Lynette:

 

I am 72 years old.  I was born in Pauoa, Oʻahu, and spent my summers at my family’s  place in Hālawa, Molokaʻi, where we would stay with my cousins each year.  Hālawa is where my father’s roots are; I identify those as my roots too.  On Oʻahu, I was an urban girl.  We lived on Smith and Beretania, abut a block away from Tin Can Alley.   In my later teens we moved into Nuʻuanu.   We would always go mauka -- to the mountains, or camping at the ocean a week at a time, or more.  No permit needed.  Even though we lived in the heart of the slum area we got that kind of exposure.   Many Hawaiians did that; it is an important part of our health.  It kept us strong and connected to the ʻāina.

 

In order to be healthy, people need to be more outdoors, do things in nature, look at life as a place where we interact with what we have about us that is free.   Being able to go in the mountains with my parents set a good pattern for me.  Growing up, we did a lot at the ocean, and a lot up mauka, in the stream.   I have continued that with my children.  We look for fungus – pepeiao – on fallen trees, all the hau and kukui, in the mountains.    We didn’t want to carry a lot of junk so we would only take what we needed.  It teaches them a lot.

 

This kind of environment, mauka and makai, taught us that you have to take care.  What you bring in you have to take out.  This becomes the practice grounds for taking care, not only for yourself, but for others too. 

 

We gathered foods from the ocean, and did a lot that was practical, but it was fun – we swam, we explored the streams and reefs, we had a lot of adventure.   The ocean does not require admission. We didn’t have to pay to do things.  This was our home -- it was available to us.   We would look for seaweed because it was going to be part of our lunch.  If you were ʻeleu,  you could do many things.  We taught our children how to find ʻōpae by feeling under the rocks with lots of lettuce.  They could eat lots of ʻōhua, walk on the papa to look for heʻe, swim, dive, so many things.  It was a laboratory for gathering foods for meals, sustenance.  They could determine the fullness of what to do, all without money. 

 

Sometimes I would make some canned salmon and poi for dinner – we would get the limu from the ocean.  It was so wonderful!  We found that some of our friends, they were of the same idea.  Once we were swimming at Kaʻaʻawa, and we saw this car with all the kids inside.  It was our dear friend.   We said, come join us!   Even though they were in their church clothes, they came in the water with us.  We swam, and it was like a Jacuzzi, with the water all swirling around us!   Afterward, we all shared whatever food we had.  Those are good times that cannot be bought with money. 

 

We also had an experience with a youngster who had burglarized our home. His payment was to clean our yard for several weeks.   After that, he asked us, Auntie, can I go with you folks?  And we took him to the ocean with us.    It was good for everyone.

 

I think it is that kind of living that is difficult for those living in the city to have.  There are few places where we can do this now on Oahu.  We must protect what we still have.  I think it is really important that we protect our ʻāina, and our relationship to it.

 

Being in Waiahole was especially special – it was where Likeke was from, and it provided a place for the children to know their roots.   Those trails, places that allowed us to be nurtured by the resources mauka and makai.     We need a lot of people to see it that way, and not as a “recreational” resource from which money is made, especially with motors and all of those things.  It is our source, and our breadbasket.

 

The sports that we played -- I was a tomboy, used to play football.  I was an end.   Those things helped us to develop eye-hand coordination and fine tune our muscles.   My children can’t believe that at Kamehameha I got a letter jacket for my athletic prowess.   I want all children to have that kind of opportunity.

 

My family didn’t have boys so I learned to do work traditionally regarded as men’s work – imu, all those things.  My father was so wise not to stick to that gender taboo.  Because we girls knew how to do that work, we could do it when there were no men available.  I am thankful that my father taught us these skills!

 

The other area that is important is the food that we eat.  We had soda at luau but it was really limited – one bottle per person.  Other than that, everyone drank water.  Much of the food came from the ʻāina.  You can taste that, and you can feel it in your body.  We grew up strong eating that food.

 

 

Richard:

 

I am 76 years old.  When I was young I learned karate, taught karate 15 years.  Later, I learned Lua too, and taught Lua.  Lua teaches you to balance Kū and Hina – the male and the female elements.  I have also practiced Hoʻoponopono for many years, and I worked a lot of different jobs in the community. 

 

I look at health holistically –emotionally, mentally, spiritually as well as physically. 

