Lā‘au Lapa‘au Preservation Project

Lāʻau lapaʻau is currently a rarity. The elders have passed, and the continuity has been lost. Formal training of new knowledge holders remains non-existent. With Native Hawaiian health in crisis, the community calls for a return to the old ways. Since the passing of Poʻokela Kahuna Lāʻau Lapaʻau Henry Auwae in the year 2000, Hawaii has suffered a dilution of the ancient healing knowledge. Today there are no living poʻokela (grand masters); the lead student of Papa Auwae, Kahuna Lāʻau Lapaʻau Roddy Akau, is the only known practitioner on track to attain that level. At age 61, in his 20th year of practice, Roddy has begun teaching to preserve and perpetuate this sacred and ancient tradition by (1) offering a master class in his ancestral and historic valley of Moanalua, a protected nature preserve, and (2) documenting his teachings and the experiences of the students in book and video format.

Today there are no living grand masters and no formal lā‘au lapa‘au training. Workshops are occasionally held, but in the words of Native Hawaiian Ilima Ho-Lastimosa, Community Coordinator at UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources: “Workshops are one day deals. Definitely not enough to go deep.”

The lā‘au lapa‘au Master Class will restore authentic lā‘au lapa‘au to the community by creating and implementing a structure for active learning and practice of lā‘au lapa‘au, immersing students in a tradition-based process of obtaining cultural competency: a naʻau-based, ʻāina-based curriculum and approach that conveys the ancient knowledge in the context of present-day 2020. Roddy holds class in his ancestral land, the historic ahupuaʻa of Moanalua, which was once the home of the high priesthood of Oʻahu and also the location of Huluena, the ancient training ground where the masteries of lāʻau lapaʻau, hula, oli and lua were handed down over the centuries. 

The target population is exponential in number.  At the immediate core, the 30 individuals in the Master Class will serve as the beneficiaries, with the secondary beneficiaries being the patients themselves. The greater impact will be to the Native Hawaiian community, estimated to be in the thousands.

Project Goal: To teach lā‘au lapa‘au to promising Native Hawaiian individuals who desire and intend to become lā‘au lapa‘au masters and practitioners in the community, who will in turn pass on the knowledge to future students.  

Objective: The 3-year lā‘au lapa‘au Master Class will restore authentic lā‘au lapa‘au to the community by creating and implementing a structure for active learning and practice of lā‘au lapa‘au, immersing students in a
tradition-based process of obtaining cultural competency.

Desired Outcome:  30 newly-trained Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners will perpetuate lā‘au lapa‘au, Hawaii’s unique and crucial tradition of health and healing.  Continuation of knowledge and practice will occur as students increase their cultural competency levels. As students become immersed in the lifestyle of lā‘au lapa‘au they will be guided to consider their individual tracks and the roles they take on within their ‘ohana (family) systems, and as continuing students and participants in the extended program.  Additionally, each student will be encouraged to increase awareness of lā‘au lapa‘au in the community and in their respective ʻohana (family) systems by being a speaking hub on genuine lā‘au lapa‘au principle and techniques. 

Current Community Condition: Lā‘au lapa‘au, the Hawaiian tradition of health and healing, has been reduced to rumor.  The elders have passed, and the continuity has been lost.  With Native Hawaiian health in crisis, the community calls for a return to the old ways.  In the words of Native Hawaiian Pastor Kiha Pimental: “The humble work of lā‘au lapa‘au is largely hidden and only small circles have access. Health and healing is a beautiful and necessary art. I pray that we can find a way to restore our identity as healers.” Since the passing of Poʻokela Kahuna Lā‘au Lapa‘au Papa Henry Auwae in the year 2000, Hawaii has suffered a dilution of lā‘au lapa‘au knowledge.  Workshops are occasionally held, but in the words of Native Hawaiian Ilima Ho-Lastimosa, Community Coordinator at UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources: “Workshops are one day deals. Definitely not enough to go deep.”  Today there are no living Grandmasters; however, the lead haumana (student) of Papa Auwae, Kahuna Lā‘au Lapa‘au Roddy Akau, is the only known practitioner who has dedicated himself wholly to the pure, traditional practice of lāʻau lapaʻau and is on track to attain that level.  Luckily for the community-at-large, Roddy, in his 20th year of practice, has also begun teaching those who will carry the torch after he is gone.  Through Roddy Akau, a new Master Class will revive the ancient knowledge, which is in danger of being lost forever.

