Essential oils have long been used to aid ailments and offer natural relief for a variety of health concerns. But harnessing the power of a Native Hawaiian fern may be a lesser-known practice to most. The traditional Hawaiian phrase la‘au lapa‘au means to utilize medicinal treatments to heal the body, mind and spirit. Ancient Hawaiians saw this as a way of life and today those practices have been passed down from generation to generation. Ke‘oni Hanalei is a notable practitioner of this holistic approach who credits his grandmother with teaching and inspiring him to perpetuate this legacy and knowledge. The Maui resident, who adheres to strict protocols for harvesting and implementing his la‘au lapa‘au is sharing the key elements of his culture, teachings and pays homage to his ancestors who came before him. 

“Mainly my grandmother, Kau‘ikeonalani, was the one who taught me the medicine and the methods of extraction and what they mean. My grandmother was taught by hers and so forth and so on and if you look back my lineage goes back 1,017 generations. This has been a ritual and a tradition that has been held in our ‘ohana since the founder of the current lineage,” Hanalei explains. 

After initiating a more expected life path, earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree, Hanalei initially began his professional career as an educator in both elementary and high school. But it wasn’t until 2015-2017 that he opted to transition his purpose by identifying what made him most happy and immensely gratified. Thus, the realization that the teachings of his kupuna needed to be perpetuated. 

“I would have visions of my grandmother and her hands and then I realized that’s my kiakahi (purpose), I began to change my life, I took a leap of faith and launched a website (pohala.net) and it just really grew, and it does because it is my kiakahi and it is fluid for me.” 

The creator of PōHALA, an esoteric Hawaiian Botanical Medicine apothecary based on Maui, he harnesses the healing properties of more than 50 endemic and indigenous Hawaiian ferns. To say the endemic Hawaiian fern, of which there are hundreds of species, is special is quite an understatement. From the start of its existence hundreds of millions of years ago, ferns flourished in tropical climates such as rainforests, swamps and eventually in the Hawaiian Islands. From a research perspective, ferns are important and notable because they have retained a primitive lifecycle, remain unchanged in growth phases, and most ferns are homosporous meaning they are fully independent in reproduction. But to Hanalei the fern is meaningful and much more than just a special plant. 

“The ferns hold emotional intelligence and are the only species on the planet to achieve evolutionary stasis; meaning that something that has reached homeostasis is not evolving anymore and it doesn’t need to evolve.” 

Harvested from the islands of Kaua‘i and Maui, Hanalei utilizes traditional Native Hawaiian ceremony to properly forage for the ferns. A thorough and complicated process it can take hours on foot traversing many miles to locate a fern that is ready, then another hour or so to wait for the plant to offer permission to be plucked and the proper protocol to receive it. 

“When you harvest, you always receive with your left hand and the proper protocol as far as mohai (offering) you don’t need to bring anything really, you receive and you put your saliva, or DNA, and offer it to where you broke off. So there is no higher mohai than your DNA.”

Once received, the process toward extracting the essential oils from the ferns is also complex and can be created by distillation, tincture maceration all the while incorporating Hawaiian chanting to oversee the process. Although Hanalei has modernized some of the practice to include a pre-recording and speaker to chant over the essential oils. “I prefer to do things in small batches and my dialogue with the la‘au lapa‘au must remain through the whole process.”

In the end, the oils derived from this vascular plant, which can be ingested, are meant to offer topical healing properties. “And especially fern medicine, it has everything to do with emotional healing. There are 103 native and endemic Hawaiian ferns that also correlate to 103 human emotions. So especially when I work privately with people and we wala‘au (talk) about certain disruptions in the field, we can locate what emotional qualities perhaps need to be resolved, extracted or even exaggerated… Because perhaps they are in a sense of dormancy, and so that’s when you can wear the oils as a way to extract and highlight that emotional quality.”

Pohala, which means to awake, be healed and ascend is the business name Hanalei created to illuminate the purpose of healing and sharing his botanicals with others. He offers mentorships, one-on-one sessions and a wide variety of fern essence products including hydrosols for rest, grace and innovation. Along with spagyric tinctures, massage oils and body fragrances for acceptance, courage and grief just to name a few. 

The product is light and offers a sweet floral yet subtle fresh earthy forest fragrance depending on the blend. Placed on the skin, ingested, used for massage or as a mist… the various products each have their own speciality and significant purpose. A visit to see what is offered online is really eye opening to understand the essential oils he creates and its ideal use. 

As la‘au lapa‘au suggests, using medicinal remedies for mind, body and spirit is a fascinating and a completely personalized experience. We can all agree this Native Hawaiian-harvested,-created and-made product is remarkably exceptional, extremely unique and not found anywhere else in the world. And this labor of love for Hanalei is essentially a way of devoting his life’s purpose to perpetuating the work of his kupuna and honoring the legacy of his beloved grandmother.