I met Betty Lau in La'au Lapa'au (Hawaiian Healing using medicinal herbs and spirituality) class conducted by Po'okela O Kupuna La'au Lapa'au O Hawaii (foremost master of Hawaiian medicine) Papa Henry Auwae in 1995. Papa Auwae taught his classes in Waimea out of Tutu's House, a nonprofit community health and wellness center. We, together with some 20 other haumana (students), studied with Papa Auwae until he passed on December 31, 2000.

 

A graduate of Kamehameha School, Betty, her two brothers and a sister grew up in Aiea, Oahu.  Her six adult children and 14 grandchildren all reside on the Big Island of Hawaii, close by their Tutu (grandmother). Betty is a gifted Lomilomi (Hawaiian traditional massage) practitioner and an esthetician at the famous Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Kohala Coast. We talked by phone ecently about lomilomi.  I could hear doves cooing in the background.

 

June Tanoue:  What is it about lomilomi that you love?

Betty Lau: I really love how it helps people to relax and release their worries - it gives me a chance to do one on one with them.  You are actually touching them  both physically, mentally and spiritually - people confide in you their deepest secrets and let go of what's bothering them so they can heal.  It's not just a job - like la'au lapa'au it's a lifetime commitment.

 

JT: How long have you been practicing?

BL:  I got licensed professionally in 1991.  But before that I was doing it - so approximately half a century. Wow, hitting kupuna (elder) status already. When I was young, my mom taught me how to do facial features and limbs on my brother after he was born.  It wasn't just my own family - our relatives would do this. In our culture, we are such a happy, loving people.  We hug and kiss a lot, although it sometimes depends on how you were raised. Not everyone likes to be touched. It depends on how their parents taught them.

 

It's interesting about babies - when they come out they can sometimes have pointed heads from being in the birth canal. You try to sculpt their cranium and face while everything is soft and kind of mold it - press it - with very light pressure - it's all in the intention of the touch.  I used to softly lomi my baby brother.  It's also good to do the joints of the arms and legs, to very gently pull them.  This strengthens them. I thought everyone did this in their family but now I'm finding out that it's not true. Some were taught and some were not.

 

My upbringing, wasn't all traditional Hawaiian, a lot was Christian and American.  My mom was Hawaiian, and dad was Hawaiian/Chinese/English. Mom was raised in town by Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery by my grandaunt who also taught me.  They used to use la'au (medicinal herbs). My dad was raised in Waiehu, Maui and played in the sweet potato patches. He used to lomilomi his feet every night before he went to bed. He also chewed his food 100 times before swallowing. He lived to be 97 years old.

 

Before marriage, they were both in the military. I was born and raised in Halawa Heights/Aiea. Halawa Heights is a ridge above Pearl Harbor.  We would drive through fields and fields of sugar cane which is now all homes. We lived in a little subdivision on the top, just below the gigantic lighted cross at the military Camp Smith. (The cross has since been replaced with an American flag due to atheists). My Mom would say "the way of the cross leads home." We were taught to speak good English.  When we spoke Pidgin English we were scolded and corrected immediately. I didn't know then that there was state law prohibiting the Hawaiian language from being spoken or taught. This was not repealed until 1985.

 

JT: Is lomilomi a tradition in your family?

BL:  Yes, my Tutu-lady, aunt, and mom would all teach me. Later on when I learned more about tradition from the kupuna (elders), I found out that the elders and parents would watch the children to see who would take an interest. I find myself doing that too - noticing which of the children seem interested.

 

I love talking to all the kupuna and listening to their stories. They tell you all the huna (secrets) through stories.  You can't just learn it on a video. You have to get it from your kumu (teacher) or the kahuna (the expert in a profession). When I teach, I have a lot of stories.

 

I first attended the Hawaiian Island School of Body Therapies where I had to learn their style of lomilomi from a haole (Caucasian) man. That was hard because of all the lomi I already knew.  I then apprenticed at a chiropractic office and did massages on patients for 420 hours.  Sometimes I would work for 10 hours a day, unaware that apprenticeship hours could include administrative work.

 

I moved to Maui to help open the Grand Wailea Spa and found that your real learning doesn't start until after you get your license.  Maui was my spiritual and massage college.  That's where I learned a lot of different techniques. While on Maui I was asked to start teaching lomilomi by a kahuna. Not feeling confidant enough, I prayed to God to send me a sign. I was offered not one but two teaching positions at the community college and massage school.

 

JT:  Tell me about Aunty Margaret Machado. 

BL:   When I came back home to Hawaii Island, I worked at Hualalai Spa and trained a month with Aunty Margaret - learning her routine. She also offered an advanced class that I took. She was very loving and had a childlike spirit - a very humble being.  Her teaching was more Christian.  We sang religious songs. For me it was very spiritual. I took her class after I was licensed for 6 years. Aunty Margaret's motto was "Lomilomi is prayerful work. Lomilomi is a loving touch."

 

JT: You also studied Hawaiian healing with Papa Henry Auwae.

BL: Papa Auwae's La'au Lapa'au classes were very reverent and respectful. His presence commanded it. He was the head of all the la'au lapa'au healers in Hawaii. He knew 5 different dialects of the Hawaiian language. He told us history and stories not written or recorded in books. These few lines cannot even begin to reveal all that he taught us as haumana (students). He hanai (adopted) us all into his family. His motto was, "Healing is 80% spiritual and 20% the la'au (plants)." I feel so privileged to have studied under him. Underneath his rough exterior was a tender loving heart for his haumana and all people."

 

JT:  What is Lomilomi Hula™?

BL:  When I went to work at the Grand Wailea Spa - I would bring my little CD player and play the Cazimero Brothers' songs. My older sister had drama class with Robert Cazimero, and their plays at Kamehameha Schools were musicals. Robert would play the piano and sing with his beautiful tenor voice. After awhile I choreographed a routine to the Best of The Brothers Cazimero album. We couldn't dance hula when I was growing up.  So for me, doing lomi on the body to music is like doing the hula.

 

I was hired as co-Kahu (keeper) of the Mauna Lani Spa. Our Spa Creator Sylvia Sepielli let me create the Hawaiian treatments that were truly traditional: like opu huli (turned stomach) and puolo pa'akai(salt bags)  Lomilomi Hula™ is currently only offered at the Mauna Lani Spa and the clients all  rave about it!