Senate Standing Committee on Hawaiian Affairs

Aloha, everyone. This is the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs at the Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 1PM agenda. We are here in Conference Room 224.

If for some reason we have to adjourn or we have an IT problem, we will reconvene on the 16th at 01:05PM, again, here in Room 224. We have just a couple of testifiers.

We have one GM on the agenda for Miss Kayla Prevello. Testifiers, Jessica, you are up first.

Good afternoon, Chair, Members of the committee. My name is Jessica Puff. I'm the administrator of SHPD. Miss Crivello currently is a member of the Hawaii Island Burial Council where she has served faithfully.

I believe this nomination is to change her seat from, I believe, large landowner to the Kona representative.

She has familial ties and has done significant work within the Kona community and would make a great regional representative for the Kona area. So we strongly recommend her to be nominated. Thank you.

Thank you. Next testifier, Lealoha Makuinani on Zoom. Oh, there we go.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the committee. Leialoha Makuanani on behalf of the office of Hawaiian affairs. We are in struck support of this nomination for Cayla Crivello, who has honorably served as a member of the Hawaii Island Burial Council since 2021,

and has been serving as the Chair since August 2025. And we believe she's demonstrated responsible leadership during that time and a commitment to the council's responsibilities. So I'm available for questions.

Thank you. There's no one else in the room. IT, is there anybody else on Zoom for testing?

We actually have the GM, present on Zoom.

Oh, terrific. Okay. Before we get tell you what. Let's go ahead and bring miss Crivello on. Hello, miss Crivello?

Hello. Alright. So we had two testifiers in support of you. Can you give a statement? Just, tell the committee a little bit about yourself and why this is important to you.

Yes. My name is La Crivello. I'm nominee for the corner representative seat on Hawaii Island Burial Council. I was born and raised from in Alele Of Kailua, Oahu, but my ohana is from Moku o Keawe from various parts,

but specifically from Kekaha and the Kapalilua and Konakaiopua areas of Kona. I have on my mother's side, my Kupuna Kua Lima are Martha Kale Makule Alapai, Samuel William Kaaai, Kowi Kanekumu Mukahale, and George Kiolo and their children,

Julia Baha Kualikai, John Lee Makani Naipo Keala, Kapaka Kawa Bush, and Kulekawa Keala are all descendants of the Kona region.

And I am descendants of them, of course, a descendant of them. So I come here today just representing my ohana, but also my community as somebody who understands the kaupaha of Kuleana in Malamaivi Kupuna and just with a very strong desire to support the

rest of my community and their ability to claim and reclaim their pilina to their kupuna and to their ina and Onehunga. That's about it. I'm not sure if there's any questions for me.

K. Well, the committee, we circulated the answers to your question and your resume. Okay. I will ask committee members, do you have any questions of our testifiers or of our candidate? Vice Chair?

Are you good?

Yep. Yes. I'm a have a question.

Okay. Go ahead.

I thank you, Kayla. Did I pronounce that correctly? Kayla?

Yes.

Thank you. Yes. And thank you so much for putting your name in the hat. I think it's so important that we have deep roots in the areas that we serve in. So I'm happy to see that you are representing Moku Okiyave.

I guess, what would you like to see moving forward for the Island Burial Council? I mean is there anything that you believe that the council may be able to improve upon or any kind of forward type thinking or vision You seem to represent the younger generation

as we all are, but I would like to know vision forward, what do you see for something like the Island Burial Council?

For myself, I think the number one focus to me on the council is not what I envision or what I see and what I want. It's collectively within our communities, there are really different views of what that can look like, and it's going to depend on the different places and the different

Ohana and the different situations which each Ohana are faced with with their kupuna.

There are Pa'ilina and iwi kūpuna throughout the pae aina that are being handled very differently by landowners and then simultaneously by the Ohana when they they're, say, in an inadvertent cases where they're discovered during work.

And I think what I envision for the burial council is moving forward, continuing to keep in mind the foundation of Pilina Aina, Pilina Aloha, and caring for the mokopuna of the place just as much as I'm caring for the iwi kūpuna because those mokopuna are our direct relations

to the people that we are you know, the iwi that we're protecting. And so each family is gonna have a different way that they might feel is appropriate to handle every situation and kind of visited this in the past before in conversations.

But when you deal with inadvertence, for example, an inadvertent can be really comaha in general, but it could come from high surf. It could come from development. It could come from a a a variety of different situations. And so each time it has to be handled differently.

