 Welcome to Finding Respect in the Chaos on ThinkTekHawaii.com. I want to welcome you here today. We have a really wonderful show here. I am here with Kim Partner and Emelani Ma'kepa Foley-Wong, did I say it right? You did. Okay, good. We are going to be talking about natural healing. So often when people have to experience abuse our bodies sort of hold it and it affects our health in many, many ways and there's lots of different alternative approaches that you can use to help to treat these issues that come up. For me, I have lupus and I have Crohn's disease and I have fought both of those for many, many years. I've had 25 surgeries and in the last 15 years and I've almost died like five times. But I moved here and since I moved here in the last five years, I have not had one single surgery. I've only had two hospital stays and I've just seen a market improvement in my health with the natural foods, the, you know, I eat what grows across the street now and all of the different medicinal herbs or plants, I should say, that are used for natural healing. And so that's what we're here to talk about today, to show people that are out there that might be experiencing some of these physical things, that there is alternatives to just going to the doctor, right, and sometimes even more effective than just going to the doctor. But we do want to say, it's just a little cautionary in the beginning before we really get involved in all of this, that don't go out and just start picking plants, okay, and taking them until you talk to a practitioner, talk to your doctor. But there is a lot of hope and healing out there in our natural plants that we find right in front of us every day. So I want to welcome you guys here. Kim, I'd like it if you would please tell us a little bit more about the stuff, a little bit about the stuff that you've gone through in your life and how some of these plants and herbs have helped you. Oh, yes, definitely. For me, I also suffered with lupus for basically all my life. But I had a lot of symptoms along the way. I have a photo that shows about, I had alopecia break out really bad in my head. Right, I think we do have a photo of that. So that was like, I was 47 then, because my age is on there. So it was really bad to the point where I couldn't even function. It was burning and everything like that, and the doctor was coming up with all kind of things saying that it was like some hair fungus, I have a rare hair thing. I mean, it's really interesting when you are diagnosed with lupus, you get diagnosed with all different types of other things before they actually say it's lupus. And so for me, I just kept pushing through. That actually finally kind of sipside away, and then I ended up with other issues along the way, fingers turning blue, which bought on the total red flag and they said you have lupus. But leading up to that, I went through quite a bit of trauma. I did foster care for six years for very high needs kids, for P.L. Tribe, back home in Washington state, and I love my kids. I wouldn't change the thing. In the midst of that, I had relationships that were abusive and taking on that. And then I found out later on, I had a cousin who had lupus, which is like my sister cousin, because my aunt had passed away early. And so my mom ended up raising her. So we went to school, we were like this best buds, everything. And I find out that she was in the hospital for six months and dealing with inflammation in the brain. And like six months later, she had passed away. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah. Was it lupus? It was lupus. Yeah, the inflammation. With lupus, you get inflammation in your knees, everything else, and that's where the arthritis gets introduced to your body in an extreme way. And your stomach digestional tract, hers just led through her whole entire body. They used to have the wrapper and stuff like that. So it was really heartbreaking and just a lot for me. And so on top of that, I worked at a high school for 12 years as security, loving the kids. That's just my thing. I love the kids. I know you mean so great. I just love the kids. So one of my best friends there who was born in Molokai. And he's like, man, what's going on with you? And he speaks from the heart like most Hawaiians do. They just see it and they tell you, hey, get out of here. What are you doing? Right. You've worked here long enough. Take some of that retirement and get out of here. And still to this day, I just thank him and I give him all the glory because I did exactly what he said. So I got my first ticket and I went to Kona and stayed there for two weeks. Got a car, drove out to Black Sand Beach and just sat there in the water like he told me to do. And there was a honu on shore over to the distance. It was just so perfect and just healing. And I was like, OK, I got it. So next thing I do, I went back home, backed up everything, put in my time and came back here and even got blessed with a decent place to rent. So it was all meant to be. It was all laid out. So, you know, kia kua there, you know, so I just, I love it. OK, so since you've been here now, now you've noticed some changes in your health. Oh my gosh, yeah. So now let's start talking about what the changes and all those