Panelists

Kekuni Blaisdell, M.D. - is a professor emeritus of medicine and consultant in the Department of Native Hawaiian Health, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaiʻi, in Honolulu. He graduated from the Kamehameha School for Boys during World War II in 1942, received a BA in pre-medicine from the University of Redlands in California in 1945, and an MD from the University of Chicago School of Medicine in 1948. In 1983, Kekuni contributed to the first document on the grave health status of Kanaka Maoli for the US Congress Native Hawaiians Study Commission Report and, in 1985, the E Ola Mau Native Hawaiian Health Study Report. These provided findings and recommendations for the 1988 US Congress Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act and the Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship Program. In 1986, he was a co-founder of E Ola Mau, a Kanaka Maoli health professionals organization; and in 1998, a charter member of Ahahui O Na Kauka, a Kanaka Maoli physicians association. Since 1984, Kekuni has been a member of the Kanaka Maoli Sovereignty Movement and, in 1993, was convenor of the Kanaka Maoli Tribunal.

Richard Falk - Richard Falk is the Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and the Bette and Wylie Aitken Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Chapman University School of Law. Since 2002, he has been a Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2001 he served on a three person Human Rights Inquiry Commission for the Palestine Territories that was appointed by the United Nations, and previously, on the Independent International Commission on Kosovo. In 2008, he was appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council to be a special rapporteur for Palestine. His book, The Great Terror War (2003), considers the American response to September 11, including its relationship to the patriotic duties of American citizens. He published Costs of War in 2008. He is also the author or coauthor of numerous additional books, including Religion and Humane Global Governance; Human Rights Horizons; On Humane Governance: Toward a New Global Politics; Explorations at the Edge of Time; Revolutionaries and Functionaries; The Promise of World Order; Indefensible Weapons; Human Rights and State Sovereignty; A Study of Future Worlds; and, This Endangered Planet. He is coeditor of Crimes of War. He serves as Chair of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's Board of Directors and as honorary vice president of the American Society of International Law. He also acted as counsel to Ethiopia and Liberia in the Southwest Africa Case before the International Court of Justice. He received his B.S. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; L.L.B. from Yale Law School; and J.S.D. from Harvard University.

Maivân Clech Lâm - Associate Director and Professor of Law, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, CUNY. She is the author of "At the Edge of the State: Indigenous Peoples and Self-Determination" (Innovation in International Law) focusing on issues raised by the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, this study reveals the obstacles that lie in the way of self-determination for these peoples in all parts of the world. The author argues, using both legal and social theory, that the right of self-determination can and should be available to indigenous peoples, and proposes measures that the UN might institute to oversee the realization of this right.

Jon Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio, Ph.D - Jonathan Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio is Director of Hawaiian Studies at the Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where he received his Ph.D. in 1996. His research and teaching interests include 19th- and 20th-century law and politics in Hawaiʻi; music and identity; and Indigenous rights. He is also deeply interested in designing an educational curriculum that promotes Native Hawaiian values and forms of leadership. Mānoa

Kūhiō Vogeler, Ph.D "Kūhiō Vogeler is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science. He is a former East Center Degree Fellow and an ʻOiwi Ake Akamai Fellow. He has been involved with Hawaiian struggles for the past eighteen years and has participated in many protests and demonstrations, including the 1993 ʻOnipa'a Commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian government. The focus of his dissertation is a comparison of the political history of the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) and Hawaiʻi.

Paul Kealoha Blake (Moderator) - Director of East Bay Media Center, is a videographer, musician, and cultural activist. He has worked within the Native Hawaiian community for more than 20 years. He has collaborated with California Indian Storytellers Association (CISA) for 8 years as an organizational and cultural advisor, as well as a videographer and documentarian.

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Five scholar/activists confront the myth of statehood in Hawaiʻi and present the complexity of Hawaiʻi's relationship with the United States in the world today.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Hawaiʻi statehood, a landmark event that suggests hula dancing, parades, and luaus. On the contrary, the subject of statehood is a highly controversial one and this panel will introduce the history, struggle, and perspective on independence and decolonization.

A free event sponsored by Visual Communications as part of their Silver Jubilee Asian Pacific film festival in Los Angeles, April 30-May 07 2009.

**Please print attached PDF for distribution**