Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 4, 1 April 1988 — Hawaii lsland's Only Hawaiian Woman Judge [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaii lsland's Only Hawaiian Woman Judge

Two Thoughts Helped Shape Pua Brown's Career

By Deborah Lee Ward, Assistant Editor Ka Wai Ola O OHA Recognizing opportunities while balancing career and family goals is part of the flow of life for Karen Napua Brown, Hilo attorney and first woman named to a judgeship on the Big lsland. Brown, who hails from Kahalu'u, O'ahu, is a 1978 graduate of the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson law school, and presently the only neighbor island woman judge. She is mid-way through a two-year appointment as part time per diem judge for the District Court of the Third Circuit, island of Hawaii. As one of four per diem judges on the Big Island, she is called on a rotating basis to fill in for the regular judges when they are sick, on vacation, or attending training sessions. Brown has heard everything from traffic and criminal cases, to divorce and spouse abuse hearings, custody, child support cases, as well as civil and consumer cases such as small claims, landlord-tenant disputes and personal injury claims.

In her role as judge, Brown says, "I am making decisions, hopefully with compassion and understanding, and with a look to the future to change behavior perhaps, to make a mark on life." She also feels responsible for reflecting positively on Hawaiians in the legal profession and judiciary, since a larger proportion of native Hawaiians are on the other side of the legal system. Brown was in the third graduating class of the University of Hawaii's William S. Richardson School of Law. With the encouragement of friends and relatives in her home community of Kahalu'u and Waiahole on Oahu, she entered the law school's first minority preadmission program in 1974, a one year program designed to prepare students for law school. She graduated in 1978, and began her practice as a CETA-funded Alu Like Ine. attorney in the Kauai office of Legal Aid, focusing on family law, native Hawaiian rights and other poverty-related issues for low ineome clients. In 1979, she became the managing attorney for the Kauai office.

Brown transferred to the Hilo office of Legal Aid in 1980, becoming managing attorney. In 1984 she left Legal Aid and in 1985 became deputy corporation counsel for Hawaii County, a position she held for two years, where her main focus was personal injury defense litigation for the County. This position involved mueh travel and trial work. In 1987 she was appointed to her current two-year parttime per diem judge position. She feels fortunate to have eome this far in her career, saying, "Most of us in Kahalu'u had no role models to become lawyers. People helped me, and the opportunities were there." Brown is married to Joseph Kalani Kamelamela, an attorney in the office of the Corporation Counsel litigation unit for Hawaii County, and a 1979 graduate of the UH Law School. They have a six-year-old son, Kamalani Hulu-mamo-o-na-iwi Brown Kamelamela, and a four-year-old daughter, Noelani Ku'u-mu'o-o-na-iwi Namiko Brown Kamelamela. Kamelamela's parents, Jonah and Josephine (Kapahua) Kamelamela, are originally from Pahoa and Kalapana, and now live in Nanakuli.

Brown and Kamelamela are not unusual these days as a married eouple who share law as a profession. Yet they encourage other Hawaiians to also think about entering the legal field. Brown would like to see more women judges in Hawaii. She says, "There are opportunities out there. With your talent, experience and your edcuation you ean be whatever you want to be. I believe this. Be what you want to be. Most people don't know what they want to be, that's the problem." Being an on-eall judge allows Brown ample family time to be very involved in the raising of the couple's two children. She says, "To me the relationship between a parent and a child is an important one. You have to have the time with the child

to help them develop." Brown volunteers regularly in her son's class, participates in excursions of her daughter's preschool, and keeps busy with extracurricular activities for the children. This strong emphasis on family values has stayed with Brown, second youngest of six ehildren born to William Joseph Brown and Rose Anzai Brown. She says, "My father taught us that the family was the most important thing. When we were small we always had to eat at the dinner table together, and we all had a ehanee to talk about what happened that day. My father would talk to us and he would listen. This practice has continued between me and my sisters. That's what made us close."

Karen Napua Brown, or "Pua," was born in Honolulu in 1947 and lived with her family in Kapahulu. When she was four, her father moved his family to Kahalu'u and thus Pua was raised in that rural community. Her mother still lives there today along with other family. Brown's father passed away in 1980, and her two brothers, William Joseph Brown, Jr. (1979) and Allen Brown predeceased their father. For this reason, at her marriage in 1980, Brown elected to retain her maiden name, as her sisters had taken their husbands' surnames.

