Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie

Education

• BA, cum laude, Beloit College, 1970
• JD, William S. Richardson School of Law, 1976

Biography

After receiving her law degree, Professor MacKenzie served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William S. Richardson of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court. In 1980, she joined the staff of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC), a public interest law firm protecting and advancing the rights of Native Hawaiians. She served as NHLC's Executive Director from 1982-1986 and as a senior staff attorney from 1986-1992. From 1992-1999, she was the Executive Director of the Hawaiian Claims Office, a state program established to review and make recommendations on claims by Hawaiian Home Lands beneficiaries.

Professor MacKenzie is project coordinator and chief editor for the forthcoming second edition of the Native Hawaiian Rights Handbook, which she originally edited and helped to write, and is a contributor to the 2005 Edition of Felix S. Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law.

She is a member of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ litigation team in the State v. OHA case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court and has worked on a cases defending the constitutionality of Hawaiian programs. Professor MacKenzie teaches Native Hawaiian Rights, the Native Hawaiian Rights Clinic, and Legal Writing.

Articles

• Restorative Justice for Hawaiʻi’s First People: Selected Amicus Curiae Briefs in Doe v. Kamehameha Schools, co-authored with Susan Serrano, Eric Yamamoto and David Forman, UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law 14 ASIAN AMERICAN LAW JOURNAL 205 (May 2007).
• New Kind of Environmental Justice: Indigenous Hawaiians Reclaiming Land and Resources, co-authored with Susan Serrano and Koa Kaulukukui, NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter 2007.
• An Introduction to the Rights of the Native Hawaiian People, co-authored with Professor Jon Van Dyke, HAWAIʻI BAR JOURNAL (July 2006).
• Ever Loyal to the Land: The Story of the Native Hawaiian People, HUMAN RIGHTS MAGAZINE (Spring 2006), published by the American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.
• Native Hawaiians and the Law: Struggling with the Heʻe, 7 ASIAN-PAC. L. & POL’Y J. 7 (2006).

Selected Presentations and Papers

• Presentation: Of Apology, Race and Recognition, Conference on Native Americans, Race and Federal Law at the University of Colorado Law School, Boulder, Colorado (February 2009)
• Presentation: The 1993 Apology Resolution and the OHA v. HCDCH Case, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement Annual Convention, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi (October 2008)
• Presentation: The Legal Status of Native Hawaiians, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi (May 2008)
• Paper on Hawaiian Cultural Sovereignty Ola Nā ‘Ōiwi – The Native People Live, Symposium on the Ainu Culture Promotion Law, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan (December 2007)
• Presentation: A Legal History of Hawaiʻi for Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Judges at Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, Honolulu, Hawai‘i (July 2007)
• Paper on Hawaiian Custom in Hawaiʻi State Law, Tūhonohono: The State and Custom, Tainui Endowed College and Te Mātāhauariki Research Institute, University of Waikato, Hamilton, Aotearoa/New Zealand (June 2007)

Organizations

• Vice-President/President-Elect – Native Hawaiian Bar Association
• Member, Kūali‘i Council at UH Mānoa (faculty, staff and students from Native Hawaiian programs)
• Hālau Mōhala ‘Ilima – 1989 kumu hula graduate, current student and kakoʻo

Awards

• YWCA Leadership Luncheon Awardee (April 2009)
• Student Choice Award, William S. Richardson School of Law (April 2008)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Hawai‘i Women Lawyers (March 2006)

Selected Publication(s)

Recent Awards, Appointments, Grants & Honors