The Office of Hawaiian Affairs on Tuesday rolled out a website called Mo‘oaupuni, which is intended to present material relating to what’s referred to as “Hawaiian political landscapes.”

UPDATE: It turns out the original URL was hawaiiangovernance.org. It’s now been changed to mooaupuni.org and is working fine.

“Moʻoaupuni seeks to provide resources from a wide array of perspectives in an open, neutral setting,” the site explains. “However, it is not a comprehensive source on every and all aspects of Hawaiian governance. It is but one halau sharing information about Hawaii’s political history and current nation-building landscape.”

The website comes just a few days before some 95,000 Native Hawaiians are scheduled to vote next month on delegates to a convention next year that could lead to a self-determination process.

Screen shot from the Moʻoaupuni website.
Screen shot from the Moʻoaupuni website. hawaiiangovernance.org

As with Nai Aupuni, however, OHA takes pains to distance itself.

OHA did not edit or insist on any approval process for the enclosed documents or presentations prior to their being uploaded,” the website explains. “The information and views represented in this online repository of perspectives on Native Hawaiian self-determination do not necessarily represent the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, or any individuals listed with the exception of the authors of each respective document or presentation.”

Mo‘oaupuni includes a 3-D political history (which notes the Hawaiian Kingdom’s constitution, the 1893 overthrow, the Akaka Bill and the Department of Interior’s rule-making process, for example), a political historical timeline (from 1300 A.D. to Liliuokalani’s death in 1917, then big leaps to statehood in 1959, and from statehood up to 2005), and a political landscape section that includes Keanu Sai, Bumpy Kanahele and The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, among others.

OHA promises that the site will be updated frequently, so maybe they’ll fill big pukas like the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s, the evictions of Kanaka Maoli from Kalama Valley and Sand Island, and the end to bombing of Kahoolawe, to name just a few important political-historical events important to Hawaiians.

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