Brown attended Waiahole School from kindergarten through 9th grade, and graduated from Castle High School in 1965. At Castle, Brown was in the National Honor Society, a class officer, and active in sports. She credits physical education teacher and football eoaeh Alfred Miyamoto, a mueh respected Hawaiian educator, with encouraging her to go to college. He put her in touch with social worker Joyce Mah at Liliu'okalani Trust (Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center), whieh funded her education to age 20.

Then Mrs. Mah helped her make scholarship applications to continue her education. This enabled Brown to put herself through the University of Hawaii on community scholarships from Hawaiian Civic Clubs, federal grants and work/ study programs. She expressed her gratitude that her law school education was funded through the Hawaiian Civic Club of Honolulu of whieh the Bank of Hawaii was corporate sponsor. She also credits UH Manoa financial aid eounselor Kay Wery with helping her find funding. While Brown is the only one of her family who attended a four-year college and graduate school, she is proud that her three sisters, Shirley Ka'ala Brown Young, Maxine Kehaulani Brown Gohier and Rowena Keoni Brown Jay, all attended business or community college and have good jobs. During this time Pua Brown faced and overcame a serious setback to her education. In 1965, on her

first day of classes as an entering college freshman, Brown was injured in an automobile accident. She received her bachelor's degree in education with honors in 1970, and was the vice president of the Hui Po'okela chapter of the Mortarboard Society, a national scholastic society, and a member of other academic orgahizations. Then in 1971, she received her master's degree in education with a 4.0 grade point average for graduate work. However, after graduation, she found there were not many jobs in education, so she worked for about a year with Lanakila Crafts (Rehabilitation Center) as a rehabilitation counselor.

In 1972 she was hired as co-director of the Kualoa-Heeia Eeumenieal Youth (KEY) project in Kahalu'u, to raise funds and develop programs for the youth and community. "I decided to return to Kahalu'u to do something for my community," Brown recalls. She also taught hula classes and developed other Hawaiiana programs to help build Hawaiian cultural pride and self-confidence, organized meals and classes, and scheduled regular field trips to expose the children to places outside Kahalu'u. During her work there, former KEY Project director (now Honolulu attorney) Reinhard Mohr encouraged her to go to law school. Brown recalls, "I thought, here's an opportunity for me to do something to further help the community." She left KEY in 1974 as executive director, and enrolled in the first UH Law School (minority) preadmission program.

While at the KEY project, and during her preadmission year at law school, Brown continued her hula studies, with kumu hula Aunty Ma'iki Aiu Lake. She completed her kumu hula training and had her 'uniki aha'aina (graduation ceremony) in the fall of 1975, in time to begin as first-year law student. She views her hula and family background as a source of learning and inspiration that taught her to persevere. "There are so many lessons for us in the old chants . . . Hawaiian people knew how to truly live by accepting life's hardships and joys," she explains. From this she also gained the insight that even a difficult situation ean eventually be for one's betterment. When the first, second and third (her own) law school graduating classes had their graduation ceremony, Brown was asked to chant them in and out of the ceremonv.

Why was it important to have a Hawaiian ceremony for a law class? "We needed to know our roots, our culture, where we eame from," she says. "We all eame there (law school) with ideals and dreams ... I wanted to remind them — you must hold firm to your beliefs." Rather than take a calculated approach to career goals, Brown instead keeps alert to opportunity when it arises. She says, "Certain things I planned, but I have complete faith that things will open up for me so that I'll be able to use my talent, whieh is God-given, my life experiences and my formal education to serve my family and eommunity."

"At this point in my life my focus is to develop my children, my family and myself. Professionally I ean learn about being a judge, and also practice law, working out of my house as an attorney. I've always been interested in expanding my knowledge of Hawaiian culture so I'm taking adult education courses on Hawaiiana." She and her husband also share a love of music; he sings and plays 12string guitar, and she is involved in Hawaiian musical programs for the Maliapukaokalani Catholic Church in Keaukaha. Brown ended the interview by sharing two thoughts that have shaped her life: the first, from her father, is "Ho'omanawanui," or "Be patient, for all things will eome at the proper time." The second is from her kumu, Aunty Ma'iki, "Ike malie," or "Seek knowledge and wisdom in calmness and peaee."

Hawaii District Court per diem judge Karen Napua Brown with her husband Joseph Kalani Kamelamela, and their two children, Noelani and Kamalani.