An important part of health for me was my extended ʻōhana.  They gave me my identity, my roots, my confidence. 

 

Both Kahekili and I are the hiapo (eldest child) in our families.    When you are hiapo, there certain responsibilities you get assigned.  I had 75 first cousins.  We were all like brothers and sisters.  At the Waiāhole house, everyone would stay over weekends, and we would go to the mountains and the sea together.

 

My mom was the fishing person.  At one, two oʻclock in the morning, she would have us moela….  , lay net.  Family would bring those things from town – pilot crackers in a five gallon can, coffee, all kinds of things.  My first steak I had at her house, because someone brought.  Otherwise we always had chop steak to share, because we were not wealthy.   The extended family was important –I learned from so many people with so many practices.  My mom was a good fisherman and also pale keiki, midwife, and dealt with spiritual things.  People would come to her for help all the time, sometimes with heavy spiritual problems.  I learned a lot from watching her.

 

The nurturing that I got was so important.  It came from extended family, in-laws, aunties, uncles -- everyone.   I think more and more of our Hawaiian families got to get together.  It helps the keiki so much.

 

Our parents went through the Depression – they knew hard times.  We, however, did not know poor.   We lived on natural foods, many of them straight from the ʻāina, with some canned foods.

 

 Those canned foods, many of which came from World War II time, created some bad eating habits in a lot of people – when we heard the story of Americans clapping when the Japanese blew up a big container of Spam at Guadalcanal when the Americans took over there, we were shocked – we loved Spam!  We grew up on Spam.   Because of the war, Spam became a regular diet.   Local families have all kinds of ways of preparing it.  It was detrimental to our health, but is important to understand how it is an important food to us emotionally.  The experience of those times is in those foods.

 

But we were rich in so many things, too, because we were close to the land.

 

Where I grew up in Waiāhole was a community of Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos – all kinds of people.  They were like extended family.   Would share fish, vegetables, whatever we had.  If a farmer needs help, everyone comes out and helps him.   That was how it was done.  I learned a lot from this.  A lot about other cultures, and a lot about myself. 

 

Japan kids brought home lunch bento.  We would exchange because we loved bento, the ume, all that.   They wanted our school lunch, because they didn’t get that kind of food.  I went to Japanese school in 7th, 8th, 9th grade, in order to play with my friends.   After school, we would help each other in the fields so we can go play.  That’s the cooperative nature of helping one another.  That is the understanding we grew up with.

 

I was very curious about nature.  I loved hiking, exploring.  We would make flags from my mother’s sheets for fun.  From that we got good at climbing.  The physical is very important. 

 

Because I was the oldest boy, I was placed in a haku role.   Even in eating position.  I had older cousins, but I think I was chosen because I could get all my cousins together; get everyone focused on doing what needed to be done.

 

Graduating highschool wasn’t really my degree.  It was my ʻōhana’s degree.  It took all of them together.  They pushed me, helped me, so that I could set the way for the other cousins.

 

My family is real rough and tumble.  I have a uncle who works for the garbage truck and loves to swear.   Rough and tumble, but a heart of gold.  Take care of the kids, and always make sure they are fed.  Once, he pulled the garbage truck up and yelled something crude right in front of me in town.  It was so embarrassing! But it was a way of showing love.

 

My oldest cousin would get 20, 30 kids together, take us all to the movies.  That is real ʻōhana!

 

The “crab” concept that people talk about amongst Hawaiians, saying that we are like the ʻōhiki crabs stepping on each other in the bucket and pulling one another down, is not true of most of our people.  There are many Hawaiians who are not going to step on others; they are going to encourage – physically, spiritually and emotionally.   They recognize your accomplishment.   They lift you up.  They help you.   It is that kind of nurturance that is very important.

 

Before, didn’t have a bus system.  In Waiāhole, if your family didn’t have a car you would hitchhike.  But I was shame, so I would just stand by the road.  People knew, so they would pick us up.

 

When I went to work I would jog seven and a half miles to Kaneohe.  My sister would be waiting, to give me the lomi I needed when I came home.   We gave our money to our parents; it wasn’t really ours for the most part.  We had to take care of each other.    Only when we worked summers at the cannery, we would save the money for college, clothes. 

 

We would have a lot of one-year luaus, kids getting married.  One two a year in Waiāhole.  We would sing all night -- good fun!

 

In town, at my aunties house we would sleep over, and it would be so crowded that some would have to sleep under the bed.   That is what we would do.

 

We didn’t have the kind of money other people had.  We didn’t have spending money like other kids had.  We created our games out of natural things.   Creative things.  We played a lot of ʻaloʻia – dodging.   In the old days, they would use spears, stones.  We would use beanbags, whatever had.   Milkcaps from school.   Kini.  We would catch minnows such as swordtails, and make aquariums for them.  We would get gallon bottles and tie a thick string soaked in kerosene around it, light the string, hit the top and it would come off perfectly.  Then we would sand it into aquarium.   We would use whatever we had!

 

We would shoot each other with cod liver oil and other medicines, for fun.  If we needed extra money we would catch catfish, frogs. The Chinese would buy them.   That was how we would make money to go movies.

 

Victory gardens were big at school.  Each class had gardens – beans, radishes, etc.  Nobody would raid it.   We would give it to the cafeteria, and we could take home the extra.

 

When I went to town, we grew up with a lot of gangs in the positive sense, especially in the public housing.   We would challenge each other in football and baseball.   We would even go out of our district to challenge other kids in other areas.    That was fun!

 

Hiking – every weekend was a must.   We would go up Kahaluʻu, Waiahole, everywhere we could.  Walking was the mode of transportation.  It made us strong.

 

In the old days, there was Chang Enterprises  in Hakipu’u, with a small movie theater and all.  We would pay 5 cents to see movies in the back.   We would burn grass, because of the mosquitoes.  It was a way kids would get together.   One kid was a good ʻukulele player, so we would sing the whole way.  All kinds of songs!

 

We had outdoor toilets.  In Waiahole we built a “3 crapper”.  All the aunties would go smoke cigarettes in there, tell stories.  Good fun.  That was a social area in those days!

 

I raised chickens, pigs – I loved raising pigs.  Only thing, I had a hard time eating them.  My uncle killed my pig Jeanette, and I refused to eat the pork chops.   She was so clean, I could lie down there in her pen.   I was really sad.

 

We learned how to share.  If you give a kid a candy, and if there is no other candy, all the other kids have a lick.  That is how it is.  It was also not uncommon to bring other kids home with the kids.  They would just become part of the ʻōhana.

 

 

Lynette:

 

My parents had an account at the store.  Once we asked them if we could have ice cream and they said yes.  Other kids were there, so we got ice cream for all our friends.  When my parents got bill, they were so shocked! But we reminded them how they had taught us to share with others, and they were okay.  Sharing is so important.

 

When I was in the third grade, I was entrusted with hundreds of dollars, to pay all the bills, even for land.   I learned to be very responsible.

 

We played music too.   We would sing church songs, old Hawaiian favorites – we taught each other 3-part harmony every time we rode in the car.

                                         

I spent my summers at my family’s place at Hālawa, Molokaʻi.  In Hālawa, there is no electricity, no phones.   With ʻukulele – and the spiritual part is built in.  Every night there is pule ʻōhana.   There is scripture, and music.  All the church songs were sung together.  Because everyone knows the songs, it brought all the generations together.

 

During the week there is work, but everyone knows there will be fun, too.

 

Resolving problems is also important, in terms of health.  Our dining table was the exchange place for stories, our hurts, getting advice, resolving problems.  We always had a pot of coffee going.  The coffee, the crackers always came out.   My older cousins always talked to my mom.  We heard, because it was our job to serve the juice, the crackers, the coffee, to replenish.  We sat down, and we would observe.  By the time the people left, they felt so much better.  That is how we learned how to help others.

 

RICHARD

 

Ours was a long table.  My cousins used to fight over a spot with a drawer, where they would hide what they didn’t want to eat.  My father had worked at a bakery, and knew how to make doughnuts, doughnut holes.  When we came back from lamalama fishing, we would look forward to coffee and fresh made doughnuts.

 

In Waiāhole and Hālawa, the ʻauwai was our main source of water.   We washed clothes there, took a bath.    Then they would dam the main stream and we would all go swimming.  Stay till late!