things that have happened since. And some of the things that have brought you to this healing place. Well, when I first got here, I got right into the plow. So I started working out over at the ag station for UH Manoa with Auntie Lima. When you see right into the plow, like just, you want to make sure everybody, oh, tell me about that. Just like right into the plow. As in getting your hands into the dirt. And learning what it's all about, yeah. And so, and learning from that. And I learned a little bit there and then I joined Windward Community College and was introduced to this amazing kumu in Milani. And she started teaching some magnificent types of things to make you actually, it's not just about the medicine, it's spiritual. You got to be ready for it. You got to cleanse yourself. You need to fast. Something that I was used to doing is fasting, but I wasn't fasting to heal myself. I wasn't fasting to bring in medicine. And so my biggest warrior is the Olenna. Olenna, and that is this one right here, yeah? Yeah, this is this. Talk to us about this one. And it's this one right here also, right? Yes, this is that I also grow in my aquaponic system. Nice. And so this warrior here can kill just about anything. There's just different doses that you wanted to apply to what you're going to take. So I use it during the time of my lupus flare-ups. I would use it on a shot every day. So I put it in my mortal pestle. And I think we have a picture of that too, don't we? Where you can kind of see all the different things that you use to prepare your, and it's also known as turmeric, right? Exactly, yes, yes. So it's a tubular family. So put it in the mortal pestle, then squeeze it through the cheesecloth and just do a shot every morning. Every morning. Every morning and I did that consistently for about six months to a year. Wow. And just last month, I went back and had my blood test taken and all my ANAs are negative. So an ANA is what they use to measure whether or not you've got lupus and your lupus in a flare or just where you are in that sense of that. That's amazing to me to go in that short of a time. Oh my word, wow. And I was told that it can go that quick. You just have to be dedicated and change your foods. I did take red meats out of my diet. I took bread. I took white flowers and rice, all those things out. We were just talking about that too the other day when we were all together about that taking bread out of your diet and how much of a change that makes in how your body is able to fight off things or even use your nutrients the right way, yeah? Yeah, right. Right. Such a difference. So Kim and I met when we were in botany together and we were talking about, hey, you got lupus. Hey, I have lupus. Hey, man, we should make a show about this because it's helping people. Right. And so that's when the whole thing started to sort of bake into our heads and we're like, yes, let's do it. So I want everyone to know what this looks like so that they can see it and know it's called Olenna is the Hawaiian name. And then the scientific, is it the scientific name that would be turmeric or what's, is that right? It's curcuma. It's what, no? Curcuma longa. Curcuma longa, hmm. Yeah, Olenna. Olenna. I think Olenna might just be easier to say. Right, absolutely. So there's other stuff that you use too, right? There's a tea, right? Oh, Mamaki tea. Mamaki tea, and I think we have a picture of the Mamaki. Yes. Yeah, there we go. We got a picture of what Mamaki looks like. Which is also awesome for low blood pressure, high blood pressure, and inflammation in the body. It's amazing. Another warrior out there that lives here on the island is absolutely magnificent. I love it when you call them warriors. That's really cool. It's kind of what they are in a way. And they're all just God-given. That's what I love about it. It's not cooked up in some pharmacy somewhere. It's going to have all these crazy side effects. And when I was in Alabama before I moved here, I was on 32 medicines. I was on six just for one. And when I got to that point, I said, this is insane. I got to get out of here. You know, like they came and said, you got to get out of here. My own heart said, I got to get out of here. And that was when I started making the move to come here. Because, and now I'm on seven. I went from 32 to seven. Awesome. And each one of them probably had like just a tidbit of turmeric in it or something. Yeah, because that's how they keep you coming is that they put just a tidbit and it's like, this is the healer, but we don't want them to heal all the way. So we're going to put this right here. Yeah, right. You got to watch out for the pharmaceutical companies because they don't like this stuff. It's true. Yeah. Oh, well, that's just kind of too bad. So we got another one here, too, right? We've got ginger here. Tell us about this one. So ginger, which is another tubular plant related to here. This one is really good for also information in the body, fungus in the body. I use this one as well just for, I use it also for late weight loss. Like I. Ginger for weight loss? Really? Yeah, yeah. I didn't know. It helps burn like the, gets your metabolism going and everything. So I do the same thing. Clean it really good, fill