Haunani-Kay Trask is one of Hawai‘i’s best known Native leaders and scholars. Her four books include the critically acclaimed, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai‘i, as well as two books of poetry, Light in the Crevice Never Seen, and Night is a Sharkskin Drum. She was co-producer and scriptwriter of the award-wining film, Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation (1993).

She was the first full-time Director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa in Honolulu. During her tenure, she oversaw construction of a multi-million dollar, five-acre, Hawaiian Studies complex. She has been a Fellow at the Pacific Basin Research Center at Harvard University (1998) a National Endowment for the Arts Writer-in-Residence at Santa Fe, New Mexico (1996), a Rockefeller Resident Fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder (1989), and an American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellow (1984).

Professor Trask descends from a long line of Native orators. Her grandfather, a Hawai'i Territorial Senator, and her father, a lawyer and advocate for Hawaiians, were among the political figures known for their speechmaking and political contributions toward securing Native land rights in Hawai‘i.

Today, Professor Trask is widely considered an authority on Hawaiian political issues, as well as an internationally known indigenous human rights advocate. She has recently spoken in the Basque Country, Donostia, Spain; at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa; at the First International Conference on White Supremacy and Reparations at Benedict College, South Carolina; and as an indigenous Hawaiian representative at anti-racism gatherings in Brisbane, Australia; Barcelona, Spain; Geneva, Switzerland; Strasbourg, France; Vancouver, Victoria, and Hull, Canada; Auckland, Wellington, and Otago, New Zealand.