By Makalika Naholowaa, NHLC Executive Director
Science and research offer real opportunity for our people. Careers in biotechnology, agriculture, environmental science, and data can pay well, build skills, and put Kānaka at the table where important decisions get made impacting our ʻāina and the lāhui.
Native Hawaiian inclusion in this work can be good for everyone. But when that work is done as an employee of a company, especially one that is not governed by Kānaka Maoli values, there are things Kānaka should understand before saying yes. You become the company’s agent. Under the law, an employee is an agent of the employer and owes it a duty of loyalty and confidentiality. In plain terms: information you develop while doing your job can be treated as the company’s confidential property, so long as the company takes steps to keep it secret. That duty likely follows you even after the job ends.
The company may own what you create. Many employers ask staff to sign agreements stating that all information, content, and innovation created in the course of the job belongs to the company. The law already leans this way: work an employee produces within the scope of employment is generally owned by the employer, not the worker, unless the employer says otherwise. A signed assignment agreement only strengthens that claim and can relate to even publicly disclosed content that the company claims as proprietary, for example as copyrighted or trademarked material or patented inventions.
How this impacts Kānaka. A company may hire a Kanaka precisely to engage community, kūpuna, knowledge holders, and cultural practitioners to learn our ʻike and turn it into science the company can own and profit from. That can create a hard conflict between your legal duty to the employer and your kuleana to the lāhui. And community members who share knowledge may not realize that it is employment, contract, and intellectual- property law, not our own customs of stewardship and reciprocity, that may govern what happens to what they share.
Our ʻike is recognized but not automatically protected. International norms increasingly affirm that Indigenous Peoples have the right to maintain, control, and develop their traditional knowledge and cultural expressions. Global frameworks call for free, prior, and informed consent and fair benefit-sharing before others use genetic resources and the knowledge tied to them.
Importantly, Hawaiʻi’s Constitution reaffirms and protects the traditional and customary rights of Native Hawaiians, and our courts have held the state must actively protect them. But the law is undeveloped for many situations, and many of these duties bind governments, not private employment contracts. Individuals and community groups usually carry the burden themselves when interacting with private parties including corporations.
Consult an attorney first. If you are considering a research or development role, especially with a company that is not governed by Kānaka Maoli values, talk with a lawyer before you accept, so you understand what may be involved as it relates traditional knowledge and cultural resources. The same goes for any hui or practitioner asked to collaborate – have an attorney review the terms and consider negotiating protections that reflect Kānaka expectations around knowledge stewardship and the use of our native resources.
E Nīnau iā NHLC provides general information about the law. E Nīnau iā NHLC is not legal advice. You can contact NHLC about your legal needs by calling NHLC’s offices at 808-521-2302. You can also learn more about NHLC at nativehawaiianlegalcorp.org.
