Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 1, 1 January 1991 — NHLC director continues activist role [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NHLC director continues activist role

Mahealani Kamauu is the oldest of seven children. She was nine when her family was forced to move from a very rural area on the island of Kauai to the crowded slums of downtown Honolulu. It was that experience, at an impressionable age, that helped shape what would become her lifelong interest in working for social improvement. During this time, she attended Royal Elementary, Central Intermediate, and Kamehameha Schools, graduating in 1965. She married and moved to the mainland, returning five years later a divorced and single parent. That same year, 1970, she saw the parallels between evictions she experienced as a child and what was occurring throughout the islands to make way for development, especially in Kalama Valley. She became active with that land struggle and continues her activism to this day. Drawing upon childhood memories, she also worked to improve prison conditions because many of her friends followed the track from juvenile hall to adult incarceration. Kamauu earned a B.A. in poliheal science in 1976. Her subsequent law school studies were interrupted by the birth of a third child, but she went on to complete graduate work in Public Administration and Accounting. From 1978 to 1980, she worked as a full-time volunteer for the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation while supporting her family with part-time jobs. After helping NHLC secure major funding in 1980, she was hired as paid staff. In September 1986, Mahealani was named its first non-attorney executive director. She is accountable to a 12member board, seven of whom are appointed by the Hawaii Bar Association. She is also responsible for day-to-day administration of a 15-member staff, five of whom are attorneys.

She has been recognized as an outstanding woman in the area of community service by Alu Like, ine., and has served on the board of that organization as well as Legal Aid, Queen Lili'uokalani Trust Children's Center, the Council of Hawaiian Organizations, the political action eommittee of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, and many other organizations. On a more whimsical note, she sings with a 60's group called the Casualettes and has served as manager of the U.H. Law School alumni women's football team since hanging up her jersey four years ago. She is a published poet and has given numerous readings.

Mahealani Kamauu