My letter to the Board of Trustees

Aloha Chair Kahele and Members of the Board of Trustees:

My name is Malialani Trina-Marrotte Kelekoma. I am a Native Hawaiian beneficiary from Anahola, Kauaʻi. I write to respectfully urge this Board to consider appointing Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu — Kumu Hina — as the next Administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

I understand the Board has before it three finalists from its national search, and I do not write against any of them. I write because the Board is not bound to that list. The authority to appoint the Ka Pouhana rests with you, the elected trustees of our people — and with that authority comes the freedom to choose the leader our lāhui most needs at this moment, whether or not her name came through a search firm.

Kumu Hina has spent her life in service to Native Hawaiians. As a kumu and educator, she has taught generations of our keiki their language, their culture, and their worth. As a cultural practitioner and advocate, she has stood for our people in the community for decades — not for recognition, but because the work needed doing. She is known across Hawaiʻi and beyond as a voice of aloha, dignity, and truth for our people. When our community speaks of trust, her name is spoken with it.

I know what it is to wait on the promises made to Hawaiian families. I spent 35 years on the Hawaiian Home Lands waitlist before receiving a lease award this year. I say this not in bitterness, but because beneficiaries like me measure OHA not by its budgets or its buildings, but by whether it truly stands beside our families. The next Administrator must be someone the people believe in — someone whose life already proves where her heart is. Kumu Hina is that person.

An agency holding trust assets approaching a billion dollars for the betterment of Native Hawaiians needs more than administration. It needs a leader rooted in our culture, accountable to our people, and unafraid to lead with aloha. I believe Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu is such a leader, and I respectfully ask the Board to give her appointment its full and fair consideration.

Mahalo for your service to our lāhui, and for your consideration of this letter.

Me ke aloha,

Malialani Trina-Marrotte Kelekoma

Native Hawaiian beneficiary — Anahola, Kauaʻi