Advocating for Fellow Hawaiian Homesteaders
Henderson K. Huihui
Staff Attorney, Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation
Henderson Huihui is a Staff Attorney with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC), the only law firm in the world dedicated to Native Hawaiian rights. A fourth-generation Hawaiian homesteader, Henderson represents and counsels clients on real property matters and the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. Representative examples of cases Henderson has handled include a successful settlement with the Hawaiian Homes Commission in a lease cancellation proceeding involving failed trust duty claims and due process issues that saved multigenerational Native Hawaiian residential leases. Henderson started his time at NHLC as the first Hawaiʻi based fellow to be awarded a competitive two-year legal fellowship from Washington, D.C.-based Equal Justice Works. Henderson’s fellowship focused on addressing the issues and concerns of Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) lessees and beneficiaries through legal and other advocacy. Henderson’s fellowship provided direct legal services, educational resources and materials, and fostered community partnerships and collaboration. Henderson has participated in a number of panel presentations including the Hawaiʻi Access to Justice Conference and the King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center.
As a homesteader from beautiful Waimānalo, Henderson is proud to now ensure that other Hawaiians have the legal services they need to manage risks to their leaseholds and protect their family’s connections to these lands. In his free time, Henderson enjoys mahiʻai kalo, aquaponics, hiking, and surfing.
“As a Native Hawaiian, and having grown up in the Waimānalo Hawaiian homestead, I always knew that I wanted to serve the Native Hawaiian community. I felt that becoming an attorney was the best way for me to contribute to my community. I went to Richardson so that I could study Native Hawaiian Law and gain the tools and knowledge necessary to advance the legal rights of Native Hawaiians. Today, my practice focuses on issues pertaining to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, which provides long-term leases to qualified native Hawaiians. I wanted to focus on homesteading issues because having benefitted from the homestead program and seeing the generational stability that it can provide an ‘ohana, I feel that it is now my kuleana to help other ‘ohana retain their homestead leases.”