For centuries, Kauaʻi loʻi kalo (wetland kalo) farmers have depended on a traditional Native Hawaiian irrigation system that borrows water from Waiʻoli Stream. Since 2019, more than 30 students and faculty at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law through its Native Hawaiian and Environmental Law Clinics have partnered with the farmers of the Waiʻoli Valley Taro Hui (Hui) to help secure a long-term water lease for their ancient use of water.
During recovery efforts from the devastating Kauaʻi flooding of 2018, the farmers were informed that the ʻāina they had stewarded for generations was now zoned as state conservation land, which triggered a maze of permitting and other authorizations. In Waiʻoli, on the island’s north shore, the farmers provide important flood mitigation for the surrounding area of Hanalei with expertise on how the water flows and how the entire ecosystem works, offering significant environmental benefits.
UH law students’ involvement included establishing a nonprofit that incorporated the taro farmers; securing a right of entry and easement to access state lands for their water use and to do regular clearing and maintenance of the river; a revocable permit for water use; a watershed management plan; an environmental assessment; a cultural impact assessment; amending the interim instream flow standard; and completing beneficiary consultation with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
Students have also worked closely with the Hui to testify at the Hawaiʻi State Legislature, the Board of Land and Natural Resources, and the Commission on Water Resource Management.
“In our law school classes, we learn about many different areas of law but rarely have opportunities to actually engage with people experiencing the legal process on the ground,” said MJ Palau-McDonald, a third year UH law student. “I’ve undoubtedly learned a lot about legal permitting under the water code while working with the Hui, but the experience of building client relationships has been the most meaningful to me. Working with the Hui has shown me what it looks like to help co-power communities by translating their ancestral practices into legal jargon that is cognizable to government agencies.”
Real-world training for law students
As a kupa (native) of Kauaʻi, Professor Kapua Sproat, director of Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, was already familiar with hardships of the farmers of the Waiʻoli Valley Taro Hui, and helped facilitate the clinic. Clinical experience like the law school’s Native Hawaiian and Environmental Law clinics are a requirement for students to graduate and provide important real-world training. At the same time, they provide free legal services to community’s with significant needs.
- Related UH News story: Law student named pro bono hero for assisting Kauaʻi taro farmers, May 11, 2021
“Opportunities like this are critical for Richardson law students because they expose us to the ways in which the law can be a barrier to justice for those who are the intended beneficiaries of the law,” said Kauluponookaleilehua Luʻuwai, a UH law school alumna and attorney who participated in the clinic as a student. “It also teaches us that working for clients whose legal goals align with our personal values makes the difficult work extremely rewarding and further places a kuleana (privilege and responsibility) on us as future attorneys to remember these lessons of service as we move into our careers. I believe this is the precise kind of lawyer Chief Justice Richardson envisioned when he founded our institution.”
Students who have taken the clinic continue to show up and testify for the farmers at various venues for the long-term water lease. Their work goes beyond bringing farmers back from devastation. It is an example of taking proactive steps to support important cultural practices such as loʻi kalo farming in Hawaiʻi.
“Given the pandemic, we’re more aware of food security and being able to sustain ourselves in Hawaiʻi,” said Uʻilani Tanigawa Lum, an attorney and Post-J.D. Fellow who first took the clinic as a law student and now helps to co-teach it. “Kalo farming is one of the core practices of Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians). It goes beyond simply farming for food. Kalo is our elder brother and enables an important cultural practice, it is a foundational value of aloha ʻāina (to take care of the land). Creating spaces and supporting farmers is key to maintaining our way of life in Hawaiʻi and the cultural knowledge that makes this place so special.”
This work brings to life UH Mānoa’s goal of Becoming a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning (PDF), Enhancing Student Success (PDF) and Building a Sustainable and Resilient Campus Environment: Within the Global Sustainability and Climate Resilience Movement (PDF), three of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
