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NHLC Recent News

What is Huamakahikina?

April 11, 2024|

Every spring, the week-long Merrie Monarch Festival celebrates King David Kalākaua and his ...

What is Huamakahikina?

April 11, 2024|

Every spring, the week-long Merrie Monarch Festival celebrates King David Kalākaua and his ...

Our Mission

E mālama a e kahu i ka loina me ka moʻomeheu Hawaiʻi.
Protecting and advancing Native Hawaiian identity and culture.

Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation is a nonprofit, public interest law firm.

For 49 years, Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation has represented Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, families, and communities in legal matters impacting their ability to maintain pilina to the ʻāina, perpetuate Native Hawaiian traditional and customary practices, and protect the natural environment that Hawaiian culture depends upon.

Our Blog: News + Insights

Our Services

NHLC provides legal services to empower Native Hawaiians families, cultural practitioners, and communities as they defend and assert their legal rights in Native Hawaiian law. Read more about our practice areas here.

Need help? The fastest way to receive assistance is to call our office at (808) 521-2302 during business hours. You can also request help using the form at the button below.

 

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Meet Our Team

Our team of dedicated legal professionals are passionate about protecting Native Hawaiian rights to fulfill NHLC’s mission and contribute to the health and wellbeing of the lāhui.

 

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NHLC is honored and humbled to have served Hawaiʻi with 50 years of advocacy for the protection and advancement of Native Hawaiian rights, customs, and practices. In recognition of this special occasion, NHLC will be hosting its Uluo‘a event on August 10th.   Please join us for a very special evening celebrating the preservation and advancement of Native Hawaiian identity and culture and the many who have ensured this through their commitment to and support of NHLC.   For more information visit the Uluo’a link in NHLC’s bio
NHLC Litigation Director, Kirsha Durante, and Staff Attorney and Title and Research Specialist, Devin Kamealoha Forrest, were published in this month's edition of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' Ka Wai Ola. To read more, click the link in NHLC's bio! #kawaiola
NHLC was excited to have volunteers from UC Berkeley School of Law’s BLAST program with the team for their spring break service trip! This is the 4th year that NHLC has hosted Berkeley law students to learn more about Native Hawaiian law and work on a project. The students contributed more than 70 hours of volunteer legal help to the lāhui, and this year they also spent a day volunteering at a fishpond.
March 26th marks the birthday of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole. Watch to learn more about Prince Kūhiō and the story of the passage of the Hawaiian Homes Commission act. #Kuhio #PrinceKuhio
NHLC Staff Attorney Henderson Huihui will speak on a panel at UH with Professor Derek Kauanoe. The panel will discuss the status of government promises and duties under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) and important current updates and issues for beneficiaries. Many problems with the centurion HHCA are generations old including the tragic and persistent waitlist as well as the lack of suitable lands for homesteading. Recent years have resulted in important updates, like the settlement of the decades-old Kalima class action, the recent allocation of $600M by the legislature for DHHL to develop more leaseholds, and DHHL experiments with rent-with-an-option-to-purchase projects. Panelists will discuss the promises and challenges these updates offer.
Last week, NHLC Litigation Director Kirsha Durante and Staff Attorney Terina Faʻagau attended the Kamehameha Kapālama Middle School College & Career Day. NHLC presented two sessions to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in which they learned about what it takes to become a lawyer and the highlights and challenges of being an attorney. They also learned about some of the unique cases/legal matters NHLC is involved in and how the law can be used as a tool to serve the community. Native Hawaiians are approximately 7.4% of the licensed attorneys in Hawaiʻi (2023 Hawaiʻi State Bar Association Statistics) despite being approximately 20% of the state population and having a local law school for 50 years. This underrepresentation creates a justice gap for our lāhui. NHLC Strategic Plan Goal 4 is to nurture an ‘auwai of indigenous rights leaders. NHLC is committed not only to advocating for Hawaiian rights but contributing to the pipeline of Native Hawaiian advocates so that the lāhui has the lawyers it needs now and forever.
On Tuesday, March 19, NHLC Executive Director Makalika Naholowaʻa will be a panelist on the American Bar Association’s “End Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls” webinar for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 68th Session and the NGO CSW68 Forum. The webinar will run from 12:30 - 2:00 PM EDT (6:30 -8:00 AM HST). To watch, visit www.ambar.org/csw68.
NHLC Senior Staff Attorney Liʻulā Christensen was published in this month's edition of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' Ka Wai Ola. In the article, Christensen discusses the Maui Wildfire Debris Removal program and Right-of-Entry permits (ROE) involved in the process. To read the full article, click the link in NHLC's bio! #kawaiola
For the last day of #mahinaolelohawaii 2024 NHLC is spotlighting some legal terms in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! Swipe to learn more about key words and phrases used in the legal field.