Aloha Makes Us Healthy

By Virginia Beck

The crew of the double-hulled Hawaiian sailing canoe Nāmāhoe is seen here during the canoe’s unveiling in Kalapaki Sept. 11, 2016.

Hawai‘i is the story of human courage, endurance, tolerance and discovery. While the first people here came from Oceania, each of those islands was inhabited by a long series of surviving resilient humans from the great diaspora from Asia, southward, island by island, searching refuge for new communities.

Two hundred thousand years ago, humans were tiny populations. The Denisovan (Asian) humans and the Neanderthals intermarried, as humans do. The populations of Oceania appear, by DNA, to have been descended from ancient tribes that migrated south via land and ice bridges. Still tiny tribes of strong, wise, survivors.

Conflicting stories alter according to DNA finds and human history, and always the victors write the current one, since we all seem to have common survival from African tribes millions of years ago, our ethnic stories are mostly traditional histories.

Regardless, Hawai‘i was settled by the most courageous, intrepid, resilient seagoing humans ever. Reaching the most remote islands in the world is beyond understanding. Which is why we revere the traditions of the native Hawaiians and honor the fact they are still talking to the rest of us, after their Queen Liliu‘okalani was overthrown by Western colonists.

“Mālama Honua,” to honor and protect Island Earth, was the 2015 voyage of Hōkūle‘a, the first traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe to circumnavigate the globe. Forty seven thousand nautical miles followed by millions. The story of the restoration of traditional navigation without instruments, using stars, winds and currents is the story of the intricacies of native arts and navigation. See http://www.hokulea.com/worldwide-voyage/ for more, and to learn about Kaua‘i’s sister voyaging canoe https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/kauai-set-launch-islands-first-voyaging-canoe#stream/0

To know and understand local and native people, requires a respect and humility often missing in all of us. Just as bird watchers must spend hours in patient silence and move through gentle footsteps in the forest; those who want more than just the curated tourist experience must step off the managed resort paths which lead in circles, to get out into the community.

The easiest way in to get folks to open up to you is to ask questions about their family and how they got here. Folks love their families, everywhere. Here the feeling of ‘ohana is deep and extended through hundreds of years of intermingling families. Tolerance comes when your daughter is a mix of two or three ethnicities, and her husband is another five!

The people who greet you and serve you, are all heroic, if you care about their journeys. They care for you with a hospitality grown from their family roots, which are steeped in caring for each other.

Friday nights in Hanapepe is a great mingle and mix-up of local foods, arts and crafts, from high end to funky, local street kiosks and food trucks. Music, maps, exquisite jewelry from Pu‘uwai (Heart) Gallery, and the number one bookstore, Talk Story Bookstore. Try the Midnight Bear Bakery, the Bright Side Gallery, Amy Lauren’s Gallery, Little Fish Coffee, and Japanese Grandma’s Cafe.

Remember that aloha is a word that works both ways, a two-sided sharing of food, will and friendship.

Aloha makes us great.

• Virginia Beck, NP and Certified Trager® Practitioner, offers Wellness Consultation, Trager Psychophysical Integration and teaches Malama Birth Training classes. She can be reached at 635-5618.