Community Connection   This lā‘au lapa‘au preservation program has been decades in the making, since Kahu Roddy first took up his kuleana in 1994 to revive the old ways of his kupuna.  The five years spent with Papa Auwae gave Kahu his focus – healing – and since Papaʻs death in 2000, he has been serving the community as Kahuna Lāʻau Lapaʻau with utmost integrity and effectiveness.  

The core staff and all partners have been active contributors and participants in the uplift of the Native Hawaiian community, in the areas of healing and wellness, cultural preservation and revival, and aloha ‘āina.  Thus the program has been conceived based on years of assessing the community need, of prototyping and re-assessing, finding the right collaborators and identifying resources. Everyone involved in the launch of this program sees an alignment of factors making everything manifest, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. 

In an effort to have a focused kukakuka or conversation about the community need and ways to address it, a survey on lāʻau lapaʻau, cultural preservation and Native Hawaiian health were sent out to 27 members of the Native Hawaiian community. From the submitted community surveys were gathered concepts and ideas that helped shape the core idea of the program.  Conversations in person and by phone were had with 12 participants who were willing to talk further with us about lā‘au lapa‘au  in the community today.  Data and pertinent quotes were also extracted for use in the pertaining sections of the grant application.

All of us involved in the Halau O Huluena Lāʻau Lapaʻau Preservation Project know, work with and serve the community and target beneficiaries, ensuring that the project is rooted in a community-based approach and is a community-based solution to address the current community condition.  Our community-based strategy will lead to lasting and positive change.   

Long-term Benefits for the Native Hawaiian Community  Our program points towards a future where lāʻau lapaʻau principles and practice are saved from extinction, where the community thrives on the benefits of the traditional healing wisdom and receives care from practitioners who have been properly trained in the techniques and approach of the ancestors.  While cultural preservation is the primarily goal, clearly we envision the tangential benefits of a significantly improved Native Hawaiian health index, resulting from the increased amount of lāʻau lapaʻau practitioners and  lāʻau lapaʻau wellness principles that will be in circulation.  In the words of Isaiah Burch, OANRP field technician: “The importance of preserving traditional ways of healing is beyond our current knowledge and the full benefits of preserving this practice may not be seen by those who are alive today but by those in generations to come.”  

To ensure safe and pono usage, all material in this program, from the ancestral mo'olelo to the knowledge of la'au lapa'au passed down within the sacred relationship between kumu and haumana will be utilized and shared according to the discretion of Roddy Akau and the Gabe Man, in accordance with the Paoakalani Declaration (see Appendix M), which addresses protecting Native Hawaiian culture and promoting its pono use. 

The preceding decades have witnessed the blossoming of hula (dance), oli (chant), ‘olelo (language), lua (martial arts), and lomi lomi (traditional massage). Now is the time for lā‘au lapa‘au, which encompasses and informs all other Hawaiian masteries, to begin to blossom. We feel the emergence of Kumu Roddy onto the cultural landscape could not be more fortuitous, as the Native Hawaiian health index—despite the millions spent over the past thirty years to improve it—has continued to worsen. 

The community demand for culturally informed healthcare providers has reached a fever pitch, as evidenced by the 2019 OHA-4 bill, introduced into the state legislature by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, promoting Hawaiian healing as an alternative treatment for mental health.  In their promotion of the bill, OHA cites alarming statistics on the current state of Native Hawaiian health, including that of all Hawaii’s ethnic groups, Native Hawaiian adults have the highest rate of self-evaluating their overall mental and physical health as “not good.”            

Representing the clarion call of the community at large, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs also call for a return to traditional healing practices.  Says OHA’s Kealoha Fox: “Native Hawaiian traditions and cultural practices incorporate not just the mind, not just the body, but the spirit, the ‘ohana, the community… It’s really much more holistic.”

