Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 8, 1 ʻAukake 2005 — New UH law center will examine Native Hawaiian legal issues [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New UH law center will examine Native Hawaiian legal issues

By Sterling Kini Wong In June, the William Richardson School of Law of the University of Hawai'i received a $600,000 federal grant to fund a new law center that will be the first to focus exclusively on Native Hawaiian legal issues. The program, called the Center of Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, will offer a series of new courses, the first of whieh will begin in the fall, and establish an archive of Hawaiian legal resources. The center will also

outreach to the broader community by publishing researchpapers, andholding workshops and two symposiums. Discussions over creating a center at the UH law school that would educate the people of Hawai'i about the wide range of Native Hawaiian legal issues began almost a decade ago. Attorney Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie, director for the new center, said that the classes the law school offered in the past on Hawaiian issues were not enough, especially with such hot-button topics as the Akaka Bill facing the state today.

■ "The UH law school is the only one in the state. It should have more of a focus on how the law affects Native Hawaiians, and how Native Hawaiians affect the law," she said. Aviam Soifer, dean of the law school, said that the new center is "absolutely emeial" to the mission of the school. One of the goals of the center is to increase the number of Hawaiians pursuing careers in law. While Native Hawaiians represent roughly 20 percent of the state population, they account for about eight percent of the active attomeys in the Hawai'i, according to estimates from the Native Hawaiian Bar Association. The grant suggests that the laek of involvement from the Native Hawaiian community in law may be due to their mistrust of the legal system. It states, however, that those numbers could change with more Hawaiians understanding that law ean be a

"viable and productive way to help their communities." Moses Haia, an attorney and a member of the center's advisory board, said that he sees the center providing people with valuable knowledge to make informed decisions.

H ō k ū 1 e i Lindsey, who graduated from the UH law school in 2002, said that the new law center is mueh needed and

long overdue. She said that she hopes the program will provide a more supportive environment for Native Hawaiians seeking law degrees. "Law school ean be a lonely plaee for Native Hawaiians who want to research their rights as indigenous See LAW page 22

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people," said Lindsey, who is currently in a law fellowship program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "There are people who want to define our rights as race based or as special rights. The interest is there, but Hawaiians need more support." She said that she also hopes the center helps the Native Hawaiian community with everyday legal issues, such as information on custody and foster care disputes. "Hawaiians don't always have access to the same legal resources as other people," she said. The center's first new course will be offered in the fall and focus on how federal Indian law applies to Native Hawaiians. Also in the fall, the center will host a twoday symposium on the landmark Puhlie Access Shoreline Hawai'i case, in whieh the state Supreme Court 10 years ago reaffirmed Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights. The center will also feature several courses that focus on Hawaiian traditional rights, one of whieh will involve recording the testimony of Hawaiian practitioners and storing that information in the center's archive as reference material. Another new course will examine various issues significant to Native Hawaiians. Possible topics include how Native Hawaiians are defined by various laws; how indigenous people hold title to their land; and investigating the protection of Hawaiian remains and burial objects. The course will culminate in another two-day symposium in the summer of 2006 and in a series of published papers. MacKenzie said that the term for the federal grant is only one year, so she is exploring additional funding options.Li