ABSTRACT
Native Hawaiian and biomedical healing practices are two facets of a complex set of social relationships that give insight into power struggles, transformations in the valuing of specific types of knowledge, and cultural representations of health. A social responsibility framing linked historical and contemporary inequities and held up the ancestors as an integrated model for how to live life. As Hall (1994) noted, we must attend to the place in which the reconstruction of a cultural identity occurs because it influences the meanings and symbols chosen to represent that cultural identity. Kupuna Lily, who is a kahuna l'au lapaau, turns our attention to another feature of Native Hawaiian health by focusing on the importance of eating Hawaiian food. The revitalization of an alternative model of health for on-islanders highlights the subjugation of Native Hawaiian beliefs by colonialism, resistance by Hawaiians, and the ongoing struggle to renew Hawaiian identity through the conceptualization of what it means to be healthy.