The teaching approach of our lā‘au lapa‘au master class incorporates Kahu Roddy’s teachings, methods and approach sourcing from the 5-year course given by Papa Henry Auwae on Oahu from April of 1996 to November of 2000 and Roddy’s experience since 2000 as a practicing kahuna lāʻau lapaʻau.  For years, Roddy has been teaching a small handful of students, including Gabe Imaikalani Man, who is his primary student.  Roddy has a unique teaching style   updated to the cultural landscape and community identity of 2020, to go along with his singular knowledge base and his ancestral connection to the ‘āina.  Papa Auwae represented the old way of lā‘au lapa‘au , which treats each person’s condition as wholly unique, treats the source of the illness rather than the symptom, and approaches health as the harmony of the mind, body and spirit with nature and community.  He was a lāʻau lapaʻau purist who took no shortcuts, always emphasized the personal and spiritual side of lāʻau lapaʻau, and never took money for his healing services.  Roddy is the same way. 

Progressing from his work with his initial cohort beginning in Octobe 2019, Roddy has mapped out a three year program that corresponds to the traditional first three levels of lā‘au lapa‘au apprenticeship.  Hence, year one corresponds to moʻo lā‘au lapa‘au, year two to moʻo lono lā‘au lapa‘au , and year three to maoli kahuna lā‘au lapa‘au. 

Thus, in year one, students will listen to the teacher speak on the path of the kahuna lā‘au lapa‘au and embark on their own individual paths to that goal.  They will learn to cleanse their bodies, thoughts, relationships and lifestyles to make themselves a better channel for the Divine healing energy.  They will learn to meditate (listening to the Akua) and to pray (speaking to Akua).  They will begin learning and practicing to have an active, day-to-day relationship with Akua, the Source of all healing.  They will learn to begin diminishing the ego and embrace the difficult practice of humility and patience.  They will begin learning about discernment and how to use it in their everyday lives.             

In year two, alongside the continuation of what they have begun in year one, students will learn the traditional components of the natural world (the four heavens, stars, planets, clouds, rainbows, winds, rains, night/day, the four oceans, marine life / marine minerals, plants, animals, Man, water) and begin learning how to integrate their day-to-day lives with the ʻāina (natural environment).  They will begin to learn about lokahi (the balanced relationship between person/community, ʻāina and the Divine), and also learn how the lokahi or balance within a person determines that person’s state of well-being.  

In year three, alongside the continuation of what they have been learning and practicing in years one and two, students will begin working with plants.  Protocols of planting, gathering and preparing various lāʻau (plant-based medicine) will be learned. All the foundation built in the first two years will be applied to these practices and protocols.  This is also the level of training where students define their individual specialties, for example treating women’s health issues, treating trauma victims, ho’oponopono (making peace, settling feuds, healing family / relationship trauma), or specializing in the use of a particular lāʻau (plant-based medicine) as the agent of healing.            

Throughout the three years, students will work in various areas of traditional craft to enhance their ‘ike (understanding), connect to the ancestors and get in touch with their Hawaiian lineal/cultural identity.  Thus the program will include immersive activities such as mahiʻai (farming), loʻi (taro farming), building hale (traditional house) and pohaku (stone) wall and weaving lauhala (pandanus).  Classes will open and close with oli (chant), pule (prayer) and singing. 

Roddy’s backbone set of learning tools or recurring themes for the class will be the so-called Five Expectations, which are:

1) Hoʻolohe – Perception.  Pay attention, with your mind, body, spirit. The epitome of hoʻolohe is the ability to listen with your eyes.

2) Hoʻomākaukau – Readiness.  When they say hoʻomākaukau in hula, it means “get ready to begin.” In lā‘au lapa‘au, beyond getting ready, it's having everything in place — the medicine, your preparedness and your makaʻala (alertness), expecting the unexpected, ready for anything.  It’s also about having the foresight that comes with the spiritual discipline, and a certain knowingness.  In lā‘au lapa‘au, you can't just think you know, you have to know.

3) Hoʻolauna i ka mea maikaʻi – Sacrifice, without murmur.  Getting rid of ego.  Fasting, abstinence.  Denying the body its pleasures for spiritual elevation; the body might not like it, but the spirit perseveres.  Letting go of the impulse keeping you from sacrificing. Giving up tempting lesser things for the things that truly matter.  Showing up despite all obstacles and distractions.