it, grind it in the pesto, put it in this cheesecloth. Right. And I will add it to like some Pellegrino. And just kind of drink it throughout the day. And you kind of feel your body kind of like, ooh. Right? So it's really good. There's a lot of little things out there. Loads and loads of recipes out there. I wouldn't advise taking any of them all at once. But really nice, useful ones out there to help with. So what about like candy, ginger? Does it do the same thing? No. This question is probably, no. That would be white sugar in there. The white sugar, which discounts all the healing properties of the ginger out the door. Of course, I didn't even think about that, yeah. But so did you use any NONI at all? I do use NONI. I use it when I'm really, really sick. Because for me, NONI worked for me as an absolute cleanser. So I would take it like on a Friday. And literally, it will detox throughout the whole weekend for me. Wow. And it works different for a lot of people. I've known people. This is NONI right here, yeah, that you're looking at. That's the fruit. And I'll tell you, though, that fruit, when I first moved here, somebody said, take it, and put it in the fridge until it gets all squishy. And then take a little bit of the juice and put it in some juice every day. I couldn't even open my fridge. I'm just like, oh, no, I can't do it. But on the other side of that, I have lots of issues with arthritis and one leg that doesn't work quite right, so I fall a lot. And so I'll have these injuries. And I had a local gal who works at the front desk at my doctor's office. And she said, listen, I want you to go get you some NONI leaves and get them warm, heat them up, and then put them on your legs. The first two injuries I had took months to get rid of. When I used that with the NONI leaves on it, it was like I was maybe two weeks instead of two months. And I was healed. It was amazing. Yeah, the NONI is like a puller, the leaf itself. I use them as well. And you can use them if you have some stomach problems going on, take a leaf and just put it on your liver area. And it'll help pull out toxins as well. NONI is amazing. It is amazing. And all these, we've got more amazing things to tell you too. But right now we gotta take a break. We'll be right back. I hope you'll stay with us. I'm Cynthia Lee Sinclair. This is Finding Respect in the Chaos. Don't go anywhere. Welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host, Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, where we motivate, educate, and power, and inspire all women. We are live here every other Thursday at 4 p.m. And we welcome you to join us here at Sister Power. Aloha and thank you. Hi, everyone. I'm Andrea Gabrieli. The host for Young Talent's Making Way here on Think Tech, Hawaii. We talk every Tuesday at 11 a.m. about things that matter to tech, matter to science, to the people of Hawaii with some extraordinary guests, the students of our schools who are participating in science fair. So Young Talent's Making Way every Tuesday at 11 a.m. only on Think Tech, Hawaii. Mahalo. Hello, welcome back to Finding Respect in the Chaos. I'm glad that you came back to join us again. I'm here with Kim and Emily Lani. Sorry, I almost went blah, blah, blah with the names. I don't know why I do that with names. I'm so sorry. But Kim and Emily Lani, we've been talking with Kim about some of the amazing healing things that she has gotten from different natural plants and herbs that grow that are native Hawaiian plants. And Emily Lani is an instructor in Laulapa'au, which I would love if you would explain to our audience just exactly what Laulapa'au is and what it means and all of that. OK, so Laulapa'au is, in its most general term, is plant medicine. Laulapa'au is healing. And Laulapa'au means plant. So however, it goes a lot deeper than just the plants. And Kim had mentioned a little bit about certain plants work for certain people and other plants don't necessarily work for them for that particular time. And that's all because of the basis of Laulapa'au. The foundation is a spiritual foundation. It's based off of Akua and the reliance that people have for Akua and for Aina and for the spirit that moves to heal. And so Laulapa'au, even though it means quite literally plant medicine, our kupuna used sometimes no plants at all. And just from spirit, they were able to heal. Wow. Just from going and sitting in a place surrounded by these plants and the spiritual place that it takes the people's hearts? I think it's more of a combination of what you come with, what type of mana you come with, and then also in acquisition of mana and what types of things you learn. So my kumu taught us about the cognitive and the intuitive. So how cognitively we can understand that this plant can be used for this and this plant can be used for this. Without spirit, the plants, you're not going to get your desired result. It's centered around pule, centered around prayer and around spirit. And the plants are the warriors that help carry out the healing. And not just plants, minerals, different types of animal products, different types of all kinds of different products, but all natural. But all natural, which is what's up. So La Olapa'au is always for natural, or not