Uʻilani Tanigawa Lum '19

Professor Uʻilani Tanigawa Lum is a proud graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law where she currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Law and is a part of Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law.  She teaches courses on and related to Native Hawaiian Rights as well as in the clinical program.

Professor Tanigawa Lum is also a proud Evening Part-Time student, though she transferred to the full-time program to finish early. Prior joining the law school as a Professor, she worked at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and served as a Lecturer-in-Law and a Post-J.D. Legal Fellow here at the William S. Richardson School of Law. 

Professor Tanigawa Lum is a proud graduate of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge where she earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Hawaiian Studies.  Her thesis examined hula’s role in society and in particular, its performance in Japan as a cultural, social, economic, and political mechanism.

Professor Tanigawa Lum is a hula practitioner and in 2021, after 25 years of practicing hula, she underwent formal ʻūniki – or graduation – rites as a hoʻopaʻa under Hālau Nā Lei Kaumaka o Uka. Together with her husband, she founded Kāhuli Leo Leʻa, a non-profit organization dedicated to catalyzing aloha ʻāina through mele and other cultural practices.  In 2020, she received a Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award for her work on Huliāmahi, Vol. 1, a compilation album of new mele celebrating contemporary stories of aloha ʻāina. 

Professor Tanigawa Lum’s area of scholarship and research include Native Hawaiian law, environmental law, restorative justice, and restorative environmental justice.

Aia i Waiʻoli ke Aloha ʻĀina: Re-centering ʻĀina and Indigenous Knowledge for Restorative Environmental Justice for Indigenous Peoples, 41 UCLA J. of Env. L. and Pol’y (forthcoming 2023).

Cultivating Kīpuka Aloha ʻĀina in the Classroom, Courtroom, and Community: Ka Huli Ao and the Environmental Law Clinic, in Pīkoʻokoʻo, (forthcoming 2023) (with Peltier and Tuteur).

A. Uʻilani Tanigawa Lum, et al., Waiʻoli Valley Taro Hui Long-Term Water Lease for Traditional Loʻi Kalo Cultivation, Final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact, August 2021.

 Malu ʻUlu o Lele: Maui Komohana in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa (North Beach-West Maui Benefit Fund, Inc. 2020) (with River).

Accessing Traditional Kīpuka: Protecting the Storehouse of Knowledge Through the Rule of Law, 20:2 Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal 69 (2019).

The Hula Industry: Understanding the Commodification of Hula in Japan and Culturally Grounded Hula (2016) (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa).

Recent Media and Liner Notes

ʻŌiwi Resources & Our County Government, Ka Wai Ola, October 2022 (with Kuoha).

Kuhinia Maui: Wai and a Return to ʻĀina Momona, Ka Wai Ola, May 2022 (with Nakanelua).

Born is the Forest, Long Live the Seeds, Ka Wai Ola, 2018.

Keauhou & A. Uʻilani Tanigawa Lum, liner notes for I Leʻa, compact disc, 2022.

A. Uʻilani Tanigawa Lum & Zachary Alakaʻi Lum, liner notes for Huliāmahi, Vol. 1, compact disc, 2020.

A. Uʻilani Tanigawa Lum & Zachary Alakaʻi Lum, liner notes for Lei Nāhonoapiʻilani: Nā Mele Hou, compact disc, 2020.