4) Hoʻomaikaʻi akahai – Respect, for all people and protocols.  Respecting the Divine for letting you do all that you do, for all that you are given and given to.  

5) Hoʻomanawanui – Patience.  Having the knowingness to be patient.  Knowing that everything has its time, knowing not to jump the gun (act too early) or miss the opportunity (act too late).

Books available on lāʻau lapaʻau published over the last few decades focus on general principles and emphasize the matching of lāʻau recipes with their respective ailments. However, true lāʻau lapaau tradition goes much deeper than plants and medicinal plant preparations.  It is founded on deep spiritual commitment and enacting a lifestyle based on the Five Expectations in order to raise one’s spiritual ʻike (understanding) and to become pono (righteous), in other words, in tune with the Divine.  Thus the apprentice healer follows a course of cleansing mind, body and spirit to become a channel for Divine Healing energy. 

Based on the traditions handed down to Roddy Akau by Papa Henry Auwae and shared with Gabe Man over the past several years, Gabe has identified fifteen cultural competencies which the students will come to know and apply over the course of the program.  Described in more detail later, the fifteen cultural competencies are:   

• Lifestyle appropriate to a healer (cleansing, forgiveness, letting go of resentments)
• Knowledge and application of hoʻolohe (perception)
• Knowledge and application of hoʻolauna i ka mea maikaʻi (sacrifice)
• Knowledge of discernment and its importance in healing
• Ability to remain silent, meditate, listen, pray, and open to the Divine
• Intimate connection to ʻāina and the natural world
• Development and application of the naʻau (intuition)
• Knowledge and application of hoʻo maikai akahai (respect)
• Knowledge and application of hoʻomanawanui (patience)
• Ability to self-identify one’s path and challenges
• Ability to walk through a forest, field, yard or garden and identify the lāʻau
• Knowledge and application of hoʻomākaukau (readiness)
• Ability to gather lāʻau with proper mindfulness, intention and protocol
• Ability to prepare lāʻau with proper mindfulness, intention and protocol
• Identify, practice and pursue a specialty 

Classes will be held outdoors in natural settings and there will be an indoor classroom at our disposal as well.  The three primary outdoor classroom locations will be (1) Kamananui Valley, (2) the Ala Mahamoe Urban Forest and Hawaiian Culture Garden, both located in Moanalua, the land where Roddy Akau serves as steward, and (3) Kaʻonohi Farm, a working traditional kalo (taro) farm in the nearby ahupuaʻa (land division) of Kalauao.  Kamananui provides a location of total immersion in the deep valley where kahuna of all kinds once trained at the Huluena school, in the centuries before contact with the Western world.   Ala Mahamoe, maintained by our partner KMWP, provides us with a 3-acre ready-made lāʻau garden with ample parking in the neighborhood, easily accessible.  The secluded valley and garden locations are the perfect setting for developing our students’ cultural competencies, all of which require connecting with the ‘āina (natural environment), Akua (the Divine), and each other as people, without the usual hindrances and stresses of city and town life.

Our indoor class location, used for lectures and presentations better suited to a controlled environment, will be Halau Inana in central Honolulu.  At both the outdoor and indoor locations, student cell phones will be disallowed.  The first requirement for opening up to this sacred learning is to leave behind the modern-day constancies of having to check texts, emails, missed phone calls, social media posts, news updates, etc.  There needs to be an open space in the mind and the naʻau (center of intuition, listening) for the teachings to enter.  Students who are parents will need to put aside their focus on the childcare role; class time is their time.  Students who work will need to put aside their job concerns; class time is their time.  In sum, students will be asked and required to check their responsibilities to others in at the door, along with their cell phone, so that they may focus on their own learning.            

Class time will be split between large group classes, held every other Saturday from 8:00am to 1:00pm, and small group classes, held during the interim between large group classes, based on participants’ schedules.  An estimated two hours per quarter of one-on-one instruction will occur outside of large and small group classes for each student.   

Improve healthcare access and outcomes:

The health care system desperately seeks to eliminate health inequities, and communities desire optimal health. Yet, for disparities to be eliminated, a holistic approach rooted in Native Hawaiian (NH) values is essential to identifying the factors that impede the NH community. A 2015 CDC report confirmed the age-adjusted prevalence of diagnosed diabetes is significantly higher for NHs (14.3%) than among whites (8.0%). Despite interventions and efforts to address the epidemic rates of metabolic diseases, Native Hawaiians suffer disproportionately from cardiometabolic disease, causing physical, emotional and financial trauma to the individual,  family, community and beyond.

