STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2849

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 541

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 541, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to designate the seventeenth day of January of each year as Reconciliation Day, to commemorate the memory of Queen Liliuokalani and the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from seven individuals.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from two individuals.

Your Committee finds that on January 17, 1893, the Kingdom of Hawaii witnessed the unjust and illegal overthrow of its sovereign monarch, Queen Liliuokalani, resulting in the disruption of the Hawaiian government and the sovereignty of the Hawaiian people. The actions that culminated in the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and the Kingdom of Hawaii were inconsistent with the principles of justice, self-determination, and international law. In 1993, the United States Congress, through P.L. 103-150, formally acknowledged and apologized for the wrongful acts that the United States committed on January 17, 1893. This measure establishes Reconciliation Day to recognize and remember this historical injustice and to advance efforts made towards reconciliation.

Your Committee notes that Reconciliation Day should be a state holiday and recognizes that establishing Reconciliation Day without granting it full state holiday status is a step towards that goal. In the future, your Committee believes that the State should organize and encourage events that educate the public and state employees about the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, its ongoing legacy, and the dispossession of the Hawaiian people.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 541, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

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MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair