests at hands and not our personal interests. Some issues are not too difficult to deal with and I think we're all very glad that recently the office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees set aside a large amount of money to help Hawaiians with the COVID virus. And that's an easy win I think for the Hawaiian people and an easy decision for the office of Hawaiian Affairs to make. But there are also other issues that are controversial and they're very difficult to deal with. For example, what to do about the 30 meter telescope on Mauna Kea? What are your thoughts as to how to approach an issue like that? That hit me from the very start when I first been exposed to these types of situations in regards to issues of Hawaiian matters and so forth. And the TMT was number one and being a newcomer and so forth, especially in this arena, because this is not something I do every day, but I had to quickly learn and be educated. And I spoke with many folks, especially some of the women. I've been so blessed to have powerful women in the Hawaiian community supporting me and backing me and educating me on TMT issues and so forth. It's not necessarily the TMT issue itself, the building and it's really about what to place prior to that. And if you understand DLNR and the University of Hawaii and they were the caretakers of Mauna Kea, so a lot of things got messed up in between, if you will. And people were tired of seeing the things that we support from the education up there, our cultural aspect. We all have to have respect for that because we were here first, right? This is our land, this is our place, but we need to also have the people show respect for that and I think that's what was lacking and what gave us less confidence in those that were handling the Mauna Kea issue. So the other part is outside of that is being able to bring two groups together. Perhaps OHA should have played a bigger part in it and not just allow DLNR and UH to just do their thing. We should have been there from the beginning to ensure that everything was being followed accordingly to protocol and so forth, but obviously it hasn't happened and now you've had this huge foray of people from all over the world contributing their thoughts and energies to it, negative or positive and now you have divisiveness and it should never have been like that in the first place if everything was done accordingly from the very beginning but unfortunately it hasn't happened like that. I may, I personally do not have the power to change anything, it does take people like the board for example to give their input but at the same time you also have to keep in mind about the people first period and when we do that, I think we're gonna have a little, things will just ease up a bit and we'll be able to come back to the bargaining table and talk more intelligently of what's gonna be best for Mauna Kea. Luana, we've come to the end of our program and I have about a minute left. I'd like to ask you to tell us what the Luana factor will be. What does Luana Alafa bring to the table with her eight other colleagues on the trustee board? Well, let's put it this way, as an Aries, that's me, I can give you all the things about myself. You're gonna see a lot of the positivity which is so important today especially. We've gone through a very tough seven, eight months with the COVID and a lot of unhappiness has been out there especially when people are losing jobs and so forth, the personal situations at home but for me, it is all about focusing on the positives. So when I come into the room, it's always gonna be greeted with a wonderful aloha, how are you, good morning. You wanna always start things up on a positive note so you get a lot of that. Energy is important to me because energy is what gives us the opportunity to move forward in a positive way. I know there'll be some negatives and so forth we can get through that, but we always have to look at everything from a positive light and if it's going to serve our people first and foremost, that to me is gonna be an important matter as a aloha trustee. Well, you certainly have a great deal of positivity and energy and it's full of aloha. I wanna thank you Luana for joining us today and I wanna congratulate you on becoming a trustee I'm excited, I'll see you on the board, huh? Look forward to it. You have a great Thanksgiving and holiday season and yeah, look forward to it. Thank you to everyone there at Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha. And to all of you viewing this holiday season, we wish the best to you and your ohana. Stay safe during the COVID crisis, make wise decisions and remember that the aloha spirit covers all things. Until next time, I'm Keli Akinah on Think Tech Hawaii, aloha.