The program brings lā‘au lapa‘au teachings, the mode of teaching, the structure of learning, and the outcomes of learning into modern-day 2020 by considering the current state of community, health care and spirituality within the Native Hawaiian community. For the first time in history, the teachings will be recorded in print and digital format, and the largest cohort of haumana (students) to attend a school of this kind will receive a curriculum-based education in a traditionally lineage-based knowledge tradition. Some of these haumana are practitioners of western medicine, through Kaiser Permanente, and they will bridge Native Hawaiian and Western American healing traditions through their participation in the Master Class. In the global COVID pandemic environment, a culturally-based, culturally-appropriate, resilience-rooted, place-based, community-minded health care option is paramount to basic survival.

Documentary Film Production  Videotaping footage for Documentary Film on Roddy and his lāʻau lapaʻau teachings and stories, captured on professional HD video cameras, sound recording devices and gear.  Lead Personnel has twenty yearsʻ experience of professional videography and television editing and owns camera, studio gear and post-production equipment, all included at no cost to the program.  Videographer will film class sessions, interviews and b-roll, log the footage and make a rough assembly.  Selects will be made to augment a core thru-line of Roddy interviews, telling the amazing stories of his experiences as a lāʻau lapaʻau practitioner in the community – a portrait of the lives he has touched and those who have touched him. The final film will be submitted for exhibition at the Hawaii International Film Festival and later made available via streaming video.  As an added bonus, videotaping of classes will be useful to Roddy in his class prep and self-tracking, and to Curriculum Personnel in curriculum development.  

Writing, editing and production of “Introduction to Lāʻau Lapaʻau” Book  Writing, editing and annotating  of the core teachings.  Editing ongoing.  This is a process that the Book personnel have been doing for years with the greater moʻolelo (stories, history) of Moanalua.  A technique has evolved and a vision developed on how to best manifest Roddyʻs teaching method in the written word.  The final product will be a pdf made available for free download on our website.

Since 2001, Roddy Akau has voluntarily served the community as kahuna lāʻau lapaʻau, taking no money for his service.  He has worked alone without funding or advertisement, helping those who come to him through the community network.  Using traditional methods, he has successfully treated patients suffering from cancer, diabetes, AIDS, gout, depression, chronic illnesses, STD, addiction, autism spectrum disorder and more.  He has been called to make presentations at the University of Hawaii and Bishop Museum.  He has performed house blessings, place blessings and appeasements numbering in the hundreds and in accordance with his lineal kuleana (birthright, responsibility) has cared for the many wahi pana extant in Moanalua Valley and recovered and revived the vast moʻolelo of that sacred ahupuaʻa (so far 1,000 printed pages, unedited). Roddy has served as cultural advisor to Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, consulting on the proper methods of stewardship of the sacred valleys of Moanalua.  He has served as cultural advisor and board member of the Moanalua Gardens Foundation, providing assessment of the unmarked ancestral royal burials located at Moanalua Gardens. Roddy has been called to advise on proper treatment of ‘iwi kupuna (bones of the ancestors) and watershed protection.  In May 2019 OHA called on Kahu Roddy to be one of three Oahu cultural practitioners to provide testimonial and advisement to the U.S. military on the treatment of Hawaiiʻs military-owned lands for the Department of Defense.

