Lawmaker won’t apologize after saying Hawaiian leader ‘would have been hung’ for criticizing him

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Some residents are calling for an apology from state Sen. Brenton Awa, who said during a recent public meeting that a respected Hawaiian leader “would have been hung” for criticizing him.

Awa told Hawaii News Now on Monday that he doesn’t regret the comment, which happened during a virtual Kahaluu Neighborhood Board meeting on March 8. The video has subsequently circulated widely.

The heated exchange was over a proposed ban on aquarium fishing, which died when Awa cast the final vote against it in committee.

Hawaiian cultural leader Leialoha Rocky Kaluhiwa, past president of the Koolaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club, confronted Awa during the meeting. She said she was at the Capitol during his vote that helped kill the aquarium fishing ban.

She also said most people support the ban and his staff was helping him with hand signals.

“I was disappointed,” Kaluhiwa said.

She continued: “And I am sure if your grandfather, John, was alive, he would be just as disappointed because our community worked hard for it.”

Awa responded: “I hear you, Rocky. You got a lot of misinformation in there. I’ll tell you that we should meet. I’m still waiting. My door is open. I’m right down the road from you. I’ll do it tonight. I’m literally eight houses away.”

He then continued:

“You bring up my grandfather. That’s crazy. If I’m honest, if we are talking Hawaiians, Rocky, if we are talking Hawaiians … you would have been hung … for not supporting a Hawaiian.”

The board chair stopped the discussion after that, saying she didn’t want the meeting to deteriorate.

Kaaawa resident Kamuela Kala’I, a Hawaiian burials advocate who saw the video recently, is in the process of filing complaints with the governor and Senate president.

“It was shocking because I thought he was the good guy who was going to come in and do good for the community,” Kala’I said. “That is ridiculous and crazy and reprehensible and unacceptable from a public servant an elected official in a public meeting.”

She added Awa should apologize to Kaluhiwa and the community.

Awa said he responded in the “heat of the moment.”

“She (Kaluhiwa) was attacking my family she was attacking my credibility,” he said.

Awa added he has no intention to apologize.

He said a count of the testimony on Senate Bill 505 showed more testifiers opposed to the ban than supporting it, although supporters point out that it has been endorsed by area neighborhood boards and the Hawaiian Civic Club.

Awa also pointed out two other members of the five-member committee opposed the bill.

“She was spewing things. I said something back to her. I don’t regret it,” he said.

Asked if it was appropriate to the public meeting he said, “If it was Manoa Neighborhood Board, Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board probably not. But it’s Kahaluu Neighborhood Board. We do things different. It’s the country.”

HNN did reach Kaluhiwa and she declined to comment.

Awa said voters will be the final judge. He faces re-election next year.

“I am never going to regret something that comes out of my mouth. It’s true to me,” he said.