Hawaiian lomilomi

Character

A manual-care tradition within Native Hawaiian culture, with different lineages and styles and an emphasis on practitioner responsibility, ethics and community relationships. [1]

History & heritage

University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu courses teach lomilomi alongside Indigenous knowledge, values and lineage. Waimānalo Health Center includes it in cultural health services. These records describe living practice, not a single ancient founder. [1] [2]

Objects in a museum record

Bishop Museum’s 2022 exhibition The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu placed lomilomi within a wider Hawaiian cultural account of healing. Its description included nineteenth-century massage implements alongside examples of herbal medicines. This is a specific record of objects and their museum interpretation. It does not date the beginning of lomilomi or establish that every present-day practice uses the same tools. [5]

A named account of learning

In a 2021 University of Hawaiʻi oral-history interview, Carol Malina Kaulukukui names Richard Likeke Paglinawan as one of her Lua teachers. She later identifies Richard and his wife, Lynette Paglinawan, as her mentors in hoʻoponopono. She mentions lomilomi while explaining connections between fighting and healing in that account. Her recollection gives a named, personal context for transmission; it is not a genealogy of every lomilomi school or proof of clinical effects. [6]

Learning includes responsibility

The University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu course description links practical lomilomi learning with kuleana, or practitioner responsibility. It includes ethics, reflection, cooperation and community service, alongside attention to different styles and lineages. This offers a concrete example of teaching beyond a sequence of strokes. It describes that educational setting, rather than a universal curriculum or a guarantee about any practitioner. [1]

Techniques

Seated neck-and-shoulder and whole-body forms exist; methods vary with lineage and setting. One flowing-forearm spa routine cannot represent every lomilomi style. [1]

Discuss training, proposed methods and draping. Seek clinical advice about health concerns, communicate discomfort and request changes or stop at any time. [3] [4]

Evidence and limitations

University teaching and community services establish cultural context and use, not disease-specific efficacy. Spiritual, relational or energy language should be attributed to the tradition. [1] [2]

Sources

27 draft entries in this language · Site supports 20 languages · Independent specialist and native-language review pending