Speaking from his own boyhood experience that 'hānai works,' OHA Trustee Oswald Stender has thrown his support behind a state Senate bill that would allow for a case-by-case assessment of hānai arrangements. – Photo: Courtesy of Oswald Stender

Highlight on hānai at the Legislature

By Liza Simon / Ka Wai Ola Loa

If you know local culture, then you probably know someone who has been hānai'd. The custom of parents giving away biological children for adoption by extended family members is a tradition among many local immigrant groups settled here, but it has a special place in the lives of Kanaka Maoli. During the Hawaiian Kingdom, the list of famous hānai children included Queen Lili'uokalani, Princess Ka'iulani and many other ali'i. Despite this venerated past and the widespread nature of the practice today, the hānai custom has no legal standing in the State of Hawai'i, a situation that can lead to a torrent of distress suffered by hānai families who find that their desire to take care of keiki of their kin puts them into conflict with child welfare law.

But this would change under a measure making its way through the state Legislature. Senate Bill 1006, submitted to lawmakers by OHA, would give Child Protective Services (CPS) the discretion to determine on a case-by-case basis if a hānai caretaker is able to provide a safe home for childrearing. If the non-legal parent/relative is deemed qualified and has at least the verbal consent from a biological parent of the child in question, then neither CPS nor the Family Court would take any further action to intervene in the informal arrangement.

Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla, a noted cultural authority, credits her hānai Hawaiian grandparents for showing her how to 'live the culture.' – Photo: Courtesy of Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla

"The way the law is currently written, once it's brought to the system's attention that a child is not with a legal parent, then the child is considered to be living without supervision and we are required to open a case," said Amy Tsark of CPS, adding that this is often just the beginning of bad news for undocumented adoptive parents and their young charges. If the CPS investigators deem the biological parents to be unfit in providing a safe home, the current law requires CPS and the Family Court to remove their children from the custody of the hānai caretakers – even if the caretakers are providing a safe home.

Tsark said hānai situations are routinely investigated, even when a child's well-being does not appear to be at issue. For example, schools may contact CPS about children who turn in consent forms signed by relatives who are neither their physical nor legal guardian. "The question then becomes where is the custodial parent, and we must look into it," she said.

Frequently, police reports on parents with drug problems lead authorities to the children living with relatives outside the home of the drug-affected parents. Even if the relatives demonstrate that the arrangement is voluntary and beneficial to the child, CPS must intervene and take over care of the child based on an assessment of the legal parents. When biological parents fail the assessment, Family Court steps in to place the child in a licensed foster home, omitting from the picture any hānai caretakers – regardless of their childrearing capabilities.

In the opinion of Tsark's agency, unnecessary intervention into informal adoption affairs disrupts family bonds, entangles children in the court system and places additional stresses on a foster care system that is already burdened with 1,500 cases statewide and a perennial shortage of licensed foster parents. Native Hawaiian children account for more than half of the foster care case load, a number that is expected to shrink if CPS and Family Court judges are given more latitude in allowing local families to practice the informal childrearing option, known most commonly by the Hawaiian word "hānai," which means "to feed," a translation that Tsark and others would probably agree should be extended to mean feed in the sense of nurturance.

"There is a broad band of performance measures comparing kinship and foster care that shows that children placed with family members are less likely to experience (domestic) abuse, feelings of disruption and behavioral problems," said Tsark.

Even Hawaiian royalty practiced the traditional Hawaiian custom of hānai, or adoption of a child by extended family members. Among those raised by adoptive parents were Queen Lili'uokalani, left, and Princess Ka'iulani. – Photos: Bishop Museum

OHA Trustee Oswald Stender, who has vigorously supported SB 1006, said his own experience proves that "hānai works." Hānai'd as a boy, Stender grew up in a family of eight in a small Hau'ula home with neither outdoor plumbing nor electricity. "We were poor, but we didn't know it until someone told us," chuckles Stender, who went on to make his mark in the local community as a successful business leader.

Instances of courts weighing family income more than the bonds of kinship and culture in determining foster care placement have Stender concerned. "Coming back to my family as an example … we may not have had much money but we never ran out of love and compassion," he said.

Stender advocated on behalf of another measure included in the 2008 OHA legislative package, which aimed to bolster the rights of hānai grandparents. The so-called kūpuna bill, which gives preference to the out-of-home placement of children with interested grandparents, was signed into law by Gov. Linda Lingle in July.

Stender said he began the fight in earnest to lift legal hurdles to hānai customs after hearing from a Native Hawaiian grandmother who had lost control of her grandson to the state's child welfare system, which placed the boy with licensed foster parents who eventually moved out of state, leaving her entirely out of the picture. "She was already raising the boy's brother and wanted the two siblings to be together as family. Her story was one of many tear-jerking stories our kūpuna lined up to share as testimony during hearings on the bill," said Stender.

The kūpuna bill drew some opposition from individual foster parents who told lawmakers about widespread success in adopting foster children unrelated by blood. Some questioned whether grandparents would have the stamina and resources of couples who meet foster care licensure standards. Hawai'i's lead foster care organization, however, expressed support for the measure.

As the 2009 OHA bill is likely to do, the kūpuna bill drew testimony that underlined some of the fundamental differences between formalized foster and adoption care and the cultural hānai custom. Where the Western processes are often closed – preventing children from having contact with their birth parents, hānai is likely to feature an open agreement between all parties.

Noted kumu hula Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla, the product of a hānai home, said the openness of the relationship between consenting parties in an adoption is healthy for everyone involved. "It's common for adopted children to yearn to meet their biological parents. For me, I saw this loving interaction between my mom and hānai grandmother, and I believe it strengthened their bond as well," she said.

Back in traditional times, parents with several offspring happily obliged the wishes of childless couples to "gift" them a keiki. In Nānā I Ke Kumu, Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui wrote that hānai had a clear function in traditional times: "This was the family clan in which ... family loyalties and mutual responsibilities were extended even to what in modern times could be called 13th and 14th cousins." The hānai privileges of grandparents were highly respected, according to Pukui.

"My grandparents had 15 children and once they were all grown up, they wanted one more, so they came to ask my parents in Honolulu if they could take me to Maui. There was not a stigma attached to the situation," said Holt-Padilla.

Speaking again from personal experience, Stender noted that his hānai background made him the beneficiary of culture transmitted by his Hawaiian grandparents. "If I hadn't been with them, I wouldn't have learned to fish, hunt, make poi and grow taro," he said.

Much like Stender, Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla, whose hānai grandmother was pure Hawaiian, looks back on her upbringing as an exciting opportunity. "Because of my grandparents, I had the chance to be Hawaiian – not just learn to be Hawaiian. Our everyday actions were infused with cultural values," said Holt-Padilla, now the Cultural Programs Director for the Maui Arts and Cultural Center.

CPS's Tsark said that the aims of her agency align with those of the hānai tradition in trying to give children who live outside their biological homes the best options for the nurturance they deserve. "When we remove a child from the family it is to protect the child, but the eventual goal is to reunify the child with family. If other members of the family can, in the meantime, provide a safe home then we want to everything possible to place the child with the relatives and ensure family bonds continue with as little disruption as possible," said Tsark.

Under the bill, CPS would take steps to ensure that hānai parents are capable, but after making the determination, the agency would not continue to intervene – unless families requested help.

Another legislative measure that addresses hānai relationships is being considered by the House. HB 798 also directs CPS to do more to support hānai custom and directs the agency to submit a report on hānai relationships to the Legislature before the next legislative session.