The 1978 Hawaii State Constitutional Convention is regarded to be the watershed political event in the modern State of Hawaii. The convention established term limits for state office holders, provided a requirement for an annual balanced budget, laid the groundwork for the return of federal land such as the island of Kahoʻolawe, and most importantly created the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in an effort to right the wrongs done towards native Hawaiians since the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1893. The event also created an ambitious project of preservation of the Hawaiian culture including the adoption of Hawaiian diacritical marks for official usage, use of Hawaiian names, etc. The Hawaiian language became the official state language of Hawaii for the first time since the overthrow.
A major outgrowth of the constitutional convention was the launching of the political careers of men and women who would later dominate Hawaiian politics. Delegates to the convention included:
- Carol Fukunaga, future legislative leader
- Helene Hale, future legislative leader
- Jeremy Harris, future Mayor of Honolulu
- Les Ihara, future legislative leader
- Barbara Marumoto, future legislative leader
- Joseph Souki, future Speaker of the House
- John David Waihee III, future Governor
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Famous quotes containing the words hawaii, state and/or convention:
“A fallen tree does not rise again.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 2412, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)
“There is nothing worse than an idle hour, with no occupation offering. People who have many such hours are simply animals waiting docilely for death. We all come to that state soon or late. It is the curse of senility.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Every one knows about the young man who falls in love with the chorus-girl because she can kick his hat off, and his sister’s friends can’t or won’t. But the youth who marries her, expecting that all her departures from convention will be as agile or as delightful to him as that, is still the classic example of folly.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)