always. Natural healing, whether it be spiritual or plant-based? Well, I think one thing is that La Olapa'au, because of its nature, is geared towards the person, right? Depending on what they need. So it's really up to the practitioner in figuring out being led by spirit, being led by La Olapa'au in order to figure out the plan for that particular person. And in Kim's case, she took a class from me. And she not only took it as a cognitive, oh, this is great. And this plant is used for this. And this plant is used for this. Instead, she used the tools that she was given and applied them to herself so that she could do her own self-healing, which is what the aim and the goal is for that introductory class. It is for you to take these concepts and take the warriors that we're teaching you and apply them to yourself in looking for the trauma and looking for the places where that illness and that disease was able to manifest through. So I really applied Kim in doing that, taking what she learned from the class and applying it, not just with the cognitive and knowing, oh, this can be used for this, but really looking and working on herself in the process. Right, and I know what you mean. I think, I know, good job, Kim. I'm very proud of you two. And look, your hair is gorgeous. It's coming back. You don't have to suffer with all that anymore. And I'm so glad you don't have to suffer with that. Go ahead and wear it, yeah. What a difference it makes, right? Yes, definitely. What a difference. I know, like you said about being, some people can do it, it's good for one person. It's not so good for another. I tried the turmeric and I wasn't able to do it because of the, my Crohn's disease, and I try not to call it mine. I try to call it the, you know what I'm saying? I'm trying to really train my brain to not even call it mine. But so the Crohn's disease makes it really difficult for me to digest the turmeric. It seems like it's too spicy for me somehow. I don't know. I'm still, I'm not putting it off out of the realm of possibilities still, right? But I know I want to come back to Winward and take one of your classes, is what I'd really like to do. Since we've been meeting and talking and stuff, I'm like, wow, and I need to do this. And I promise to come with a clean, open heart and spirit when I get there. Ready to learn, ready to learn. So what got you into this? How did you first start into La-O-La-O? That's a good question. I feel like with La-O-La-O it's a calling, you know, even those who come to just one class, you're meant to be in that class with those particular people for that amount of time, you know? And the same thing goes for how I got into the class. I took a, I was led to the La-O-La-O class at UH Manoa, where I was a student and I studied Hawaiian language and Hawaiian culture. But before that I was in early childhood education. And the class, it was so interesting because the class just opened up. There was no seats available. It started in like five minutes. I got on my moped and I like, buzzed over there. And I remember sitting in the back of the class and he explained my whole morning. Like it was like two at tea, everything that had happened about having a really hard time getting here for whatever reason, here you are and you are exactly where you need to be, you know? And from there, Kumu Ohai went from my teacher to my mentor and my friend, you know? And a family member really, you know? So I learned a lot from Kumu Ohai and he had been training, he had been, you know, kind of training a small group of us to start to teach. So I started to teach from, how was it my first or second year in La-O? You know, and he and I would spend time outside of class and go up in the mountains and, you know, I was really, really privileged and blessed to have, you know, have had a cool up, have us meet and find each other in that particular time. So, yeah, I graduated and after I graduated, I taught at a Hawaiian immersion school for a little while and then I got the call to move up to Liner Barita. But throughout the whole time, I kept up with the La-O-La-Pa-O, kept studying and practicing and, yeah, and that's pretty much, and then I ended up teaching, I think, this is now my third year at Wynward, and I went into my second at KCC. Very cool. I know you have a great reputation, too, for what you do. Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you for helping teach all of us because we all need to learn these important things, you know? Now, I know you have some plans with you today. Let's talk about some of the plans that you have here with you today. Yeah, let's. So, some of the plans that we brought are plans that you would recognize, right? This one is Nopaka, this particular Nopaka is Nopaka Kahakai. The beach. Yeah, the beach, Nopaka. Yeah, Nopaka with the beach, so you got the little half flower. Yeah. I love this, I love the story behind it, too. It's such a beautiful story. Where'd you tell the people that are watching what is the story of Nopaka? Well, I don't know if we have time to do the whole story, but it's in short form. Yeah, in the shortest form that the one, the version that I'm familiar with is it's relevant to two lovers that were separated because of class and one of them got