Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Base on the ethnographic work at Ka’ala farm on the island of O’ahu, the paper explores the role cultural retention plays in the healing of the “displaced” indigenous people of Hawai’I (Kanaka Maoli). Since its inception in 1978 when the teachers and students of a Hawaiian alternative school restored the stream water back to the ancient kalo (taro) terrace, Ka’ala farm has served the larger community in facilitating the land based cultural learning through the participation in traditional kalo farming. The paper pays close attention to the process of healing at Ka’ala farm experienced by the clients of a substance abuse recovery program called Ho’omau Ke Ola. Through the interviews and participant observation, the paper identifies the cultural protocol, communal labor, physical immersion into the wetland taro patch (or lo’I kalo) supported by the ancient rock structure, and natural beauty of the valley to be significant factors in the healing process for the Kanaka Maoli who survived the substance abuse and incarceration. Combining the insight from the research on the microbial community at Ka’ala farm, the paper delves into the retention of ancestral knowledge at the core of spiritual healing. Since the ancestors followed the interdependence of all life forms encoded in the Hawaiian cosmogonical chant (Kumulipo) as their fundamental guide to govern themselves, the participants re-experience the totality of life through retaining the ancestral knowledge in their body and soul.