Ka Huli Ao’s Community Education and Outreach program seeks to shape and evolve public policy impacting Maoli people and communities as well as the resources upon which they depend. Essential to this goal is informing and engaging Native Hawaiian and other peoples to appreciate, protect, and restore the invaluable natural and cultural resources of Indigenous island communities. Our training programs, in particular, aim to further this goal by advancing the understanding, appreciation, application, and evolution of Native Hawaiian Law.
Native Hawaiian Law Training
In partnership with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Ka Huli Ao hosts a free Native Hawaiian Law Training for decisionmakers, including members of state and county boards, commissions, councils, and other bodies. This training is focused on the trust obligations and duties of state and county decisionmakers regarding Native Hawaiian natural and cultural resources. Our trainings also explore concepts of aloha and kuleana not only as important values to our collective society, but also as the underpinnings of participants’ legal duties and responsibilities. Signed into law in 2015, Act 169 requires members of certain state boards, commissions, and councils to attend the Native Hawaiian Law Training within twelve months of initial gubernatorial appointment. Since then, the Native Hawaiian Law Training has served over 1,500 people across Hawaiʻi pae ʻāina.
I Mana i ka Wai: DHHL Water Law and Advocacy Training
I Mana i ka Wai focuses on water law, advocacy, and co-powering Hawaiian homestead communities and decisionmakers across Hawaiʻi to protect and steward Hawaiʻi’s vital fresh water resources. Currently, this four-part Kūkulu Kahuwai training series provides an overview of Hawaiʻi’s legal framework governing water resource management and aims to inform decisionmakers and the broader public about the history and rights of DHHL and its beneficiaries. The training also offers an in-depth look at Hawaiʻi’s water governance by examining its constitutional foundations, Water Code, administrative rules, landmark court decisions, and DHHL policies that shape how wai is used and protected. This training has had different foci over the years, including providing introductory sessions for Hawaiian homestead communities across Hawaiʻi pae ʻāina on water and the public trust, primers for more effective advocacy before administrative and legislative bodies, and particularized trainings for County Department of Water Supply employees, for example.
Ka Huli Ao 