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Six guests joined host Randall Roth for the concluding episode of a three-part series on Hawaiian sovereignty. Four appeared in the studio — Norma Wong, William Meheula, Quentin Kawananakoa, and Clayton Hee — while Kali Watson and Oz Stender participated by telephone. Meheula contended that Hawaiians needed a self-created governing entity distinct from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which he and Hee acknowledged was a state agency rather than a sovereign body. Kawananakoa argued that sovereignty need not be racially divisive and could benefit all residents, suggesting that a recognized Hawaiian nation would itself be an asset for tourism. Wong described the charge of racial divisiveness as a red herring. Watson said that Hawaiian Homelands already held land, revenues, and infrastructure that could provide the practical foundation of a sovereign entity, though he cautioned that existing homesteaders and waiting-list beneficiaries must not be harmed. Stender stated that as a Bishop Estate trustee he was legally obligated to resist any sovereign claim over the estate's ancestral lands, regardless of his personal views on sovereignty. The unresolved question is what form a Hawaiian governing entity should take and how its establishment would affect non-Hawaiians and existing institutions.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
