Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 6, 1 June 2017 — Restoring Native Hawaiian Health [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Restoring Native Hawaiian Health

By Claren Kealoha-Beaudet, Psy.D. and Franco Acquaro, Ph.D. n recent times, our heahh care culture has increasingly heeome aware of the benefits of "sustainable living," "farm-to-table," "healthy lifestyle choices" and "recycling." Health care insurance companies have been able to turn these ideas into cost savings, taking the spirit of "heahh care" in the direction of a competitive marketplace and driving heahh care providers and heahh systems to think about heahh in terms of territory, cost per patient panel and the bundling of patient lives. As a Hawaiian, these perspectives bring to mind a mo'olelo: During a therapy session, a Caucasian woman shared her frustration regarding a Native Hawaiian neighbor. She told me that after gathering eggs in her backyard, she decided to take the

extra as a makana to her neighbor. But the neighbor refused, saying, "I can't eat those eggs, they are not whhe and do not have the pink stamp on them." This response deeply offended the bearer of the makana and she was left wondering why her eggs were "not good enough." The white eggs with the pink stamp are a metaphor for the reshaping of an indigenous people's tacit knowledge of sustainable living. Reject-

ing this knowledge after colonization literally reshaped our bodies (via obesity, hypertension and diabetes), our land (massive industrial farming of pineapple and sugar eane), and our relationships with eaeh other (the shift of focus to nuclear family and away from the extended 'ohana). Insult to injury occurs when onee again our cultural knowledge is overlooked in lieu of the sexy and trendy new heahh care packaging and

programs used in marketing. By grounding and anchoring our heahh outcomes in acceptance of ourselves as Kānaka Maoli, we ean begin

to restore our ancestral knowledge and bring back to life our relationships, though evolved and modern, whh our body, spirit, 'ohana, lāhui and 'āina. Capitalistic ideas of heahh will always take into consideration the bottom dollar, while remembering our ancestors and ancestral ways will move us toward eaeh other as Hawaiians. So, what eame first? The brown egg or the whhe one whh the pink stamp? In an effort to fully restore Native Hawaiian heahh, Kīpuka o ke Ola (KOKO) strives to honor the ancestral ways, cultural understandings and traditional healing practices of our lāhui. To this end, KOKO will integrate Native Hawaiian healing methodologies (lā'au lapa'au, lomi lomi, ho'oponopono) into its service menu alongside its existing Primary Care and Behavioral Heahh services. KOKO will serve as one bridge between traditional and modern

ways, between capitalistic heahh care strategies and eommunal care of the whole. After all, "Ua ola loko i ke aloha." Love gives life within. Love is imperative to one's mental and physical welfare. (Pukui, 'Ōlelo No'eau #2835, p. 31 1) ■

Kīpuka o ke Ola(KOKO) is a Native Hawaiian Heahh CIimc in North Hawai on the isīand of Moku o Keawe.

Kīpuka o ke Ola staff. Standing (left to right) : Wendy Cypriano, Luana Keakealani, Lauren Butcher, Dr. Claren Kealoha-Beaudet, Alita-Ray Cookman. Seated (leftto right): Dr. lan Nui Chun and Dr. Franco Acquaro . - Photo: Courtesy ofKīpuka o ke Ola