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Ohana Pu'uwai

The Heart of the Whole Family

While the word pu`uwai means heart in Hawaiian, it translates literally as ‘a mound of water’.  Hawaiians believe that the heart contains water, which is called wai. In the Hawaiian chants, water is always a metaphor for mana or life force. This energy behaved like water.

 

Although pu’uwai refers to the seat of emotions in Hawai’i today, before western contact the Hawaiians thought that the na'au (intestines; also a spot 2 inches below the navel) was the seat of all emotions and instinct. But aloha (love) came from the heart and is thought to flow freely like a spring. Aloha is mana, life force. Pu`uwai also means “to share water,” or life force, spirit.

 

So let love flow from your pu’uwai to be shared by all you encounter, to become the Ohana Pu'uwai. Love, like water, flows where there is least resistance and can gently rain down on all. And trust your na'au, for it always knows and can lead the heart.

Mural in Wailuku. Photo: Philip Wikel

Aha Aloha Aina www.ahaalohaaina.com

 

More than 40 Kanaka Maoli community organizations and sovereignty groups are members of a coalition who sponsored a series of public meetings called ʻAha Aloha ʻĀina in February 2016.  The ʻAha Aloha ʻĀina will be held on the islands of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, Molokaʻi, Kauaʻi,  and Maui.  

 

This series of meetings is to identify the very broad movement in the Hawaiian movement for Independence and educate the community on the various initiatives.  The ʻAha Aloha ʻĀina is a response to the resounding community feedback from the Hālāwai Aloha ʻĀina informational meetings that Hawaiian leaders held from October-November, 2015 statewide (see www.protestnaiaupuni.com for more information).

 

The SIMPLE GOALS of the ʻAha Aloha ʻĀina are to:

1) Reaffirm our Independence

2) Resist and oppose Naʻi Aupuni’s claims to be the representative voice of our people

3) Reject the current DOI endeavor to Federally Recognize na Kanaka Maoli as a Native Hawaiian Tribe

4) Unite our people and reveal the many different ways that our people have been building and rebuilding our Nation over the past several hundred years up to the present

5) Non-Violence

© 2023 by Maui Salt and Sage.
Created by MSSM

© 2023

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