Founded in 1985 to defend Native Hawaiian rights, the Pele Defense Fund (PDF, Norman grantee 1990, 1992) fought to stop geothermal energy development in Wao Kele O Puna — a sacred rainforest on the Big Island of Hawaii associated with the volcano goddess Pele — arguing that drilling on the active volcano violated Native Hawaiians’ rights to access land for subsistence, cultural, and religious purposes for generations. Norman provided a grant in 1990 to support litigation expenses for PDF’s lawsuit against the State Board of Land and Natural Resources, and another in 1992 to secure expert witnesses for the case. In 1992, the Hawaii Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in PDF’s favor, declaring that Native Hawaiians’ right to practice native traditions and customs was not limited to the area where they live. In 2006, the Trust for Public Land purchased 25,800 acres of the rainforest and transferred the title to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in order to return the sacred land to Native Hawaiian control for permanent protection from geothermal development.

Media:

• Cultural Survival, March 2010 article: Hawaii’s Rainforest Crunch: Land, People, and Geothermal Development