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The beauty of Hawaiian language
I believe lomilomi can be understood only in the context of the culture and language. What are your mana'o (thoughts) and ninau (questions) about 'olelo Hawai'i (Hawaiian language)?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by rudy m smith on
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Aloha Makana,
Thank you for you wisdom. I love talking story! Salt gathering doesn't have much reference (chants?).
Over 30 years ago I drove Dr. Ben Nakamura, my lomi lomi and kiatsu teacher out to Makaha. We walked for awhile and when we rounded that special point on the Western end of Oahu we scrambled down the hillside and began gathering salt from tidal basins and some seeweeds. Apparently conditions were just right and the wind threw the ocean waters into the air and it would land on stones surrounding small tidal pools dry and was easily collected along with some opihi :}. Dr. Ben often mixed this salt with his herbs and a special red clay I would collect from the hard pan atop Kahoolawe; he said his source of clay had been tainted on Oahu. He was too old to travel much himself. He used this salt mixture for lots of things including a mixture people would drink...
Kumu Ramsay Taum sounds like a light in this world!
Dr. Ben used to explain the Hawaiian language to me like this: There are three meanings to most words. When you only have 12 letters you make the most out of what you have. Generic - a rock is a rock. Extended or contextual - a rock is a person who may be stubborn or holds his ground. Or spiritual - a rock my be the very foundation upon which we base our faith. Two years with Dr. Ben was too short. His favorite word was Halawa. He said it's most spiritual meaning concerned Breath/light/time. Where the breath of God meets the light of God time stops and GOD IS. always gives me chicken skin. Sometimes he would pull my skin with his stories and tease but othertimes his words sunk into my bones. -
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Permalink Reply by Makana Risser Chai on
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Rudy, what wonderful experiences! Each one deserves comment, but here I will limit myself to language.
I love what Dr. Ben said about halawa and about words having 3 meanings! I am not an expert in this area but I believe there are meanings within the meanings. For example, many rocks have names. The name itself has a meaning. The way the rocks got their names has meaning. Where the rocks live has meaning. What the rock is used for (such as birthing stones) has meaning.
Here's an example I've been playing with that relates to lomilomi. Hawaiian language professor Puakea Nogelmeier says that one of the ways the Hawaiians kept alive their mana'o (knowledge) about healing was by giving the chants, prayers and remedies in their legends.
That inspired me to read the book, "The Epic Tale of Hi'iakaikapoliopele," specifically the part of the story where Hi'iaka revives Lohi'au from death. I knew that she gave him lomilomi to do it. I hadn't realized that it took her a month! Her treatment began by rubbing oil on his body for many days. She says, "Kahuli and Kahela are the oils I shall use." I wondered, what are these Kahuli and Kahela oils???
In the dictionary, kahuli is "to overturn" and kahela means "to lie spread out." In the context of bringing Lohi'au back to life, he was lying spread out and the purpose of the lomilomi was to overturn death.
But in the index of the Hi'iaka book, I see Kahuli, Kahela is the supine woman who owns the 'awa drinking house. I remember Auntie Margaret used oils blended with 'awa. Kahuli and Kahela also are the billows of the ocean, and they are in the Kumulipo creation chant. Kahuli-ali'i and Kahela are the names of stars, and of course kahela and hela refer to several hula steps.
I doubt I will ever "know" what is meant by kahuli and kahela, because to fully understand we must not only know Hawaiian, but about the legends, the lands, the plants, the 'olelo no'eau (proverbs) and more. There is so much more research that can be done on these two words. Are they in other old books? Are there medicinal plants with these names? (I did find a reference to a mythical medicinal tree used for painless childbirth, called Ka-lau-o-ke-kahuli). Are there place names that include these words?
How wonderful the ways of Hawaiians! I would love to hear from others here with your thoughts about these words, or other Hawaiian words with their multiple meanings. -
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Permalink Reply by Gloria Coppola on
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Thanks for sharing all of this Makana and Rudy!
