by Audrey McAvoy
Associated Press
Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, one of the curators of the Bishop Museum’s new Kapaemahu exhibit, poses in Honolulu on Thursday, June 16, 2022, for a photo of four therapists who visited Hawaii from Tahiti more than 500 years ago. The exhibition draws attention to the stories of therapists who are “mahu” or individuals who represent themselves as a mixture of male and female, and highlights the deep roots of gender fluidity in Polynesia. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)
HONOLULU (AP) — More than 500 years ago, Hawaiians placed four boulders on Waikiki Beach in honor of visitors from the court of a Tahiti king who healed the sick.
They are “mahu,” which in the Hawaiian language and culture refers to a person of dual spirit and mixed gender.
The stones were neglected for years as Christian missionaries and other colonial Westerners suppressed the Mahu’s role in Hawaiian society. At one point, a bowling alley was built on the boulder.
Officials have restored the stones several times since the 1960s, but information boards installed next to them ignore references to mahu.
The stones and the history of the four healers are now on display at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. The exhibition highlights the deep roots of Polynesian gender fluidity.
Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu is mahu and one of the curators of the exhibition. She said therapists were revered for their skills and hoped their stories would show Hawaiian children that “proper Hawaiian culture” doesn’t judge those who “have an element of duality.”
“They are respected and respected because people know that their dual identities as male and female make them stronger therapists,” Wong-Kalu said.
Kapaemahu is the leader of the four healers and the exhibition is titled The Healing Stones of Kapaemahu. Like all Hawaiian stories, their stories were passed down orally until a written language was developed in the 1800s.
But Hawaiians discourage talking about mahu. Christian missionaries who arrived in 1820 forbade any deviation from the “clearly defined roles and presentations” of the male and female genders, said DeSoto Brown, a historian at the Bishop Museum and the exhibition’s lead curator.
The earliest known written record of a mahu healer is a 1906 manuscript by James Alapuna Harbottle Boyd, son-in-law of Archibald Cleghorn, who owned the Waikiki property where the stone was at the time. Cleghorn’s wife, Princess Lakelick, and daughter, Princess Keulani, are known to place seaweed on stones and pray while they swim.
Boyd’s manuscript, “The Tradition of the Ka-Pae-Mahu Philosopher’s Stone,” states that the people of Hawaii loved these healers because of their “tall and well-mannered” and their healing methods were famous on Oahu.
“Their demeanor and robust physique are overshadowed by their low, soft speech, and they blend in with those they come into contact with,” Boyd wrote. “They are inherently genderless, and their habits match female appearance. , albeit masculine in stature and general demeanor.”
When it was time for healers to leave, four boulders were brought down from the Kemuki area of Oahu. Two of them were placed on the site of the therapist’s hut, while the others were bathed in sea water. Under each stone is placed an idol representing the dual spirit of the healer.
Many Hawaiians grew up without understanding the Hawaiian concept of the Hawaiian language, or the concept of stones, because the American businessmen who overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 banned the teaching of Hawaiian in schools and discouraged its use at home.
Generations of Hawaiians have lost touch with cultural traditions.
Wong-Kalu, 50, said she was forced to believe that mahu was a derogatory term as a child. She remembers being one of those people who would sit on rocks and put towels over them after swimming, ignoring their importance.
Mahu resembles the “dual spirit” common in many Native American cultures, Wong-Kalu said, adding that there are physical, emotional, spiritual and spiritual aspects to being a mahu. The representation of men and women is up to the individual, she said.
“In Hawaii, a person could really exist in the middle,” she said.
Just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the stones were all but lost. At the time, the Honolulu Star reported that the boulder would be blown up or demolished after developers leased the Craighorn property to build a bowling alley.
Following the outcry, plans emerged to build concrete walkways between the stones. But developers instead build on them.
The stones were discovered two decades later when the city demolished buildings to create a public beach park. The elders recalled the story of the stone and urged them to stay. The city agreed and produced a plaque that mentioned Tahitian healers, but didn’t say they were Mahu.
In 1997, the city walled the stone and erected a new plaque. Nor does it mention mahu.
During both periods, waves of homophobia and transphobia swept Honolulu. In the 1960s, a new state law outlawed drag, and police forced drag performers to wear a button that read, “I’m a boy.” Thirty years later, when the Hawaii Supreme Court upheld same-sex couples seeking the right to marry, there was a backlash in Hawaii and across the country.
The Bishop Museum exhibit, which will be on view through October 16, tells this history and showcases artifacts such as massage sticks and drug mashers used by healers centuries ago. The islanders’ concept of gender fluidity is explored through stories such as King Kamehameha III and his male lover.
A map showing terms used in Polynesia for those who do not identify with masculinity or femininity, including “fa’afafine” in Samoa and “leiti” in Tonga.
Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson helped curate the exhibit and hope it inspires the city to tell the full story of the mahu on the stone site.
Ian Scheuring, a spokesman for Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, said the city is looking into the issue and local leaders plan to meet with members of the LGBTQ and Native Hawaiian communities to learn how they can help tell the therapist’s “true and complete” story.
Tatiana Kalaniopua Young, a Native Hawaiian anthropologist, mahu, and director of the Hawaiian LGBT Heritage Foundation, said the stone and the therapist helped her family understand that she was not “this strange, unconventional creature.” Hawaiian feeling, she’s part of the norm.
“It gave me a sense of place and purpose as a mahu, and it made me proud to be Kanaka Maoli or Native Hawaiian,” she said.
