Getting Back to Her Roots

Tehani Louis-Perkins

Class of 2022

Tehani is a first-year law student and aims to get certificates in Native Hawaiian Law and Environmental Law.  She was born and raised in the ahupuaʻa of Paʻalaʻa in the moku of Waialua known today as Haleʻiwa.  She is a proud graduate of Kamehameha Schools Kāpalama and Whitman College, where she obtained a degree in Biology and Environmental Studies.  Currently, she sits on the North Shore Neighborhood Board and comes to William S. Richardson with experience in Indigenous Community Resource Management.  At school she is a member of the Pacific Island Legal Association, Hawaiʻi Women Lawyers, ʻAhahui o Hawaiʻi, Environmental Law Society, and on the ETE team.

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“It is because Richardson allows me to obtain the legal knowledge to give back to my ‘ohana, kaiāulu, and lāhui, that I am able to remain rooted in who I am as a kanaka maoli.”