I love it!.
Makana Risser Chai said:Rudy, what wonderful experiences! Each one deserves comment, but here I will limit myself to language.
I love what Dr. Ben said about halawa and about words having 3 meanings! I am not an expert in this area but I believe there are meanings within the meanings. For example, many rocks have names. The name itself has a meaning. The way the rocks got their names has meaning. Where the rocks live has meaning. What the rock is used for (such as birthing stones) has meaning.
Here's an example I've been playing with that relates to lomilomi. Hawaiian language professor Puakea Nogelmeier says that one of the ways the Hawaiians kept alive their mana'o (knowledge) about healing was by giving the chants, prayers and remedies in their legends.
That inspired me to read the book, "The Epic Tale of Hi'iakaikapoliopele," specifically the part of the story where Hi'iaka revives Lohi'au from death. I knew that she gave him lomilomi to do it. I hadn't realized that it took her a month! Her treatment began by rubbing oil on his body for many days. She says, "Kahuli and Kahela are the oils I shall use." I wondered, what are these Kahuli and Kahela oils???
In the dictionary, kahuli is "to overturn" and kahela means "to lie spread out." In the context of bringing Lohi'au back to life, he was lying spread out and the purpose of the lomilomi was to overturn death.
But in the index of the Hi'iaka book, I see Kahuli, Kahela is the supine woman who owns the 'awa drinking house. I remember Auntie Margaret used oils blended with 'awa. Kahuli and Kahela also are the billows of the ocean, and they are in the Kumulipo creation chant. Kahuli-ali'i and Kahela are the names of stars, and of course kahela and hela refer to several hula steps.
I doubt I will ever "know" what is meant by kahuli and kahela, because to fully understand we must not only know Hawaiian, but about the legends, the lands, the plants, the 'olelo no'eau (proverbs) and more. There is so much more research that can be done on these two words. Are they in other old books? Are there medicinal plants with these names? (I did find a reference to a mythical medicinal tree used for painless childbirth, called Ka-lau-o-ke-kahuli). Are there place names that include these words?
How wonderful the ways of Hawaiians! I would love to hear from others here with your thoughts about these words, or other Hawaiian words with their multiple meanings. -
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Makana - oh what wonderful story!
I will go to my old words and meanings notes from many years ago (pages and pages) and see what I find. I may also try to talk with Kahu Kapiiohookalani Lyons Naone (he live on Maui) who wrote Mai Iluna Mai (it comes from above) and see what he thinks. Oh Delights!!! -
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Mahalo Rudy. I met Kahu a few years ago and his insights and wisdom are wonderful! With many people exploring this question, I'm sure we can find great answers. But anyone can play! What do ocean billows mean to us as lomi practitioners? How do stars relate? Kahuli are also land snails that make a singing noise. In my Na Mo'olelo book are some stories of a practitioner on Maui who sang while she gave lomi. She sang of the beauty of the body she was working on, and how different parts reminded her of different places on the island. We can let our imaginations run with these images!
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Kahuli - to turn, flip, sort of like huli huli - but in a lomi lomi context could mean any oil that seperates so the vessel is flipped or turned over (huli) to extract the heavier oil from beneath the lighter oil resting on top... an old note I found from Doctor Ben files. I would still check this out.
Rudy
Gloria Coppola said:Thanks for sharing all of this Makana and Rudy!
I love it!.
Makana Risser Chai said:Rudy, what wonderful experiences! Each one deserves comment, but here I will limit myself to language.
I love what Dr. Ben said about halawa and about words having 3 meanings! I am not an expert in this area but I believe there are meanings within the meanings. For example, many rocks have names. The name itself has a meaning. The way the rocks got their names has meaning. Where the rocks live has meaning. What the rock is used for (such as birthing stones) has meaning.