We see in Ohana, sometimes they want to to reenter somewhere closer to the rest of their family because they've found kupuna that they didn't they they, you know, initially were buried in one place, but the rest of the Ohana is buried somewhere else.

Or sometimes they wanna move iwi inland because they wanna make sure that they're protected from high surf in the future. And in other cases, they wanna preserve in place or reenter for a different reason. And I'm not somebody who makes decisions on those

kinds of things just like with the overall function of the burial council. I don't make decisions so much as I hear from community what they need and try to find ways to support those needs and to amplify their voices through myself and the rest of our council.

So I envision burial council continuing. I think we're moving slowly as a collective, as a community into a better space. We're recognizing that maybe there are rules that were in place at a time prior that we still have that had a function at the time that they were made.

And maybe moving forward, those need to shift a little bit to consider that we've learned more, that we've grown more, that our communities are different in how we function. Our needs are changing.

So just like with the inadvertent, my job as a council member is to not have a personal opinion, but be able to sit and hear the feelings and the needs of the community and have discretion for and consideration for them in whatever decisions we make and whatever movement we

make forward. I don't know if I'm rambling too much, but that's kind of what I feel.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And then, Chair, one last question, if I may, please. Thank you so much.

Just with that topic of moving iwi kupuna, it's very controversial, but then we deal with things like coastal erosion, things like that. I guess what are your thoughts? Do you believe that it can be moved if done properly and within order?

Or is that something that you just want to continue to remain protected where it's at and where it's at it where it stays?

So with preservation in place and relocation, it's a case by case basis. It's not something that you know, I have I have Manoa that I can share with the Ohana as they the descendants as they participate in those discussions.

I have Manoa I can share with SPHDT when they're dealing with, inadvertent. And, I have Manoa to share with the burial council members themselves when we're dealing with previously identified iwi.

The whether the burial council is making the determination or being consulted and supporting descendants and SHPDT in the determination of preservation at place and relocation, every situation is so different.

And I don't actually have this standard on we always preserve in place or we always relocate. I feel that there's a way to do it properly. It's a part of our culture practices to do to canoe.

And so that so, yes, of course, I believe that we have the ability as a as a people to do relocations, to do to disinter and reenter our iwi. But the decision on whether or not to do that, you know, like you said, coastal erosion is an issue.

We have high surf that will expose iwi and sometimes do damage. We have I've had situations with re internment where Ohana decided, you know, it's in situ. We wanna preserve in place.

And then we go down to kind of just go through the process that that requires, and they decide on the ground, you know what? I think we do need to relocate.

So the the kuleana that falls on that I believe falls on myself as a council member is actually just to be there through that process with them, to walk through that process,

to be in alignment with descendants and and support their needs as they heal through that process. And their Ohana have these discussions on what to do. Because sometimes within even the families, they don't agree on what to do.

And so prioritizing the relationships of the people involved and putting aloha at the forefront of everything we do, I think it's more so about our community coming together to make that decision than it is about me actually being the one to make it.

So I don't have I don't necessarily have an answer for that beyond that. It it depends.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chair.

Okay. Thank you. Senator Keohokalole, you just came in. You have the documents. Do you have any questions for the candidate?

Or you go, Senator Lamosao.

So you've been serving since 2021. Is that correct?

Yes.

Oh, okay. Okay. So I just wanted to so this is just, like, a reconfiguration.

The she's going from the at large to the Kona District.

Got it. Okay. Thank you.

Alright. Any other questions? Okay. La, we had a great conversation, and I I'm amazed at the quality of candidates that we are receiving, especially for the burial council. So I don't think we need to go into recess.

If there's no other questions, it's the recommendation of the chair to advise and consent to move this to the full full Senate for confirmation. If there are no discussion, Vice Chair for the vote.

Okay. For GM 644, recommendation of the Chair is to advise and consent. [Roll Call]

Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. La, you are confirmed. You'll go to the full Senate for confirmation or you or passport, I should say. You'll go to the full Senate for confirmation, and that date will be, communicated to you. Again, thank you so much for willing to do this.

It's a tough job, but I remember when my first conversation with you and the first thing when I asked you, preserve and place or move. Perfect answer. It depends. Perfect answer. So thank you very much for your time.

We'll communicate to you when the full Senate hearing is.

Mahalo.

Thank you.

That's the end of the agenda. We're adjourned.

Congratulations.