Land that teaches and heals

Growing towards health in Hawaii 

This is an inspiring story of how a neglected area of O’ahu island—‘part illegal dump and part jungle’ —became a key player in a healing revolution: proof that ‘more nature’ really can make us ‘feel better.’  

Ho‘oulu ‘Āina is Hawaiian language for ‘to grow because of the land.’ It's 100 acres of fields bordered by forest, close to a community health centre and for the past twenty years or so, it’s become as important to the healing of the centre’s patients as any pharmaceutical. 

The Kōkua Kalihi Valley health centre’s CEO, Dr David Derauf, realised that many of his patients, especially the native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, were suffering from more than diabetes, arthritis, or depression. They were also experiencing a sickness resulting from disruption of culture and identity caused by a distancing from nature. The increase in urban development and its effect on contemporary lifestyles had damaged and alienated these sacred and life-sustaining ancestral relationships. 

So the centre’s staff looked for somewhere patients could garden, and this is how Ho‘oulu ‘Āina began. Lovingly tended by patients, their families, local community and volunteers, a once a no-go area choked with weeds and refuse now has ‘breadfruit, koa and banana trees, medicinal plants and taro, organic gardens, low-slung buildings, and a tiny apothecary.’ This is where Ho‘oulu ‘Āina’s program director Puni Jackson practises native Hawaiian medicine and sees her patients.

And so glucose levels have dropped among diabetic patients, and people once needing support to walk have dispensed with their canes. Depression has eased in patients of all ages. Local children are no longer afraid to hang out here. Everyone is thriving on the medicine of nature.