Here's an example I've been playing with that relates to lomilomi. Hawaiian language professor Puakea Nogelmeier says that one of the ways the Hawaiians kept alive their mana'o (knowledge) about healing was by giving the chants, prayers and remedies in their legends.
That inspired me to read the book, "The Epic Tale of Hi'iakaikapoliopele," specifically the part of the story where Hi'iaka revives Lohi'au from death. I knew that she gave him lomilomi to do it. I hadn't realized that it took her a month! Her treatment began by rubbing oil on his body for many days. She says, "Kahuli and Kahela are the oils I shall use." I wondered, what are these Kahuli and Kahela oils???
In the dictionary, kahuli is "to overturn" and kahela means "to lie spread out." In the context of bringing Lohi'au back to life, he was lying spread out and the purpose of the lomilomi was to overturn death.
But in the index of the Hi'iaka book, I see Kahuli, Kahela is the supine woman who owns the 'awa drinking house. I remember Auntie Margaret used oils blended with 'awa. Kahuli and Kahela also are the billows of the ocean, and they are in the Kumulipo creation chant. Kahuli-ali'i and Kahela are the names of stars, and of course kahela and hela refer to several hula steps.
I doubt I will ever "know" what is meant by kahuli and kahela, because to fully understand we must not only know Hawaiian, but about the legends, the lands, the plants, the 'olelo no'eau (proverbs) and more. There is so much more research that can be done on these two words. Are they in other old books? Are there medicinal plants with these names? (I did find a reference to a mythical medicinal tree used for painless childbirth, called Ka-lau-o-ke-kahuli). Are there place names that include these words?
How wonderful the ways of Hawaiians! I would love to hear from others here with your thoughts about these words, or other Hawaiian words with their multiple meanings. -
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That is so interesting that you mention oil. I almost put oil in my last post - though from a completely different perspective. I met with two kumu lomi the other night and we were talking about how much oil the kupuna may have used in the old times. One kumu said he spent a whole day making a small amount of kukui nut oil. The other had made coconut oil They both thought the old Hawaiians would hardly ever use oil because it was so hard to make! But I suppose for ali'i or chiefs they would get as much oil as they wanted.
Rudy, in order to separate like that do there have to be two different oils, or does one oil separate into lighter and heavier? -
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Makana!
Right after I posted my first reply to "Kahuli" I started to see Dr. Bens' face shaking back and forth like he would do whenever I mixed up a noun or verb or an action for a thing! Right after that I remembered him using an oil called Kahuli on people with wounds that wouldn't heal! It was an oil infused with Huli which is the top/shoots of the Taro plant used for planting!!! This oil was only good for a day after preparation.
rudy m smith said:Kahuli - to turn, flip, sort of like huli huli - but in a lomi lomi context could mean any oil that seperates so the vessel is flipped or turned over (huli) to extract the heavier oil from beneath the lighter oil resting on top... an old note I found from Doctor Ben files. I would still check this out.
Rudy
Gloria Coppola said:Thanks for sharing all of this Makana and Rudy!
I love it!.
Makana Risser Chai said:Rudy, what wonderful experiences! Each one deserves comment, but here I will limit myself to language.
I love what Dr. Ben said about halawa and about words having 3 meanings! I am not an expert in this area but I believe there are meanings within the meanings. For example, many rocks have names. The name itself has a meaning. The way the rocks got their names has meaning. Where the rocks live has meaning. What the rock is used for (such as birthing stones) has meaning.
Here's an example I've been playing with that relates to lomilomi. Hawaiian language professor Puakea Nogelmeier says that one of the ways the Hawaiians kept alive their mana'o (knowledge) about healing was by giving the chants, prayers and remedies in their legends.
That inspired me to read the book, "The Epic Tale of Hi'iakaikapoliopele," specifically the part of the story where Hi'iaka revives Lohi'au from death. I knew that she gave him lomilomi to do it. I hadn't realized that it took her a month! Her treatment began by rubbing oil on his body for many days. She says, "Kahuli and Kahela are the oils I shall use." I wondered, what are these Kahuli and Kahela oils???
