Here’s a tip for mainland dark money groups trying to gin up a catchy Hawaiian name to push political agendas in local elections: research your selection before spreading it around. Particularly if the name involved is being used by a group of respected kupuna dedicated to preserving revered Hawaiian history.
As the minutes from a 2015 meeting of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) indicate, Hawaiian rights activists Clare Apana and Jocylynn Costa, who say they advocate for the ‘aina, ancestors and history, appeared on behalf of their Hui O Maui organization to discuss the Kūʻē Petitions of 1897 (Kūʻē means “opposition” in Hawaiian). The petitions are among the most treasured items of Hawaiian history–a massive signed protest against the annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States. At the time, 21,269 signatures representing 95% of the Hawaiian population were collected and hand-carried to Washington, D.C. for delivery to the U.S. Senate. Ultimately, the Kingdom was absorbed as a U.S. Territory.
At the 2015 meeting, Costa and Apana reported to OHA on their ongoing efforts to create a genealogical database of the descendants of the petition’s signers. “We look to our Kupuna with great respect for their wisdom and guidance,” the two said in a statement to Politics on Maui.
They didn’t expect a mainland dark money group to rip off their name.
“Today we see that this name is being used by a group that quite likely comes from funding sources outside of the Hawaiian islands,” they said. “It is a stark contrast to the grassroots advocacy of a group that wants to save the health and life of Maui and advocate for the true history of the Hawaiian people.”
They described the original Hui O Maui as a “group that is deeply concerned for the incursion of development upon the ecosystem and the ultimate fostering of life, which is in keeping with our traditions.”
That doesn’t sound remotely close to the goals of the organization that appropriated the name. The group of unknown donors also bestowed it on their Hui O Maui Citizens for Change super PAC, and crowbarred it into the name of the ballot issue committee Vote No on Charter Amendments Hui O Maui Nui We Can’t Afford It. Grant David Gillham and Buddy James Nobriga, the respective chairs of those groups, did not respond when contacted for comment on their use of the Hui O Maui name. There is no one to ask at the Hui O Maui mothership. When Peter Bagatelos, the San Francisco attorney who is the only name associated with the parent organization, was contacted by Honolulu Civil Beat earlier this month, he claimed, “I’m just the attorney. The decision-making is not in my purview.”
The goal of Hui O Maui’s cohorts is to elect a largely business-friendly, conservative slate of Maui County Council representatives and to defeat all seven proposed charter amendments.
The Hawaiian Hui O Maui has very different aims. “We support the charter amendments because they will benefit all,” Apana and Costa said in their statement. “We oppose the misinformation that is being given to scare the public. The division of a people or a community cannot be done by such scare tactics. We believe the Maui we know and love would not stand for the kind of political aggression as we have seen when big money comes in to affect our local politics.”
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