STAND. COM. REP. NO. 631

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1035

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs and Economic Development and Taxation, to which was referred S.B. No. 1035 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MAKAHIKI DAY COMMEMORATION,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to establish each November 20th as the Makahiki Commemoration Day.

 

     There was no testimony submitted on this measure.  Your Committees note that there are supporters of this measure on Rapa Nui.

 

     Your Committees find that Makahiki was a significant time throughout Polynesia.  The rising of the makalii, Pleiades, marks the beginning of the Makahiki season that covers four consecutive months.  Conflict and war were set aside and unity and peace prevailed as the people paid tribute to the god Lono.  To perpetuate the ancient wisdom of land conservation, abundance, unity, and peace during the four months of Makahiki, Polynesian regional governments celebrate the Makahiki season and have designated November 20th as the start of the Makahiki observance.  Groups from Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand or Aotearoa, Easter Island or Rapa Nui, Wallis and Futuna, and the Marquesas Islands all gather in Tahiti to celebrate Matahiti Tau Auhune, a time of harvest.

 

     It is your Committees' intent to support the establishment of each November 20th as the Makahiki Commemoration Day.  Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs and Economic Development and Taxation that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1035, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1035, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs and Economic Development and Taxation,

 

____________________________

CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair

 

____________________________

RUSSELL S. KOKUBUN, Chair