2019-04-15 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – April 15, 2019 Americans have a card that says they have the right to gather for subsistence only – not for commercial use. Why don’t we have that? Now, if the Hawaiian decides to go over there and start to practice – you can bring your cousins, your uncles and aunties and a Filipino that are not Hawaiian to be with you - just take the Hawaiian – you see what I’m saying? Why is it not being done here? Pele Defense Fund has been working on this exemption for a long time – why are we not doing that and why is this? Because game management plan is not available. Manage – not enforce. Enforce is pau already – that’s penal system. I stood in a courtroom with a lot of the hunters and fishermen that have violated regulations from fishing with a small net or even a spear – took his son to show him how to spear in a little pond - DLNR took them to court. Now, there’s not separate court for our customary practices \[unclear\] to criminal court, did you know that? Our hunters and fishermen go to criminal court – they stand with all the criminals – now how does that make me feel as a Hawaiian – standing there knowing that it is my right and I have to be in front of judge telling me, you going pay for violating a rule and regulation. Rule and regulation is different from State Constitution. This is not being abided by and it should start here and the Game Management Advisory Council and this is what we’re here for here today. Any more questions. GD: I think, you’re encouraging us to take multiple steps, here, right? Starting with creating a game management plan so how would we go about doing that on a County level? T: That would be great. We can help you with that. We can help you with that. When we – this is where you work with your hunters, your fishermen, your native gatherers to create a home rule plan that will help you partner – not beef – partner with enforcement – partner with DLNR, with DAR, OHA, ground level – county level. NP: For a little history – for years now as GMAC has been in existence we’ve been fighting and fighting and fighting for a game management plan and we’ve been hounding the DLNR, we’ve been writing letters, we’ve had so many testimonies about it – they’re so resistant. So that’s the problem that we’re having is their resistance to make a game management plan – that’s the problem. T: May I ask you a question, Nani? Who is writing this - the people or GMAC? NP: There’s been different committees wrote different game management plan proposals – draft plans and then they got changed by the DLNR so they were unacceptable and so it just kept being unresolved so, in fact, I have them right here – one of the draft game management plans and there was a committee of hunters that worked on it really hard, but the DLNR keeps just letting it fall. 14