After Injunction Against 2023 Midwifery Bill, NHLC Testifies on Possible Replacements
In the 2025 Hawaiʻi State legislative session, lawmakers introduced two bills in the House as potential replacements for the 2019 Midwifery Law (HRS §457J): HB 1194 and HB1328, both relating to midwives. Last year, a hui of legal organizations, including Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (“NHLC”), represented maternal caregivers and Native Hawaiian traditional birthing practitioners in challenging the 2019 law in Kahoʻohanohano v. State of Hawaiʻi. The complaint alleged, among other things, that the law unconstitutionally regulated traditional and customary Native Hawaiian birthing practices. The legal team successfully obtained a preliminary injunction from the Courts, barring the State from enforcing ...
Court Rules in Favor of Native Hawaiian Midwives
Native Hawaiian midwives in Hawai‘i can resume caring for their communities Yesterday, a Hawai‘i state court temporarily blocked part of the Midwifery Restriction Law, which prevents pregnant people in Hawai‘i from using traditional midwives for their pregnancies and births, as they have for generations. The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, and the law firm Perkins Coie on behalf of nine plaintiffs, including six midwives and student midwives, as well as three women who wish to access care from traditional midwives. Since July 2023, when this law went into effect, many ...
Launch of Resolution 108 Native Hawaiian Intellectual Property Working Group
In May 2023, the Hawaii Legislature passed House Concurrent Resolution No. 108, HD 1, SD 1. This resolution established a Native Hawaiian Intellectual Property (NH IP) Working Group. The group’s task is to create a report on the policies and legislation needed to better protect Native Hawaiian culture and traditional knowledge. The report is due in November 2024, in advance of the 2025 legislative session. The NH IP Working Group held its first meeting on Monday, June 24th, at the Legislature. During this meeting, they elected Kumu Hula Vicky Holt Takamine, Executive Director of the PA'I Foundation, as Chair and ...
On World IP Day, Celebrate Native Hawaiian & Other Indigenous Peoples’ IP Rights
By Makalika Naholowa’a, Executive Director April 26th marks World Intellectual Property Day. Intellectual property (“IP”) law creates intangible assets from inventions, creative expressions, trade identifiers like brand names and logos, and trade secrets. IP rules in the United States (“US”) have pre-colonial roots going back centuries in the British Isles and Europe. As colonists from those societies established the US, they contemplated the recognition of intellectual property at the outset with specific reference in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution, referred to by various names including the Intellectual Property Clause. IP has evolved into a complex legal ...
Hawai‘i Law Restricting Midwives Challenged in Court
Native Hawaiian midwives and others sue state to block law that prevents them from serving communities in traditional ways. Today, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation filed a case in the First Circuit Court of Hawai‘i challenging a new Midwifery Restriction Law that is preventing pregnant people in Hawai‘i from using skilled midwives for their pregnancies and births, as they have for generations. The Midwifery Restriction Law also endangers constitutionally protected Native Hawaiian traditional birthing practices. The nine plaintiffs include 3 midwives and 3 midwifery students who, under the Restriction Law, could now face criminalization for ...
The legacy of Clarabal v. the Department of Education
Six years ago this month, the first Hawaiian language rights case was heard by the Hawai‘i Supreme Court, Clarabal v. Department of Education. The oral argument was conducted in early February 2018, a month in which ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i is honored and celebrated. At the heart of the case were two schoolchildren on Lāna‘i who were prohibited from communicating in ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i in the classroom. The Hawai‘i Supreme Court was asked by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) to decide that the State had a constitutional duty to provide reasonable and equal access to a Hawaiian language medium education to these ...
I Ola Loa ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi: Ma ka pūkaʻina Ka Wai Ola i hoʻopuka ʻia ma Iune 2019, hōʻike ʻia e ke Keʻena Equality and Access to the Courts o ka Māhele Hoʻokolokolo o ka Mokuʻāina ʻo Hawaiʻi, ke kākaʻikahi o nā māhele ʻōlelo ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi ma nā ʻAha Kaʻapuni a pau o ka pae ʻāina. ʻŌlelo ʻia, he ʻeono wale nō māhele ʻōlelo i kū i ka hana māhele ʻōlelo ma nā ʻaha hoʻokolokolo; ʻekolu ma Hawaiʻi mokupuni, ʻelua ma Kauaʻi, hoʻokahi wale nō ma Maui, a ʻaʻohe mea ma Oʻahu. I kēia makahiki hoʻi, ua wehe ʻia ka papa māhele ʻōlelo ʻōlelo ...
NHLC Executive Director contributes to NaHHA’s Ka Huina 2023 Intellectual and Cultural Property Panel
Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation’s Executive Director, Makalika Naholowaʻa, was a part of the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association’s (NaHHA) fifth annual Ka Huina convention as a panelist on cultural intellectual property. Moderated by Hawaii Representative Darius Kila, Naholowaʻa joined Breann Huʻuhiwa of Dentons International Law and Zachary Lum of Kāhuli Leo Leʻa to discuss the ARTIST Act, cultural intellectual property, and regenerative tourism. Currently, Native Hawaiian artisans are not protected under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA). The ARTIST Act being considered by Congress would change that, among other amendments to the IACA. In this talk, Naholowaʻa, Huʻuhiwa and Lum ...
