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Tia Blankenfeld: A Heart For The Community

By Alison Stewart

Growing up around the Hokule‘a and the ocean all her life, Tia Blankenfeld has water running through her veins. As a very busy 25-year-old young native Hawaiian woman, she also doesn't waste a moment of her time as she clearly has a heart for the community and helps with countless projects. With everything on her plate, Blankenfeld barely has time for herself, yet still makes it her number one priority to finish law school.

Blankenfeld's curiosity of law was sparked when she was very young because of her family's land ownership.

“I grew up in Niu Valley and my family owns a lot of the land back there,” she says. “The Niu ahupua‘a (land division) was given to my great grandfather by his mother when she passed away.

Over the years some of the land was given away, sold, etc. by him. Then after my great grandmother passed away, we got hit with a huge estate tax (aka the “death” tax) and were forced to sell part of our property and move further up the valley.

"But that's just one of the many legal issues the family faces right now,” she adds. When Blankenfeld was about 15 years old she began attending the family meetings, and all this is what peaked her interest in law. With one year left to go at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai‘i, Blankenfeld keeps herself busy as one of the alaka‘i (student leaders) of the ‘Ahahui o Hawai‘i (The Hui). Its mission is to ‘accept and fulfill our kuleana (responsiblites) by providing a safe and respectful forum to discuss issues from a Hawaiian perspective that is pono (morally correct). The Hui is the oldest student organization of the law school and raises significant issues of concern to native Hawaiians at the school and in the community.

“We do a lot of educational things such as symposiums and other talks,” she says. “We try to educate people on different legal issues that affect native Hawaiians. So far, I've been doing this for a year and a half and it involves a wide array of things,” she adds.

Blankenfeld recently participated in a symposium regarding native Hawaiian tradi-tional gathering rights and was sent on a trip to New Mexico, for the Federal Indian Bar Association's annual law conference. Blankenfeld's edu-cational experience has been enhanced by the Law School's recent receipt of a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant helped establish the Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law. It focuses on education, research, community outreach and the preservation of his-torical, legal, traditional and customary materials. It also offers new courses that support native Hawaiian law students. Working as a research assistant for one of the Hawaiian rights professors, Blankenfeld tries to put in at least 10 hours a week.

“Last summer my research partner and I studied a number of Indian tribes, she says. “We compared and con-trasted their government structures, land base, memberships and different laws. That was very interesting,” she adds.

This year Blankenfeld was given the opportunity to help write a new chapter in her professor's book on the Native Hawaiian Healthcare Act. Add this to her heavy 17-credit class load, and she just wants to breathe sometimes.

“I feel sometimes I never get a break between research, reading and studying,” Blankenfeld smiles. “Plus I have one of those writing intensive classes where I have to pick a topic, do all the research and write 30 to 40 page paper by the end of the semester. It's defi-nitely a lot of work and can definitely be overwhelming at times,” she adds.

When Blankenfeld completes law school, she will focus on trusts and estate planning. In addition to her hectic class schedule and school activities, Blankenfeld still manages to make time for her paddling and coaching. She paddles about three or four times a week (usually on one-man runs) and coaches the Novice B Men group two to four times a week. The Novice B group consists of the newbies with no paddling experience, whereas people in the Novice A group have paddled for at least a year.

“Although I usually coach the young girls, this year I decided to coach adults,” she says. “In a way, the adults are a little easier to deal with because they are there because they want to be there, and not because it's something they have to do. I really enjoy coaching brand new people, who don't have any knowledge of paddling. They're very moldable and haven't picked up any bad habits yet. Plus, it's fun teaching them all the different parts of the canoe and protocol,” Blankenfeld adds.

Blankenfeld has been paddling for 15 years, since she was about 10. Both her parents were coaches, so both her and her older brother got into it. When she made it to her fresh-man year in high school, she joined the Hawai‘i Canoe & Kayak Team, and competed in K1 competitions. Her team made it to various national competitions and traveled all over the mainland to compete. Blankenfeld and her partners were literally a tenth of a second away from making it into the Jr. World Championship competi-tion one year.

“Around my junior or senior year in high school I came in second and was ranked second in the nation,” she says. “We were training with the Olympic kayaking coaches from New York and highly encouraged to continue and try out for the Olympics. But, I decided to go to college instead. I wanted to have a normal life, and this would have been a huge commitment,” she added.

Though Blankenfeld paddles one-man, she prefers paddling with her six-man team. “The whole fun of paddling for me is you get to be in the water with your friends,” she says. “We always laugh and have a good time. But something I'd like to do eventually on my own is kayak the Moloka‘i Race. I've always wanted to do it when I was younger but I since I went to college on the mainland, I never ended up doing it,” she adds. “I'm just a total water person,” Blankenfeld smiles “I just love the ocean in general and all water sports, or any-thing that has to do with the ocean. When it comes to land, I'm very uncoordinated. I grew up surfing, bodysurfing, fishing and diving. I basically did everything my dad (Bruce Blankenfeld) did while I was growing up. While I was in high school, I'd go on the Hokule‘a for day sails and go with my dad to any long distance canoe races he was escort-ing,” she adds.

Blankenfeld is also the niece of Nainoa Thompson, the executive director of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and a Hokule‘a pioneer. She is extremely fortunate to be able to take advantage of what her family's legacy has to offer her. “I dabble in a little of everything,” Blankenfeld laughs. “I'm involved with everything that has to do with the Polynesian Voyaging Society and Hokule‘a. I especially help my mom (Lita Blankenfeld) since she is in charge of all the food that goes on the Hokule'a voyages and does a lot of the legwork for Uncle Nainoa. If it weren't for her, Hokule‘a would probably never leave Hawai‘i. My mom is always in the back-ground doing something. She's also an amazing paddler, a good athlete, and the best steersman in the family,” she chuckles.

Traveling is also a big part of Blankenfeld's life. Especially with Hokule‘a in her family, she has been given the opportunity to go all over the world. “My brother and I have been to a lot of places while we were growing up because my dad, uncle and basically the whole family was involved with the Polynesian Voyaging Society,” she says. “When we were little, my mom would take us to all the different places H¯ok¯ule‘a went.” Blankenfeld has been to New Zealand, Tahiti, Cooke Islands, The Marquesas Islands and Samoa to mention a few.

One of her most memorable experiences was going to the north side of Moloka‘i, paddling to different beaches and hiking around different valleys. However, her favorite by far was her adventure in Europe with her high school best friend. Together they spent a semester in Italy, had four-day weekends every week, and visited just about every country in Europe. Blankenfeld is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, went to Pepperdine University in California, transferred to George Washington University in Washington D.C., then earned her bachelor's degree there in environmental sci-ences. She ended up staying in Washington D.C. for two years when she received the opportunity to work in the U.S. Senate.

“I worked for the Chief of Staff, and I started off as a secretary, then worked my way up doing a lot more,” Blankenfeld says. “I worked on native Hawaiian health and education legislation with him since that was his focus. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go sit through hearings like a lot of the interns did, but I did go to different cancer research centers around the country to see which one Hawai‘i should model after,” she added.

Blankenfeld came home about two years ago when she was accepted by the UH Law School. Since her return home, Blankenfeld has enjoyed Hawai‘i's refreshing tight-knit community and open arms from her family and friends. When she fi nishes law school soon, she will continue to spread her warm aloha throughout the community.