Kahea Pacheco

Kahea Pacheco (Kanaka 'Ōiwi) is a passionate advocate for Indigenous people’s rights, intersectional environmentalism, and climate justice that puts aloha ʻāina at the heart of solutions. She joined WEA as a Legal Research Intern in 2011 after graduating from law school with a focus on Environmental and Federal Indian Law.

With WEA, Kahea facilitated legal advocacy partnerships for indigenous women-led environmental campaigns to protect lands, water, and sacred spaces through the North America Advocacy Network. She also co-led a partnership with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network to develop the “Violence on the Land, Violence on our Bodies” report and toolkit, which provides a critical perspective from Indigenous women and young people on the health and social impacts of extractive industry within their territories, as well as community-developed tools to address environmental violence.

Kahea has a background in critical theory and human rights, and has lived and traveled around the world, including studying the shifting terrain of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland, and the ongoing impact of colonization on the construction of culture and identity in the Pacific. She serves on the Advisory Council for Daughters for Earth and 1t.org—the trillion trees platform of the World Economic Forum—and is on the Board of Directors of Planet Women.