
Kace Rodwell
Host: Oklahoma Indian Legal Services, Inc.
Sponsor: Anonymous, DLA Piper LLP (US)
Henderson, a Native Hawaiian beneficiary of the Hawaiian Home Lands program, provides comprehensive outreach and advocacy to assist the over 60,000 eligible Native Hawaiians in applying for and keeping homestead housing.
Too many Native Hawaiians are landless in their own birthplace. The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ (DHHL) homesteading program—which offers 99 year homestead leases at $1 per year for residential, agricultural, or pastoral purposes to Native Hawaiians with at least 50% blood quantum—is the best affordable housing option for Native Hawaiians today. More leases for homesteads must be issued, and those fortunate enough to receive a lease need assistance meeting their legal and financial obligations. Lease cancellation risks intergenerational disruption, since leases may be extended for up to 199 years total, and exacerbates Hawaii’s homeless crisis, which is the worst in the country and affects Native Hawaiians disproportionately.
Henderson’s project empowers Native Hawaiians who are eligible to participate in the Hawaiian Home Lands homestead lease program. He does so by educating them on their legal rights, providing direct legal services, advocating for policy reform, and fostering community partnerships and collaboration—all in service to individual beneficiaries and homesteading communities statewide. Henderson’s upbringing in the Waimānalo, Oʻahu homesteading community helped inform the creation of this project. Witnessing first-hand the challenges his community faced, the potential long-term benefits the Home Lands program offers Native Hawaiian families, and the stories of struggle and triumph shared by kupuna (elders) motivated Henderson to find a way to empower and advocate for his community.
In the first year of the Fellowship, Henderson has:
In the next six months, Henderson plans to:
Advocating for My Fellow Hawaiian Homesteaders
Hawaiian Homestead Leaders to Headline 2021 Maui Centennial Puwalu
Law fellowship supports Hawaiian home lands beneficiaries research
2021 Hawai'i Access to Justice Conference: Biographies
2021 Hawai'i Access to Justice Conference: Agenda
100 Years of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act: Legacy, Opportunities, Challenges
Having benefitted from the homestead program, I fully understand the intergenerational stability a homestead provides an ʻohana (family). Homesteading opportunities can make the difference between stable housing or no housing at all.
Henderson Huihui /
2020 Equal Justice Works Fellow
Host: Oklahoma Indian Legal Services, Inc.
Sponsor: Anonymous, DLA Piper LLP (US)
Host: California Indian Legal Services
Sponsor: Bingham McCutchen LLP
Host: Dakota Plains Legal Services
Sponsor: Dakota Plains Legal Services, Lannan Foundation
Host: Indian Child Welfare Act Law Center
Sponsor: Dorsey & Whitney LLP, U.S. Bank
Current Fellow