turned into half of the flower and at the beach and the other in the mountains. Yeah, so they're separated and when you get them two together, it's like glorious and beautiful. Right, and you can put the two flowers together and it makes one flower, I think of that. And so, this is Nopaka Kahakai, really, really good for, you know, for refresh. You know, when you fall down at the beach and you need to stop the bleeding and start the healing. Nopaka's really, really powerful at that. It's also, I know a lot of Kama'aina, a lot of local people will know this one to be really good at taking the fog off of the snorkel out of the snorkel. Ah, right, right, right. So this one can be used, yeah, for refresh and to stop bleeding. We also have this one who's familiar to, I'm sure a lot of people, this is the Lokahi. Lokahi is one of our common warriors that can be found really, really, I mean. Very, very. Yeah, everywhere in Hawaii. It's a plantain, plantain plumbago, I believe. Lokahi, right, and Lokahi can be used to pull out, you know, pull out stuff, right. So if you have a boy or a bug bite, it'll, it does a really good job at bringing it to the surface among. So I'm only gonna give some of them because I know we don't have that much time. Right, right, to go over all of the things that it can do, but if we give a broad, I think base for people to understand I think is important. Right, and I want, I think it's important too because these plants are familiar to a lot of people in Hawaii. These ones, you know, at least you have a couple of uses for them. Right. You know, instead of looking at them as a common weed, now we can shift our perspective and start to look at them, you know, at an elevated level. Right. Which they deserve. Absolutely. And then we have Aloi. Yeah, this is our, our Aloi, and there are a lot of different variants of Aloi. There's the Vera, there's the, yeah, there's a whole bunch of Aloi Vera, there's, that's okay. But we know basically what it looks like and what, and tell us what it does. Arborescence, there we go. And so, Aloi can be used internally and externally. A lot of us, we know it to be really good for burns, right, sunburns. We know it to be good for cuts and scrapes, right? But internally, it can be really, really useful for inflammation. Yes. I know that's something I use. I use that Aloi Vera for that. So you just gotta be careful if you're gonna be using it that, you're using the inner gel of the leaf. You're not using the yellow part and you're not using the skin. No skin. That has a completely different use. So you need to just, and that's the thing too that, you know, the cognitive is important, but the practice part of it is part of the cognitive, you know, like getting your, getting your, your becoming, becoming familiar with how to prepare your la'au. Right. And how to store your la'au. All of those things are really important in the process. I'm not just, oh, this one's good for this. Let's just pick this over here. Let me just pick it in my head. Yeah, you know, and there's, there's also, I have to say that there, there's also protocol in gathering la'au, right? There's, there's protocol in gathering and in preparing and those things are really important, especially to, you know, especially to this practice because it is a spiritual practice. You don't just go and do just, because you can go and do, you know, you wanna make sure that you, you stay true to, to protocol in asking the plant, and asking the space, and having, and having, you know, being thankful for what you're, what you're receiving, only taking so much that you need, you know. All of those things become a really important protocol, you know, and. I think that's so important. You know, I hate that we're running out of time here, but I, I gotta close now and I'm pumped because there's so many questions I have. And I know there's probably so many questions that people out there watching have too. So I want to recommend to everyone to go to Winward and take a class from this wonderful practitioner. Emelani is there. You'll be there next semester, I hope. I will. Okay, so everybody go take the class. Yeah. And I, I'm so glad that you joined us today. I hope that you got something from this. I hope you see now that there is hope that's beyond just the pharmacology approach, right? That there are other ways to do this. And, and as Emelani said, make sure you do it in a respectful, proper way. Follow the right protocol. Don't just go start yanking plants up everywhere and, you know, throwing them in your fridge or something because that's not the way that it works. There is a whole spiritual connection between the plants and between Akua. And we must remember to respect that at all times. I want to thank you guys so much for coming on today. This has gone by way too fast. Thank you for having us. That's it. Thank you so much. I have to check in again later on and see how things are going and talk about some different plants. So I would love to have you guys back again. I think that would be great. And for those of you out there that joined us today, I want to thank you for joining us. Please come back again for the next episode of Finding Respect in the Chaos. I'm Cynthia Lee Sinclair on thinktecawaii.com.