Healing, truth-telling and aloha filled the air at the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu as nearly 300 participants came together for a powerful two-day gathering on hoʻoponopono—Hawaiian for “to make right, to restore goodness and peace within families and close groups, to return to a loving state through ritual communication, and to speak truth for the purpose of healing relationships.”
was held June 5–6 and welcomed haku hoʻoponopono (peacemakers), social service professionals, aloha ʻāina (love and care for land) advocates and community members to explore how ancestral knowledge can guide healing in modern contexts. About 200 attendees joined in person and nearly 100 online.
“We were intentional about folks knowing that hoʻoponopono still exists but now in many forms, all with naʻau ʻoiaiʻo at the core—this means that we are wanting to express ourselves through and with the center of truth from our deepest knowing,” said Manu Aluli-Meyer, Konohiki for Kūlana o Kapolei.
Loea Hoʻoponopono (revered teacher) Lynette Paglinawan, retired resident kupuna at 东精影业 West Oʻahu, gave the keynote address.
“I am humbled to stand here to address and to share more importantly a topic that is dear to my puʻuwai (heart), and to pay respects to all of you who come with the same passion and desire to help, to heal, and to restore pono and aloha in our community,” Paglinawan said. “We’re here to band together and promote health and healing.”
Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui?s quotation filled the screen behind Paglinawan while she gave context to the reason for the gathering: “ʻOiaiʻo is truth in the feeling sense. You feel whether what you are saying is ʻoiaiʻo or not. Real truth—real sincerity—comes from na?au ʻoiaiʻo, from ‘truthful guts.’”
That was Paglinawan?s purpose for acknowledging aspects of hoʻoponopono within multiple programs, ideas and practices.
“The essence of each joined all practitioners present: na?au ʻoiaiʻo,” Aluli-Meyer said.
Workshops and discussions followed, examining hoʻoponopono at three levels—individual and family, community and institutions, and systems and policy.
“This ʻaha has changed many people,” Aluli-Meyer said. “We are healing our collective with aloha languaging and pono behavior. The sense in the air was loving. It was palpable.”
Paglinawan addressed the many volunteers who created this experience: “Because they have been the recipients of aloha, they know how to give aloha in the future.”
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—By Zenaida Serrano Arvman