In the dictionary, kahuli is "to overturn" and kahela means "to lie spread out." In the context of bringing Lohi'au back to life, he was lying spread out and the purpose of the lomilomi was to overturn death.
But in the index of the Hi'iaka book, I see Kahuli, Kahela is the supine woman who owns the 'awa drinking house. I remember Auntie Margaret used oils blended with 'awa. Kahuli and Kahela also are the billows of the ocean, and they are in the Kumulipo creation chant. Kahuli-ali'i and Kahela are the names of stars, and of course kahela and hela refer to several hula steps.
I doubt I will ever "know" what is meant by kahuli and kahela, because to fully understand we must not only know Hawaiian, but about the legends, the lands, the plants, the 'olelo no'eau (proverbs) and more. There is so much more research that can be done on these two words. Are they in other old books? Are there medicinal plants with these names? (I did find a reference to a mythical medicinal tree used for painless childbirth, called Ka-lau-o-ke-kahuli). Are there place names that include these words?
How wonderful the ways of Hawaiians! I would love to hear from others here with your thoughts about these words, or other Hawaiian words with their multiple meanings. -
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Hela also refers to a condition of raw scraped skin - we used to take sweet potato and scrape the peel into an oil base and it was red in color. but again this refers to a conditon rather than a thing.
Gloria Coppola said:Thanks for sharing all of this Makana and Rudy!
I love it!.
Makana Risser Chai said:Rudy, what wonderful experiences! Each one deserves comment, but here I will limit myself to language.
I love what Dr. Ben said about halawa and about words having 3 meanings! I am not an expert in this area but I believe there are meanings within the meanings. For example, many rocks have names. The name itself has a meaning. The way the rocks got their names has meaning. Where the rocks live has meaning. What the rock is used for (such as birthing stones) has meaning.
Here's an example I've been playing with that relates to lomilomi. Hawaiian language professor Puakea Nogelmeier says that one of the ways the Hawaiians kept alive their mana'o (knowledge) about healing was by giving the chants, prayers and remedies in their legends.
That inspired me to read the book, "The Epic Tale of Hi'iakaikapoliopele," specifically the part of the story where Hi'iaka revives Lohi'au from death. I knew that she gave him lomilomi to do it. I hadn't realized that it took her a month! Her treatment began by rubbing oil on his body for many days. She says, "Kahuli and Kahela are the oils I shall use." I wondered, what are these Kahuli and Kahela oils???
In the dictionary, kahuli is "to overturn" and kahela means "to lie spread out." In the context of bringing Lohi'au back to life, he was lying spread out and the purpose of the lomilomi was to overturn death.
But in the index of the Hi'iaka book, I see Kahuli, Kahela is the supine woman who owns the 'awa drinking house. I remember Auntie Margaret used oils blended with 'awa. Kahuli and Kahela also are the billows of the ocean, and they are in the Kumulipo creation chant. Kahuli-ali'i and Kahela are the names of stars, and of course kahela and hela refer to several hula steps.
I doubt I will ever "know" what is meant by kahuli and kahela, because to fully understand we must not only know Hawaiian, but about the legends, the lands, the plants, the 'olelo no'eau (proverbs) and more. There is so much more research that can be done on these two words. Are they in other old books? Are there medicinal plants with these names? (I did find a reference to a mythical medicinal tree used for painless childbirth, called Ka-lau-o-ke-kahuli). Are there place names that include these words?
How wonderful the ways of Hawaiians! I would love to hear from others here with your thoughts about these words, or other Hawaiian words with their multiple meanings. -
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Rudy - Awesome!!! I LOVE the huli oil with the taro tops. Fantastic. I believe a lot of preparations were only effective the day they were picked. Can you say more about the wounds that wouldn't heal? e.g. open wounds, sprains, or ... ? After applying the oil, would it be dressed with a poultice or leaf covering? Fascinating!
