Robin Danner
Robin Puanani Danner is a Native Hawaiian advocate, non-profit executive, and community developer. She is the founding director of the Hawaiian Council (formerly the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement) and has served as the elected chair of the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations (SCHHA). Her work focuses on affordable housing, community lending, and the administration of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.
Career and advocacy
In 2001, Danner founded the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA), establishing it as a national umbrella organization for community-based organizations serving Native Hawaiians. Under her leadership, the organization became a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), facilitating federal funding and private capital for Hawaiian homesteads.
Danner has been a prominent leader within the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations (SCHHA), the oldest and largest coalition representing beneficiaries of the 200,000-acre Hawaiian Home Lands trust. Danner has also participated in Hawaiian sovereignty discussions with the Obama administration.
In 2018, Danner and her son Garrett Danner were arrested with trespassing and interfering with a government official during a protest on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands land near Anahola, Hawaii.
She is a former president of the National Bank of Alaska.
Personal life
Danner was born in Hawaii and raised in Niumalu on Kauaʻi. She was also raised on Navajo, Hopi, and Apache reservations in Arizona and lived for 25 years among the Iñupiat people of Alaska before moving back to Kauaʻi.