The May 27 issue of in Ka Wai Ola featured ELP alumna Shae Kamakaʻala among a “new generation of Hawaiian leaders” that are “rising to the challenges facing our islands and our planet.”  In the interview, Kamakaʻala discusses her background growing up in Windward Oʻahu, her experiences at the William S. Richardson School of Law (WSRSL), and her vision for protecting the environment in a COVID-19 world. 

“We need to educate ourselves about circular economies and reignite our ancestral knowledge and relationships with our natural resources,” she said in the interview. “Seeing empty highways and beaches, new colors and brightness in the coral reefs, clear skies in the most polluted cities in the world – it’s evident that our environment needed a rest.”

While Kamakaʻala first started thinking about how to help the Hawaiian community when she was in elementary school, she entered college as a fashion design student. She did not start thinking about a legal career until she got involved with public service work at the University of San Diego including a volunteer trip to Mexico.  

“It made me think about how we prevent these problems from even existing,” Kamakaʻala later explained to ELP. “Are there solutions to the Hawaiian community’s problems? Those questions started to bubble up and then I decided to change my major to political science to get me on the track to apply to law school.” 

At WSRSL, Kamakaʻala earned certificates in Environmental and Native Hawaiian Law. She then served as a Deputy Attorney for the County of Hawaiʻi, completed a fellowship with the First Nations Futures Institute, worked for the Department of Land and Natural Resources as a Community-Based Fisheries Planner, and clerked for the Honorable Henry T. Nakamoto in the Third Circuit Court in Hilo. 

In February, the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust hired Kamakaʻala as its new Director of ʻĀina Protection, to help guide the non-profit organization as it applies a Hawaiian and holistic approach to land conservation. In this new role, Kamakaʻala gets to apply her legal skills as well as her experience working with communities to preserve land for current and future generations. 

“You have to put the needs of the land first and then you have to listen to the needs of the people,” she said. “In every project I work on, I have to keep that value system very strong. Sometimes it takes time and commitment to know what the needs of the land and the needs of the community are. It’s all reciprocity – I have to give and put the time in to get the answers to be able to work successfully on a project with the community.”

JU 8/5/2020