Mahalo to the NHLC!
In April 2019, the Hawaiʻi Community Development Agency (HCDA) canceled our 40-year lease to the Kalaeloa Heritage Park. Without legal access, the Kalaeloa Heritage and Legacy Foundation (KHLF) could not continue its kuleana to mālama the cultural, historical, and archeaological features at the Park.
As a small community non-profit we were struggling to wrestle an interim Right of Entry (ROE) while simultaneously urging the HCDA to develop a more appropriate legal contract for us such as a Curatorship Agreement. In our desperation we reached out to the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) and staff attorney Alan Murakami heard our call. He recognized that our situation aligned perfectly with the NHLCʻs mission and advocated for the NHLC to take our case.
Alan helped us successfully execute an interim ROE with HCDA and started the years-long process of negotiating a long-term Stewardship Agreement; something the HCDA had never considered before. In 2020 Alan retired after 40 years with the NHLC and in 2021 Liʻulā Kotaki Christensen picked up where Alan had left off.
Liʻulā was instrumental in moving forward the development of the Stewardship Agreement and was able to successfully pivot when the HCDA unexpectedly decided to throw away years of work and revert back to a Lease Agreement in 2023. Liʻulā successfully negotiated the terms of a new five-year Lease Agreement (with option to renew for 20 years) which we executed with HCDA this November. Thank you NHLC, for answering our call four years ago, sticking with us through three HCDA Executive Directors, and ultimately making it possible for us to continue our mālama ʻāina mission at the Kalaeloa Heritage Park!
