(Kapolei, Oʻahu) – The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) will conduct a ceremony at its Hale Kalaniana‘ole office building in Kapolei on Friday, July 9, 2021 at 9 a.m. to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the signing of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.

To maintain within COVID-19 social gathering guidelines, in-person attendance has been limited to invited government officials, Commissioners, and Homestead Association representatives from throughout the state.

DHHL will livestream the ceremony for public viewing on its website at dhhl.hawaii.gov/live.

“We scaled back our initial plans to keep within the current COVID-19 restrictions,” said Hawaiian Homes Commission Chair William J. Ailā, Jr. “It’s important to acknowledge the effort put forth by Prince Kūhiō and the other Hawaiian leaders who advocated, struggled, and compromised to get the Act passed. Kūhiō didn’t have a vote in Congress but he got the job done and he left a land base and a legacy, a legacy that challenges us to take on the kuleana of not only rehabilitating ourselves but the land as well.”

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was signed into law by President Warren G. Harding on July 9, 1921, and set aside approximately 200,000 acres of land to establish a permanent homeland for native Hawaiians at a time where infectious diseases and displacement from their ancestral lands threatened their future.

The Department intends to hold a series of events throughout the next 12 months to highlight the efforts of the first Hawaiian Homes Commission and the early homesteaders whose success allowed the program to become fully instituted.

More information on the centennial can be found by visiting dhhl.hawaii.gov/hhca100.

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