Derek Kauanoe, Moanike'ala Crowell and Ka'ano'i Walk earned law degrees – with specialties in Native Hawaiian law – from the University of Hawai'i Richardson School of Law. With them is professor Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie, second from right, who helped start the program. - Courtesy photo by Sunny Greer

By Lisa Asato - Ka Wai Ola

With newly earned law degrees in hand, Moanike'ala Crowell, Derek Kauanoe and Ka'ano'i Walk are entering the world specializing in Native Hawaiian law. The May graduates of the University of Hawai'i Richardson School of Law are the second group of students to earn the specialty.

Professor Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie helped start the specialty program as part of the Pacific-Asian Legal Studies certificate at the request of student Malina Koani-Guzman, who with Jocelyn M-Doane and Kalikolīhau Hannahs graduated with the specialization in 2007. “(The specialty) indicates to future employers … that (the graduates) have shown … commitment and dedication to the Native Hawaiian community and Native Hawaiian issues,” said MacKenzie.

The specialty in Native Hawaiian law will hopefully become a certificate program within a few years, said MacKenzie, who is also the director of the school's Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law. The center received a $630,000 OHA grant in 2005 to support its work promoting education, scholarship and community outreach in issues of law and justice for Native Hawaiians.

Derek Kauanoe and Moanike'ala Crowell earned law degrees and specialties in Native Hawaiian law from the University of Hawai'i Richardson School of Law. - Photo: Lisa Asato

“With Native Hawaiians looking toward self-determination and the right to make their own choices … I think law is a really good lens to look through to bring about change,” said Crowell, a Kamehameha Schools graduate who is the first in her family to graduate with an advanced degree.

She and Kauanoe participated in the school's Native American moot court team, which won four awards at a national competition this year. Kauanoe and partner Edward Hu took second place overall, and Crowell and Greg Schlais took the prize for best brief. Their brief on tribal membership and land-use issues, which will be published in the American Indian Law Review.

Like Crowell and Kauanoe, graduate Ka'ano'i Walk isn't exactly sure what the future holds for him career-wise, but the former Kula Kaiapuni o Waiau student says that “My kuleana is to my people, my ancestors and this 'āina. Whatever I do, I will carry on the kuleana that I have to my language, to the wa'a and my culture. I know that this path feels pono and that my kūpuna are behind me 100 percent.”

Kauanoe, who wants to see more Native Hawaiians in the law field, started a program in 2006 with 'Ahahui O Hawai'i, the law school's Native Hawaiian student organization. Funded largely through an OHA grant, the Law School Admission Test preparation classes have helped to double the percentage of Native Hawaiian applicants admitted to the school in 2008 compared to 2003.

The program offers several sessions each year, Kauanoe said, and the group plans to expand the program to provide textbooks for required courses to first-year Native Hawaiian law students.

For information, www2.hawaii.edu/~ahahui, or for the Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, visit www.hawaii.edu/law and click on Special Programs.