What’s New?

What’s New at KHA?

Congratulations to D. Kapuaʻala Sproat, who is the new Director of Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, and to Susan Serrano, who is the new Associate Director!

Welcome to Post-J.D. Legal Fellow Sean Aronson, who is working on the Resilient Hawaiian Communities Initiative. For more on the initiative, see The Resilient Hawaiian Communities Initiative: Building Capacity in Two Native Hawaiian Communities in this issue.

Congratulations to Post-J.D. Research and Teaching Fellow Mahina Tuteur, who was recently reappointed to the Environmental Council.

In April, the Law School welcomed International Jurist-in-Residence Justice Joe Williams of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand for a week-long visit. He spoke at Ka Huli Ao’s Maoli Thursday on April 5. For more on this Maoli Thursday and other events, see Ka Huli Ao Events, in this issue.

On March 13, Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie spoke to students in grades 3 through 5 at Kailua Elementary School about what it takes to be a lawyer and the varied things a lawyer can do.

Malia Akutagawa recently helped document stories about Molokaʻi for a new installation/exhibition “Molokaʻi Window” that opens at the Honolulu Museum of Art on Thursday, April 26. For the three-year project, artist James Jack worked with Sust’āinable Molokai, the Molokaʻi Arts Center, and community leaders, including Malia and Walter Ritte, to present the complexities and tensions surrounding the use of unsustainable land practices on Molokaʻi over the past decade. Instead of audio and video technology, the installation uses soil rubbings to share these stories. Molokaʻi Window focuses on land not as a commodity to be bought and sold, but on the relationship between the land and Molokaʻi’s people. The exhibition will continue until September 16.

Walter Echo-Hawk, Native American law attorney, advocate, judge, and scholar, was the Spring 2018 Dan & Maggie Inouye Chair in Democratic Ideals, and co-taught Comparative Indigenous Law with Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie.

Ka Huli Ao advisor Eric Yamamoto recently published his book, In the Shadow of Korematsu: Democratic Liberties and National Security, available for purchase at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/in-the-shadow-of-korematsu-9780190878955?q=yamamoto&lang=en&cc=us.

On January 12, Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie spoke about “Native Hawaiian Tradition, Culture, and Sovereignty” on a panel at the Winter Leadership Meeting of the ABA Section on Litigation.

Welcome to Steve Bautista, who started work as the new Faculty Support Specialist for the Environmental Law Program and Ka Huli Ao in January.

Former Ka Huli Ao Post-J.D. Research Fellow Julian Aguon recently co-authored an article in the Harvard Environmental Law Review, “Broadening Common Heritage: Addressing Gaps in the Deep Sea Mining Regulatory Regime,” discussing deep sea mining’s links to climate change, as well as the existential threat deep sea mining may pose to biodiversity and indigenous Pacific Islander communities. For the full article, see: http://harvardelr.com/2018/04/16/broadening-common-heritage/

Former Ka Huli Ao Post-J.D. Fellow Raeanne Cobb-Adams recently became a Philanthropy Associate at Trust for Public Land Hawaiʻi.

Ka Huli Ao Research Assistant Kaiwi Opulauoho received the second place award in the 2017-18 University of Oklahoma College of Law American Indian Law Review Writing Competition. His paper is entitled, “Trust Lands for the Native Hawaiian Nation: Lessons from Federal Indian Law Precedents.”