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This particular oil was used on wounds that were not healing well - I remember Dr. Ben applying it to the feet of a few people who had diabetic ulcers and a couple of fisherman who were scraped badly by the coral. He did not cover the wounds accept those that contacted the earth and he would use modern methods to do this.
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Joy! I got to spend the night in dream time with Dr. Ben!!
Sometimes Dr. Ben would refer to a Hawaiian word as a POWER word or a word containing a complete word in and of it's self verb/noun/adjetive etc.... In the two words Kahuli and Kahela you will find some very connected meanings not only are the words describing oil, type of oil, ingredients, method of preparation, what body position they were in when applied, and what condition their body was in (or why) it was applied.
In my notes I found reference to (Ka) (he) (la) a vessel we used to MIX or SWIRL things like the center most part of the taro plant and the reference to LA is one of light or in total essence the vessel used for mixing or swirling of the inner most parts of the Taro plant with OIL and Light and or Breath!
Jump - 1978 - in Palau I watched an old medicine woman prepared her oils using an Opu (gourd). she would drop her ingredients into the gourd and rap the gourd on a tapa then pick it up and strike it twice with her opposite hand two times (kahela). She would chant or offer Pule (prayer) the entire time she prepared the oil - sometimes for hours.
Thank you sooo much for the stirring of my memories Makana.
rudy m smith said:Hela also refers to a condition of raw scraped skin - we used to take sweet potato and scrape the peel into an oil base and it was red in color. but again this refers to a conditon rather than a thing.
Gloria Coppola said:Thanks for sharing all of this Makana and Rudy!
I love it!.
Makana Risser Chai said:Rudy, what wonderful experiences! Each one deserves comment, but here I will limit myself to language.
I love what Dr. Ben said about halawa and about words having 3 meanings! I am not an expert in this area but I believe there are meanings within the meanings. For example, many rocks have names. The name itself has a meaning. The way the rocks got their names has meaning. Where the rocks live has meaning. What the rock is used for (such as birthing stones) has meaning.
Here's an example I've been playing with that relates to lomilomi. Hawaiian language professor Puakea Nogelmeier says that one of the ways the Hawaiians kept alive their mana'o (knowledge) about healing was by giving the chants, prayers and remedies in their legends.
That inspired me to read the book, "The Epic Tale of Hi'iakaikapoliopele," specifically the part of the story where Hi'iaka revives Lohi'au from death. I knew that she gave him lomilomi to do it. I hadn't realized that it took her a month! Her treatment began by rubbing oil on his body for many days. She says, "Kahuli and Kahela are the oils I shall use." I wondered, what are these Kahuli and Kahela oils???
In the dictionary, kahuli is "to overturn" and kahela means "to lie spread out." In the context of bringing Lohi'au back to life, he was lying spread out and the purpose of the lomilomi was to overturn death.
But in the index of the Hi'iaka book, I see Kahuli, Kahela is the supine woman who owns the 'awa drinking house. I remember Auntie Margaret used oils blended with 'awa. Kahuli and Kahela also are the billows of the ocean, and they are in the Kumulipo creation chant. Kahuli-ali'i and Kahela are the names of stars, and of course kahela and hela refer to several hula steps.
I doubt I will ever "know" what is meant by kahuli and kahela, because to fully understand we must not only know Hawaiian, but about the legends, the lands, the plants, the 'olelo no'eau (proverbs) and more. There is so much more research that can be done on these two words. Are they in other old books? Are there medicinal plants with these names? (I did find a reference to a mythical medicinal tree used for painless childbirth, called Ka-lau-o-ke-kahuli). Are there place names that include these words?
How wonderful the ways of Hawaiians! I would love to hear from others here with your thoughts about these words, or other Hawaiian words with their multiple meanings. -
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