UH News
University of Hawaiʻi at MānoaContact:Posted: Sep 19, 2017Environmental Law Clinic students work with Native Hawaiian community members on water rights.The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has finalized an agreement with Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law to continue the Aʻo Aku Aʻo Mai Initiative.The initiative was created to provide access to justice for Native Hawaiians through legal education and direct legal services on issues of importance to the Native Hawaiian community. OHA has committed $150,000 for Ka Huli Ao to hire a post-juris doctor fellow and offer a minimum of four legal clinics over the next two years.This latest phase of the initiative aims to expand the base of knowledge and support on issues impacting OHA beneficiaries and Hawaiʻi’s natural resources, especially those in rural Neighbor Island communities. Inspired by Native Hawaiian tradition, Aʻo Aku Aʻo Mai reflects the fact that learning is a shared and symbiotic process that respects the transfer of knowledge both from community members to students and vice versa.OHA and Ka Huli Ao first launched the Initiative in 2011 to produce a legal primer and support community outreach on Native Hawaiian land issues, but it has since grown to include other areas of Native Hawaiian Law.From 2015-2017, Ka Huli Ao provided trainings, research and other support to 80 ʻohana who were embroiled in an administrative trial on Maui over their water rights and were not represented by attorneys; educated more than 40 law students in Native Hawaiian law; and all together directly assisted or trained more than 400 individuals on Maui, Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi islands in various areas of Native Hawaiian law, including water rights and traditional and customary Native Hawaiian practices.“The Aʻo Aku Aʻ …
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