Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 2, 1 February 2017 — NHLC's capacity grows with OHA support [ARTICLE]

NHLC's capacity grows with OHA support

By Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. n October 20 1 6, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation turned 42. This milestone would not have been possible without the nearly four decades' long support of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Originally incorporated in 1974 as the Hawaiian Coalition of Native Claims, Ltd., NHLC was founded by a committed group of grassroots individuals as their response to the social, cultural and eeonomie issues then faced by the Native Hawaiian community. For the first six years of its existence, the HCNC operated as a volunteer run attorney referral service. Since then, funding and other support from OHA has allowed NHLC to operate as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, public interest law firm. In pursuit of its mission, "to perpetuate, through legal and other

advocacy, the rights, customs and practices that strengthen Native Hawaiian identity and culture," NHLC provides direct legal representation to Native Hawaiians residing in Hawai'i and the continental United States in substantive areas that include quiet title to land, natural resource protection, traditional and customary practices for subsistence, cultural and religious purposes, and public trust land entitlements. Without OHA's support of its work, NHLC's capacity to provide such services would have been, at best, severely limited. On its own, NHLC would have been incapable of assisting the vast majority of people needing such help and most, if not all of those people, would have been left with the sobering reality of either having to hire and pay the going rate for a private attorney or

attempt to represent themselves. But, in 1981, OHA stepped up to fund NHLC. This funding has provided NHLC with the eapaeity to represent Hawaiians in Quiet Title actions. These cases have had a severe impact on Hawaiians' ability to retain their ancestral lands and, but for this funding, most of the families/individuals sued would have been left defenseless. With OHA's funding commitment, NHLC has been able to keep Hawaiian lands in Hawaiian hands. In 1987, OHA committed to providing additional funding to address other Native Hawaiian matters including traditional and customary practices for religious, subsistence and cultural purposes. OHA consolidated these two programs into a Native Hawaiian Land and Rights Project and NHLC has administered this Project

since 1998. In 1993, the Congress of the United States passed what is eommonly referred to as the Apology Resolution. By this resolution, Congress apologized for "the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i on January 17, 1893," and acknowledged "the historical signifieanee of this event whieh resulted in the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of the Native Hawaiian people." The Congress of the United States also admitted therein that "the longrange eeonomie and social changes in Hawaii over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have been devastating to the population and to the heahh and well-being of the Hawaiian people," "the Native Hawaiian people are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to

future generations their ancestral territory, and their cultural identity in accordance with their own spiritual and traditional beliefs, customs, practices, language, and social institutions," and that "the heahh and well-being of the Native Hawaiian people is intrinsically tied to their deep feelings and attachment to the land." These undeniable admissions leave no doubt as to the relevance and importance of NHLC's mission; a mandate whieh would have been clearly impossible without OHA's support and leadership. This support and leadership has allowed NHLC to focus its efforts on ensuring Hawaiians remain a vibrant and contributing facet of the community through helping them retain their interest in and ties to their ancestral lands, language, and culture. The enforcement of laws designed to maintain a balance between progress and culture ensures that Hawai'i's special essence; the Native Hawaiian identity, remains intact. Mahalo nui OHA for your leadership! ■

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