Community change within the Native Hawaiian community is naʻau-based and ʻĀina-based. Traditional modes of change occur within established community structures: hula halau’s, canoe clubs, ohanas, paina/ahaaina (dinner party/feast). The foundation for learning within the Native Hawaiian knowledge traditions (navigation, låʻau lapaʻau, astrology, hula/dance, ancestry, oli/chant, pule/prayer, malama ʻåina/conservatioin/agriculture, etc.) is deeply place-based and was traditionally passed down within a lineage. Instruction from elder knowledge holders (kahuna) was structured around observation, guidance and apprenticeship. The Hawaiian Sciences are interdisciplinary and they bridge the earthly realm with the spirit realm. An example of this is Kino Lau, the physical manifestation of the Hawaiian deities. The Kino Lau of a single deity may encompass a bird species, a fish species, a type of rain, a type of lava, an animal species, a plant species, and many more physical manifestations. It is known that these must all be in balance for any one of them to survive. In addition to Kino Lau, Native Hawaiians have amakua (the loose equivalent of spirit animals, though they are lineage-based). In this way, a family’s amakua is kino lau to one or more Hawaiian deities and it is their kuleana (responsibility) to help maintain ecological and spiritual balance. Furthermore, land division and land management was traditionally practiced through and Ahupua’a system, pie-shaped wedges of land originating at the top of a mountain and widening out to the ocean, passing through the wao akua (realm of the gods), the arable farmland for terraced agroforestry, the lower wetlands for fishponds and wet taro cultivation, and the intertidal for fishponds and open-water harvesting. This advanced system of land management is no known as Watershed Management in modern-day.

Current: 30 students and their family circles (100+)

In one year: 30 additional students (60 total), their family circles (200+ total), plus 100+ at community events, plus 1000+ via social media.

In 5 years: 150 students, 1500 extended ohana members, 1000+ via community events and partnerships, 10,000+ via book and video distribution,  100,000+ via social media.

First year we touch the cohort and their family circles.

Second year weʻll release our free pdf download “Introduction to Laau Lapaau” which could touch 10,000. 

End of third year we will have a living curriculum that we can offer to any people like us, preserving and reviving ancient indigenous knowledge, moving outward to the neighbor islands, beyond to Polynesia, and east to Native American tribes.  

COVID is the biggest barrier, which makes us do our large group gatherings on zoom.  An additional potential barriers include the concentration of knowledge in Roddy Akau; if he were unable to continue instruction much of the knowledge would be lost forever. Time is a potential barrier for this reason.

As a community-minded, community-based effort, this program will exist in some form regardless of financial hurdles. The benefit of financial award through grants is to increase the visibility of the teachings through technology, to document the curriculum sufficiently so that the Master Class can be replicated, and to advance with intention the meaningful participation of the students via guided dialogue.

Boundaries are another potential barrier, which could limit Roddy's focus on the Master Class.

COVID - We will be using ZOOM technology for large-group classes. Community events are postponed until further direction from the CDC and local authority allows them.

Concentration of Knowledge - the only contingency plan that can exist is for the current students to answer the call to continue their learning, seeking elders, knowledge holders, friends and colleagues of Roddy Akau, and reading the mo'olelo that has been documented to date.

Boundaries -  We are building in strategies towards buffering Roddy from outside parties who might pose a distraction to our operations, people who come to him for help, healing and attention.  This doesn’t mean Roddy will cease taking and helping patients, but in his primary role of teacher he can’t be interacting with every person out of the blue.  The staff directly surrounding Roddy – will be ready and prepared to provide Roddy with that necessary buffer to handle with discernment any and all offers and requests, whether they be in person or otherwise.  Also we do foresee needing to establish a boundary with the students as well.  When a person come under Roddy’s wing it is normal to glom onto him like he’s oxygen.  All of a sudden there are people Roddy has to meet and help.  It would be impossible for Roddy to enter into this with each student, so it will be imperative to let students know up front that the focus is on their learning. 

Pacific American Foundation acts as the fiscal sponsor for Moanalua Culture Project when non-profit status is required for funding.

Pacific American Foundation (PAF) was founded and incorporated in 1993 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and certified by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization in 1998. The mission of PAF is “to improve the lives of all Pacific Americans with courage, integrity, compassion and perseverance.”  The PAF has been one of the leading non-profit organizations in Hawaii in developing culturally relevant and rigorous curricula aligned to changing standards since 1999.

