I Honua Ola

Native Hawaiian identity is centered on familial connections to people and place.

NHLC’s I Honua Ola program offers essential services to protect housing and ‘ohana land rights. Inspired by its meaning of “to have a thriving foundation alluding to the necessities of a good life,” the I Honua Ola program is dedicated to perpetuating Native Hawaiian wellbeing by protecting Native Hawaiian pilina to ʻāina.

The I Honua Ola program advances the imperative to maintain pilina to ʻohana, lāhui, and ʻāina by providing services encompassing:

• Protection of rights related to Hawaiian Home Lands
  • Successorship
  • Lease cancellation
  • Blood quantum certification
• Protection of family-owned lands
  • Quiet title and partition defense
  • Kuleana lands access & real property tax exemptions
• Defenses of other state leases for family uses

Born in 1974 from a grassroots movement to address the injustices faced by Native Hawaiians, NHLCʻs start was focused on (i) the dispossession of land due to large land owner claims of adverse possession and (ii) failures by the federal and state government to keep the promise of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act regarding Hawaiian Home Lands for Native Hawaiians. NHLC remains steadfast in its mission to hold the government accountable to its legal trust duties and ensuring Hawaiian families have advocates in quiet title actions to maintain Native Hawaiian pilina to ʻāina.

Homesteader Rights

Roughly 10,000 Native Hawaiians hold Hawaiian Homelands leases, yet the dream of a homestead remains elusive for over 28,000 families still on the waiting list. The journey to secure and sustain a homestead lease is fraught with challenges, including issues of successorship, lease cancellations, and the 50% blood quantum requirement. In the last year, NHLC received more than 150 inquiries regarding land and homestead-related matters. This program plays a critical role in protecting homesteader rights and the rights of families on or deserving access to the waitlist.

Family Land Rights

After the Mahele and the Kuleana Act of 1850, makaʻāinana (common Hawaiian people) retained less than 5% of Hawaiian land. Since that time, landlessness and land loss have posed some of the greatest threats to Native Hawaiian identity and culture. In the 1970s, this threat took the form of large scale eviction of families on the defensive end of adverse possession claims by large land owners. Today, inherited property with clouded title called heirs property, and access to the legal services needed to navigate probate and land tax law, threaten intergenerational held family properties. NHLC aides families with legal services to retain their ʻohana lands.

Need Assistance?

If you have a legal issue and would like to see if we can help you, please call our office at (808) 521-2302 or contact us using our Contact Form.

Senior Staff Attorney

Staff Attorney

• NHLC has webinars regarding homestead lease defense and successorship on the NHLC YouTube channel. NHLC also has numerous informational videos about the Mahele and Kuleana lands on its YouTube channel as well.