 

HAWAIIAN COMMUNITY HEALTH

 

Richard:

 

One of the things that affects us is a lot of misinformation on what is Hawaiian.  Many don’t really have a n understanding of the true culture; it has been fragmented and distorted.   This is part of the problem for many Hawaiians.  What makes you Hawaiian?  Well, I play ʻukulele, and eat poi.  But does that in itself make me Hawaiian?  One father told the daughter, don’t be a plastic Hawaiian.  I think that speaks to the problem.  Who you truthfully are is important.

 

When people say that problems persist and remedies not available – remedies ARE available, but many are not ready to implement them.  In hoʻoponopono, we often find that people are not ready for the commitment involved in really resolving problems.  That is happening on a larger scale, too.

 

Lynette:

 

The psychic, mental, emotional health of a community is important.   There is a danger that people often might romanticize Hawaiian values and get practices skewed from the way they might have been practiced in ancient times.   Values –there is a point at which values are worthy, but beyond a certain point it can have negative impact. 

 

For example, love is a value.  I love my kids, love my moʻopuna, but if I do not at some point enforce the rules, it is not good for anyone.  Kūpuna love, and give, give, but sometimes cannot stop the kids from doing what they do right in front of them.  Kids will test the boundaries, and then you have to become the firm one, or get the whole ʻohana involved.  We need to provide that in the whole ʻohana.  The same is true throughout our community, and how we as a community deal with others, and outside elements.  We are supposed to share, but at what point must there be responsible reciprocity?  That sense of responsible behavior that illustrates real values is so important.  

 

Richard: 

 

Aloha is a 2-way street.  Reciprocity means you receive as you give.   Most families, you help them, they give you a bunch of bananas or whatever they can.  You don’t expect.  But also, if you don’t accept, it is shame for them.  If I don’t accept it, what am I saying to them?  Or about them?  Heluhelu, counting, is not our way.   “I give you one fish, you give me one” --  no.   That thinking is based upon a money economy.  It does not fit our way of thinking.  We give with the heart.  It is important that others respect this, too, so that we are not abused.  Everyone should learn that way.

 

There is also a lot of assumption that the kupuna should share information.  People think they deserve the information.  But that is not true.  Traditionally, you receive when it is the right time, and that’s it.

 

Lynette:

 

You don’t take advantage of others.   The behaviors must maintain a balance, a healthy way of living.  Otherwise, we may swing too far to the end of the pendulum.

 

The focus of our work is lōkahi within the community, pono within oneself and in relationships between people.    Harmonious, loving relationships are important, and so is the work that it takes to get there.

 

We had a student placed with KAHEA – he loved that advocacy work so much, that he wanted to keep doing that kind of work.  Maikaʻi.  That is health.

 

In Lua, we talk about Kū and Hina -- the need for balance.  It is something that we can continue to refine for a very long time, even as new challenges come our way.

 

Richard:

 

On the community level it is important to be aware of destructive forces that pollute and take away from community.  These are bigger than just the ones typically addressed.  They are all the forces that impact us in our daily lives, and the way we are able to live.

 

It is also important for people to make government departments respond to what the people need.  If we don’t do it, it won’t happen.

 

If we espouse aloha ‘āina, mālama ‘āina, why do we need programs like “Adopt  a Highway”?   There is an assumption that people will mistreat the land, and there is something wrong with that.  We were taught kuleana.   Mauka, makai.  All the same.  We gotta teach our kids that.  Even in schools.

 

A key to health of the community is having those forces on individual level to bring greater forces into alignment.  All the way to government; holding government accountable while mobilizing the little peoples’ voices so that they can be heard.  This is all part of health –all part of assuring lokahi, and pono.    All the way to the international level.  

 

Direction is having harmony, balance, unity – without having to sacrifice our heritage.  

 

HEALTH THROUGHOUT LIFE (Richard and Lynette):

 

There are little things you have to address.   It is little things that make up the total.  What is it that people need to focus on for their ʻohana their community?  There will be different answers for everyone. 

 

In the life cycle of an individual or family, there must always be opportunities for individual for people to feel worthy, to have self-esteem.   When members of the family seem to go off course, it is so important for other members to respond to the kāhea, to help make that which is good happen.  When the ʻohana has the sense of good, of caring for each other, it translates into other places, other environments.  We must do all that we can.

 

Knowing yourself, being aware of your body, your mental state, aware of the resources available in the community.  All of these are very important throughout all of life.  Knowing these things, and living the balance, is important for health at any age.