Roddy Kamawaelualani Kawehi Akau (100% FTE ), Cultural Practitioner / Kahuna Lāʻau Lapaʻau, Kum

Gabe Imaikalani Man (100% FTE), Project Director, Book Writer-Editor and Documentary Film Videographer/Edito

Jessamy Kiele Hornor (100% FTE), Director of Outreach and Partnerships, Book Edito

Tina Tagad (100% FTE), COO

Debbi Barrett-Holt (Contract; Hourly; ~100 hrs/year), Cultural Botanist

Moanalua Culture Project (MCP) was formed in 2014 by Gabe Imaikalani Man and Roddy Kamawaelualani Kawehi Akau to preserve and perpetuate the moʻolelo of Moanalua, perform cultural outreach and advisement and to bring the ancient traditions to the world.  Throughout its existence MCP has been a purely volunteer organization without funding of any kind.  Transcription, editing and compilation of moʻolelo has produced approximately 1,000 pages of printed documentation and taken up countless hours.  MCP has received invaluable work, guidance and spiritual support from Jessamy Hornor (editing of moʻolelo, publicity, social media, networking and ideation) and Debbi Barrett-Holt (propagation of laau).  Since 2016, Gabe and Jessamy have posted mo’olelo and MCP information on Facebook under the username “Moanalua Valley.”  In 2016, Jessamy brought Roddy to the attention of Hana Hou! Magazine (with a bi-monthly readership of 1.8M Hawaiian Airline passengers), who ran a story and photo spread on Roddy entitled “The Valley’s Keeper: Into Moanalua with Roddy Akau.”  Also in 2016, Roddy and Gabe provided cultural advisement to American Savings Bank regarding the uncovering of ‘iwi kupuna during construction of their new building on Aʻala Street.  In 2018, in the DLNR/DOFAW road repair project in Kamananui, Roddy provided cultural advisement and performed the blessings at the beginning at close of the project.  In 2017, Gabe began hosting huakaʻi in Kamananui with various educational and professional groups.  In that same year, Roddy hanaiʻd Gabe, giving him the ancestral name Imaikalani. 

Koʻolau Mountain Watershed Partnership (KMWP)

Place-based education, community event hosting.

Kaʻonohi Farms

Place-based education and cultivation of la'au.

Pacific American Foundation (Fiscal Sponsor)

Since 2000, PAF has served thousands of Native Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian students statewide. PAF is a recognized leader in curriculum development and associated teacher training, having created 9 culture and place-based curricula series (21 titles) currently being used by K-12 public, charter, Hawaiian immersion, and private schools across the state. Many of these curricula have been recognized as important culture-based resources and thereby, published online by the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language, ALU LIKE, Inc., and Ulukau – The Hawaiian language resource website known as the “Hawaii Digital Library.

The program is unique, having a kupuna willing to share ancient healing knowledge who has a land-base, a genuine lineage and practice, and assistants who can bridge him to the world of grant funding and other funding.  We plan on never charging for classes, ever.  We plan on funding the operation costs through grants and private funding.  We also plan on selling longer, more in-depth books in the next 1-3 years, proceeds to be put back in the non-profit.  

Lāʻau Lapaʻau is the practice of indigenous knowledge, a technology in itself. While Moanalua Culture Project is seeking larger grant funding to cover the expenses of a 3-year initial Master Class, MIT Solve is an opportunity for networking, and for funding key deliverables that will ensure that the teachings of Grand Master Papa Henry Awaue and Elder Instructor Rody Akau are passed on: printed learning tools, video teachings, a social media presence, a website with resources, and the growth of the Lāʻau Lapaʻau community within the Native Hawaiian community through the sharing of these resources.

A sustainable, living, breathing program needs the support of many people with diverse talents and areas of expertise. Problem solving when challenges bridge human, environmental, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic aspects necessitates a synectics approach and a multi-pronged strategy. MIT Solve would help springboard the Moanalua Culture Project and the Halau O Huluena Lāʻau Lapaʻau Preservation Project into the realm of capacity builders who can help build these bridges, foster this approach, and develop a multi-pronged strategy for success.

We would like to partner with like-minded organizations who are creating new platforms for sharing indigenous knowledge.

We would like to partner with experts who have experience marketing and sharing knowledge traditions while protecting the sacred and ancestral aspects that may not be ready for public knowledge or global exchange.

We would like to work with experts who have experience in place-based education, living curriculum models, and technology platforms that are appropriate for a diverse community made up of the young and old, urban and rural Native Hawaiians who will benefit from this program.

We would like to work with experts in publication and printing who can advise on technical assistance and capacity-building and guide us toward resources for successfully implementing the technology components of this program.