Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 1997 — OHA Honors Aunty Marie K. Place [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA Honors Aunty Marie K. Place

By Colette Y. Machado Editor's note: Because Kupuna Place was unahle to attend the Octoher 'Aha Kūpuna where she was honored, Moloka'i's Trustee Machado told her story, excerpted here by Ka Wai Ola. FROM HER home in 'Ualapu'e, Aunty Marie drives as far east as Hālawa and as far west as Maunaloa, sometimes in the middle of the night, to tend a child with 'ōpū huli (tumed stomach), asthma or an ear infection, or to mend broken bones with lā'au and pule medi-

cine. She touches the lives of people from Moloka'i and beyond with her lā'au lapa'au skills. She grows lā'au in her backyard (kukui, mai'a, pōpolo, laukahi, tī, maile hohono, 'ōlena, kaliko) and gives pulapula to people serious about cultivating their own medicinal herbs. Once, she sent laukahi by plane to a man on O'ahu, along with instructions for growing them and preparing medicine for his asmatic grandsons. She expects only aloha in return for her time and her lā'au lapa'au gift because healing comes from God. Born in 1928 on the cool slopes of Hana Kea Kua, Moloka'i, known as Kīpū, Marie Kau'i Ku'uleionaona Place was

raised with her two brothers in Kainalu valley. At five, she began to leam healing

* from her mother who sent her to find ha'uōwī after her younger brother John fell off a horse and broke his arm. When i little Marie brought back the wrong plant, her mother pinched and twisted her ear. So off she ran and brought back the right lā'au. Satisfied, her mother poked little Marie's forehead, admonishing, "Keep everything in here. Learn. I pinched your ears because you didn't listen." Little Marie listened to her mother and learned about lā'au lapa'au from then on. Life was hard. Aunty Marie's father worked as a paniolo and brought beef home to be salted because there was no iee box and no electricity. The family ate most of what the parents cultivated. As the children helped tend the garden, Aunty's father would say, "Don't pull that one, that's lā'au. Don't pull that one either, that's lā'au too." He would slap Aunty's hand if she reached to pull the pōpolo plant, important for relieving congested Continued on Page 10

KA HĀ MAI KALĀHIKIOLA NĀLIʻIʻELUA AWARD

* MARIE KAUʻI KUʻULEIONAONA PLACE