Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 36, Number 8, 1 March 2019 — BILLY FIELDS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BILLY FIELDS

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Mana is your spiritual well being.

With my work, working with reinterring 'iwi, I have learned that Hawaiians never marked their graves. And one of the reasons for that is or I was taught that they didn't mark their graves so nobody would steal their mana. Their mana is in their 'iwi. And just

like the stuff that we do as cultural practitioners, I was even taught that, it is in your genes. And it is the same with your mana. You are born with it, whether you know it

or not but, you got it. And it will eventually eome out. But that's my take on mana. In my travels - I have built structures on every island. I've probably re-interred over 2,500 people and I'm a Vietnam vet. So, I would say there is no one moment. My whole life is a moment of mana whieh I think keeps me alive. This was my calling to do what I do, and teach what I do. ■

Tap into your mana by āownloading afree copy o/Mana Lāhui Kānaka at oha.org/mana.

In November 2017, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs published Mana Lāhui Kānaka, a multidimensional study of mana: what it is, how to articulate it and how to access and cultivate it in order to uplift our lāhui. This book shared mana'o from community contributors, including Billy Fields, discussing what mana means to him.

r . . . - K* * j VL^ t Billy Fields discusses mana. - Image: Vimeo.com/ohahawaii