Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 2007 — Kāne's water and wahine wellness [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kāne's water and wahine wellness

Kāne's spring of forgiveness, purification and healing is located beside 0'ahu's Kawela Bay, between Kamehameha Highway and the edge of the sea, near the wild koa that shades the lane. It's where the pōhuehue vine, with its bright purple flowers, creeps along the sand beside the whiteflowered hinahina vine and naupaka shrub, and where the ko wali morning glory snuggles its hell-like blossoms amongst the blue honohono that grows there. Hidden there beneath the riotous colors of the wild flowous is the spring of Kāne, Ka Wai o ke Kala, (theWaterof Forgiveness). A stone's throw away, facing the heaeh, was the ancient home of the stately kahuna, or priests, who were guardians of the spring. The entire area was a sacred site and was kapu. The kahuna po'o-kanaka (high priests) used the spring water in performing

religious ceremonies. Kahuna lā'au lapa'au (herbal practitioners) would send patients there to drink the water and to live on certain fish and seaweed found in Kawela Bay, while chanting special pleas for healing and heahh. When asked why the spring water is no longer used, an old fisherman replied: "Ua hala ka uhu, ua ma'alo ihola ua ho'i akula i Makapu'u - nou ka hala!" The translation is: "The uhu (parrotfish) has gone - it has just dodged (the net), it has returned to Makapu'u - yours is the fault!" He meant it is our fault that this knowledge is lost, because of our laek of appreciation for ancient remedies and customs. Traditionally, for example, Hawaiians carefully protected the heahh and safety of young wahine. Everyone understood that the heahh of the next generation was dependent upon her good heahh. Today, however, many wahine are careless about their heahh, and several ehallenges are the result. Eaeh year in Hawai'i, more Native Hawaiian wahine die

from lung and breast cancer than females of other ethnicities. Cigarette smoking is the strongest lung cancer risk factor, and Native Hawaiian smoking rates are more than 20 percent higher than the state's average rate, including many teenage and young wahine. Never smoking cigarettes is the surest way to avoid lung eancer. Daily exercise and healthy meals are another two critical protective practices. Avoiding breast cancer is more difficult. Many risk factors are involved, of whieh being female is the first risk. Age is the next risk, since the older you are, the higher the risk of developing breast cancer. Family history is the third risk: your risk is higher if closely related women, such as your mother, sister or daughter, have had breast cancer. Annual medical examinations, monthly self-examinations and mammograms starting at age 40 (earlier with family history), are critical for early discovery, treatment and survival. Mueh scientific study has gone into understanding and avoiding breast cancer, yet many answers

still elude medical science. What's known is that avoiding weight gain is very important, especially after menopause. It's important to avoid drinking aleohol or at least to keep consumption to one drink a day. Exercise daily, since women who exercise daily for about an hour have less breast cancer. In the old days, before stoves, washers, dryers, vacuums, television and computers, women got a lot of exercise easily. Today, we have to actually concentrate on adding physical activity into

our daily lives. Adding vegetables and fruit to daily meals while subtracting fat, especially saturated and trans fats, will lower your risk for many chronic illnesses and cancers. This is the present wisdom, proven by medical science. And these precautions were traditional practices of the Hawaiian ancestors. Like Ka Wai o ke Kala a Kāne, traditional ways are no longer ours, another reason we must exert diligence in protecting wahine heahh. E3

OLAKINO • YDUR HEALĪH

By Claire Ku'uleilani Hughes, Dr. PH„ R.D.

Traditionally, Hawaiiūns knew that the well-being of the nexf generation depended on the health and safety of young wahine.