When we think of medicine, we think of a prescription, a pill, but medicine comes in so many forms, said Pii Lawson, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner.
Lawson, who comes from a long line of ancestral weavers and khuna lapaau (Native Hawaiian healers) who revered the power of plants, shares his practice with guests at the Four Seasons Resort Oahu in Koolina. He grew up just a few miles from the resort.
As Lawson explained, medicine is related to your needs. I need to go to the water; this is medicine for the day. Maybe I just need to eat a cheeseburger. What does our body need right now, he added.
With a deep connection to nature, Native Hawaiians have turned to plants for centuries to help heal any ailment or for preventative purposes in an ancient practice known as lau lapaau (lau means plant and lapaau means to heal).
Many times we see plants like, oh, they’re nothing, they’re just there, but the plants are there to serve a purpose, to provide medicine, he said. He has been with our ancestors in indigenous cultures around the world.
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Kava, or awa in Hawaiian, was believed to help muscles relax or with insomnia. People were given parts of the kukui plant as a laxative and the nut was used to help heal ulcers and sores. Olena, or turmeric, was used as an anti-inflammatory. The list goes on.
At the Four Seasons Resort this summer, Lawson is hosting a weekly workshop where people create their own smudge sticks from native plants they harvest right on the property. After the stick dries, people can burn it as a way to bring balance to your body, your heart, perhaps your home and car. It also offers another workshop, a Muhala sound healing ritual.
What is Smear?
Smudging is a sacred practice used by many native cultures to ward off evil spirits and energy, especially in ceremonial rituals. The most popular plant to include smudging sticks is white sage, mostly from tribes in California and Mexico who also incorporate it into their food, medicine, and more. Smoking has cultural and religious significance to many around the world, such as the way the Chinese, Japanese, Egyptians and others are known to burn incense.
This workshop is really about how we can connect to the energy and intentions of it and create our own smudge stick using the plants that are already around us, Lawson said.
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Lawson has always enjoyed the tradition of burning sage, but wanted to give the practice a sense of place in Hawaii.
It’s not hard to find a smudge stick in a store, especially one that sells other New Age items like tarot cards and crystals. The widespread popularity of white sage sticks has caused overexploitation of the plant, negatively impacting indigenous cultures deeply rooted in the practice. Something similar is happening to the dry forests where palo santo is harvested, a wood burned by indigenous communities in Central and South America in religious ceremonies that have now become popular in the Western world.
Why don’t we use plants here? Why do we get stuff from the mainland? It’s taking away from their practice, Lawson said. As a native person, we must be aware of other native practitioners. Spirituality is being aware.
Lawson began experimenting in 2020 with what Hawaii-grown plants might work in a smudge stick.
So far, it’s the only workshop in Hawaii that does something similar with smear sticks, and it doesn’t even know other practitioners do it.
As practitioners, we limit ourselves because of what we’ve been told, we were afraid to explore new things because someone might say, oh, that’s not appropriate, Lawson said. But our ancestors have always adapted.
What’s it like to keep your smudge sticking with Lawson?
Before we even start harvesting plants, we have to follow protocol, the necessary Hawaiian code of conduct: ask permission from ancestors and spirits. Hawaiians follow protocol when entering sacred spaces like Mauna Kea or picking flowers for her.
For our protocol, we recite a short prayer in Hawaiian written by Lawson expressing gratitude before looking for plants.
We walk to a sprawling shrub with branches growing small round leaves and purple flowers right next to the pool. Pohinahina is an endemic plant related to the mint family with a light herbaceous scent, capturing the energy Lawson is looking for.
I cut 12 cuttings, measuring them the traditional Hawaiian way: with my body. I hold the tip of my index finger to the tip of my thumb up to each branch, a length called kikoo.
Round the corner from the resort by the koi pond, we scan the grounds for lauae ferns, recognizable by the spores on its fronds. Though originally from Australia, it is ubiquitous in Hawaii, so these plants offer a sweet, almondy scent.
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We sit back down and tightly wrap the pohinahina cuttings in the fern fronds into a bundle. He places a selenite crystal to help with cleaning in the center before tying the bundle closed with string.
Guests can take the smudge stick home and wait a few weeks for it to dry. Once the stick is ready, people can turn it on and clean their space.
Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. You can contact her at kwong@usatoday.com.
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