The “Whereas” clauses in this legislative resolution are a litany of sadness and failure.

Native Hawaiian women, the resolution states, have been traumatized through history by sexual violence, racism, poverty and disconnection from their culture and their land. “Whereas,” it reads on, “harmful colonial stereotypes have resulted in the sexual fetishization of Native Hawaiian women … ”

The inequities add up to increased vulnerability to violent crimes among Native Hawaiian women and girls, including sex trafficking, kidnapping and murder.

The resolution, adopted in April, focuses on Native Hawaiian women and girls who have been killed or gone missing, establishing a task force to study the threat. At the head are the executive directors of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, with members drawn from the leadership of several state and county agencies and the county police chiefs, and a decree that various nonprofits concerned with the welfare of women and children be invited to join.

There’s no denying the need to address this horrifying situation. Throughout the nation, we are realizing the extent to which women and girls of color — and those of Indigenous backgrounds in particular — have been victimized. Sadly, the problem passed without mainstream notice for years, while mysterious disappearances of white women have drawn obsessive attention.

Panels in several states have taken on the same work that will be done here, but information on Native Hawaiians has so far not been part of the discussion. As a whole, statistics are lacking, but in the case of Native Hawaiians, hard data is especially elusive.

Hawaii’s task force, which is to report to the Legislature prior to the 2023 and 2024 sessions, is receiving no funding, so the work ahead will require great resourcefulness. It is vital that any agency that can help, government or otherwise, should step up and do so.