Sacred Herbs
and
botanicals

Keoki Kīkaha Pai Baclayon graduated with his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He was trained in traditional medicine from Kahuna Lā’au Lapaʻau Levon Ohai, Emmett Keao, and the House of Waitata.

Keoki is a lāʻau lapaʻau instructor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He has been teaching lāʻau lapaʻau since 2009 at Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. This path of teaching has taken him to teach in academia as well as in the community. Keoki practices lāʻau lapaʻau at the Waimānalo Health Clinic, which encourages the integration of traditional medicine through their Cultural Health program. and co-instructs the ʻĒwekea Piʻi Moʻo Lā’au Lapaʻau herbal medicine restoration project. He is passionate about personal health sovereignty; unifying the health of our local communities through the sharing and demonstrating of moʻomeheu ola (cultural ways of healthy living), and making everyone a healer in their own homes. In his spare time, Keoki enjoys immersing himself in the things he loves doing. ʻohana-time, distance running, martial arts, creating new remedies in lāʻau lapaʻau, playing any instrument with strings, night diving, star-gazing, reading books on and about life, and eating-to-live.

This presentation teaches participants to understand some critical foundations of traditional Native Hawaiian beliefs through discussing at least one Hawaiian healing paradigm. Basic teachings on the power of self-belief, visualization, and faith will be interwoven in the presentation to help further develop the cultural sensitivity of attendees toward people with similar cultural beliefs.