Hoʻoponopono

The tradition & historical record

Hoʻoponopono (Hawaiian pronunciation: [ho.ʔo.po.no.po.no]) is a traditional Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness. The Hawaiian word translates into English simply as correction, with the synonyms manage or supervise. Similar forgiveness practices are performed on islands throughout the South Pacific, including Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti and New Zealand. Traditional hoʻoponopono is practiced by Indigenous Hawaiian healers, often within the extended family by a family member. ¹

In many Polynesian cultures, it is believed that a person's errors (called hara or hala) caused illness. Some believe error angers the gods, others that it attracts malevolent gods, and still others believe the guilt caused by error makes one sick. "In most cases, however, specific 'untie-error' rites could be performed to atone for such errors and thereby diminish one's accumulation of them." Among the islands of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, people believe that illness usually is caused by sexual misconduct or anger. "If you are angry for two or three days, sickness will come," said one local man. The therapy that counters this sickness is confession. The patient, or a family member, may confess. If no one confesses an error, the patient may die. The Vanuatu people believe that secrecy is what gives power to the illness. When the error is confessed, it no longer has power over the person. Like many other islanders, including Hawaiians, people of Tikopia in the Solomon Islands, and on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, believe that the sins of the father will fall upon the children. If a child is sick, the parents are suspected of quarreling or misconduct. In addition to sickness, social disorder could cause sterility of land or other disasters. Harmony could be restored only by confession and apology. In Pukapuka, it was customary to hold sort of a confessional over patients to determine an appropriate course of action in order to heal them. Similar traditions are found in Samoa, Tahiti, and among the Maori of New Zealand. ¹

Hoʻoponopono is defined in the Hawaiian Dictionary as: (a) "To put to rights; to put in order or shape, correct, revise, adjust, amend, regulate, arrange, rectify, tidy up make orderly or neat, administer, superintend, supervise, manage, edit, work carefully or neatly; to make ready, as canoemen preparing to catch a wave." (b) "Mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right (hoʻoponopono) through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness." Literally, hoʻo is a particle used to make an actualizing verb from the following noun. Here, it creates a verb from the noun pono, which is defined as: "...goodness, uprightness, morality, moral qualities, correct or proper procedure, excellence, well-being, prosperity, welfare, benefit, true condition or nature, duty; moral, fitting, proper, righteous, right, upright, just, virtuous, fair, beneficial, successful, in perfect order, accurate, correct, eased, relieved; should, ought, must, necessary." Ponopono is defined as "to put to rights; to put in order or shape, correct, revise, adjust, amend, regulate, arrange, rectify, tidy up, make orderly or neat." Therefore, hoʻoponopono can be translated literally as "to make right" or "to make good". ¹

Hawaiian scholar Nana Veary in her book Change We Must: My Spiritual Journey wrote that hoʻoponopono was a practice in Ancient Hawaii and this is supported by oral histories from contemporary Hawaiian elders. Pukui (born 1895) first recorded her experiences and observations from her childhood in her 1958 book. Although the word hoʻoponopono was not used, early Hawaiian historians documented a belief that illness was caused by breaking kapu, or spiritual laws, and that the illness could not be cured until the sufferer atoned for this transgression, often with the assistance of a praying priest (kahuna pule) or healing priest (kahuna lapaʻau). Forgiveness was sought from the gods or from the person with whom there was a dispute. Pukui described it as a practice of extended family members meeting to "make right" broken family relations. Some families met daily or weekly, to prevent problems from erupting. Others met when a person became ill, believing that illness was caused by the stress of anger, guilt, recriminations and lack of forgiveness. Kupuna Nana Veary wrote that when any of the children in her family fell ill, her grandmother would ask the parents, "What have you done?" They believed that healing could come only with complete forgiveness of the whole family. ¹

The aim of Hoʻoponopono is to correct, restore and maintain good relationships among family members and with their god(s) by getting to the causes and sources of trouble. It is usually conducted by the most senior family member, who gathers the family together. If the family is unable to work through a problem, they turn to a respected outsider. The process begins with prayer. A statement of the problem is made, and the transgression discussed. Family members are expected to work problems through and cooperate, and not "hold fast to the fault". One or more periods of silence may be taken for reflection on the entanglement of emotions and injuries. Each person's feelings are acknowledged. Then confession, repentance and forgiveness take place. Everyone releases (kala) each other, letting go. They cut off the past (ʻoki), and together they close the event with a ceremonial feast, called pani, which often included eating limu kala, symbolic of the release. In a form used by the family of kahuna Makaweliweli of the island of Molokai, the completion of hoʻoponopono is represented by giving the person forgiven a lei made from the fruit of the hala tree. Many consider the spirit of aloha to be central to the practice of hoʻoponopono. At a University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu event exploring hoʻoponopono, Dr. Manu Aluli Meyer remarked that, "We are healing our collective with aloha languaging". ¹

"Aunty" Malia Craver, who worked with the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children's Centers (QLCC) for more than 30 years, taught courses in traditional hoʻoponopono. On August 30, 2000, she spoke about it to the United Nations. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Hoʻoponopono”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Hoʻoponopono is traditional Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 4 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²