Cultural justice served

For four decades, Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. has tackled cases ranging from the loss of ancestral lands and blocked access along traditional shoreline areas to the unearthing of ancient burials at construction sites.

On Saturday, the nonprofit law firm, which has helped shape the legal landscape of these islands, celebrates its 40th anniversary and a string of court victories in its mission to perpetuate Hawaiian rights and culture.

"Hawaiians in general have been able to stand up to entities, corporations and individuals that previously could just outgun them in terms of money and legal prowess," said Moses Haia III, executive director of NHLC, which was founded by volunteers as a legal referral service in 1974.

"The establishment of this office provided the means for Hawaiians to get on equal footing, to start to play on the same field when it comes to those kinds of cases," said Haia.

"I think that’s a significant role that the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. has taken to basically say: ‘Hey, Hawaiians are here, they have rights, and those rights need to be respected.’"

Mahealani Wendt began volunteering full time with the organization as a young single mother in 1978, while holding down jobs at a drive-in and as a dispatcher for a plumbing company.

"We were trying to help Hawaiians hang onto the land, whatever land they still had," recalled Wendt, who went on to serve as the NHLC’s executive director from 1986 to 2009 and is now a silver-haired great-grandmother.

At the time, corporate interests and others were using "adverse possession" claims to obtain native land where they had been growing sugar cane or pineapple or running their cattle, but that is no longer routine, she said. And thanks to an NHLC case, plaintiffs must now make rigorous efforts to personally notify Native Hawaiians who might have a claim to land in "quiet-title" actions, rather than just placing an ad in a newspaper. In Hawaii, adverse possession can allow property occupants to assume the title on a property if it’s occupied for a certain length of time without challenge.

The nonprofit firm also helped establish rights of public access that are sometimes taken for granted today, she said.

"Defending public rights of access or rights to water, all those types of cases that are now considered standard in Hawaii, were actually asserted by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp.," she said. "We were able to affirm and get the laws to reflect these customary and traditional practices that have their origins actually in kingdom law."

The firm provides low-cost legal help to about 700 clients each year. Its staff of 18 includes eight attorneys and it has an annual budget of about $1 million, Haia said. The corporation is funded largely by the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, through a legal services contract put out for bid every two years.

Saturday’s anniversary dinner at Ko‘olau Ballrooms, which is sold out, will honor the late Jon Van Dyke, a constitutional law professor and advocate of native and civil rights, who served on the NHLC board and helped guide the firm through tumultuous times when its survival was in doubt.

Board member Walter Heen, retired judge and former Democratic Party chairman, said some folks might prefer to see the law firm simply disappear, but it plays a vital role in ensuring that everyone plays by the rules.

"As far as developers, landowners and even some labor unions, they wish the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. would go away," Heen said in an interview. "Some people look upon them as simply troublemakers."

But critics would be better off, he said, if they consulted with the firm’s lawyers ahead of time to help steer projects onto the proper footing rather than courting a lawsuit.

"Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. is not trying to block every development that takes place," Heen said. "What NHLC is trying to do is ensure that it conforms with all of the legal requirements that protect Native Hawaiian rights."

The firm’s cases are wide-ranging: helping clients amend incorrect birth certificates to clarify ancestry, protecting coastal waters and traditional fishing grounds, preserving historic trails, and requiring the completion of archaeological surveys before the rail project proceeded.

While the corporation has typically waited for someone to come to it with a problem, Haia said, it now wants to get out in front on some issues and head off trouble by engaging with the community, with a goal of helping people understand the law and why it is in their best interest to follow it.

"We want to take a proactive approach so that we don’t end up where we get involved in a matter that has already reached the point of a lawsuit," Haia said. "We are still going to be advocates, though. We are going to ensure that whenever the law isn’t followed, there are consequences."