Kahuna (Hawaiian pronunciation: [kɐˈhunə]; Hawaiian: kahuna) is a Hawaiian word that refers to an expert in any field. Historically, it has been used to refer to doctors, surgeons and dentists, as well as priests, ministers, and sorcerers.^[1]

Background

A kahuna may be versed in agriculture,^[2][3] canoe building, or any other skill or knowledge area. They may be called on by the community to bless new buildings and construction projects or to officiate weddings.^[4][5]

Forty types of kahuna are listed in the book Tales from the Night Rainbow, twenty in the healing professions alone, including kahuna lapaʻau, a medical priest or practitioner, and kahuna hāhā, "an expert who diagnoses, as sickness or pain, by feeling the body".^{[citation needed]}

There are several categories of kahuna. A craft kahuna, such as the kālai waʻa is an expert canoe maker, and a hoʻokele is an expert navigator.^{[citation needed]} A kahuna lapaʻau is a "medical doctor, medical practitioner, [or] healer. lit. 'curing expert'".^[6]

Kahuna nui

According to Fornander, there are ten colleges or branches of the Hawaiian priesthood:^[7]

• ʻAnāʻanā, Hoʻopiopio, and Hoʻounāunā were said to practice sorcery, to bring death or injury to others by means of prayer.^[7]
• Hoʻokomokomo and Poʻi ʻUhane were said to use spirits for divination and spirit possession.^[7][8]
• Lapaʻau: one who practices medicinal healing.^[9]
• Kuhikuhi puʻuone (lit. 'to direct divination'): one who locates the site for the construction of heiau, or temples.^[10]
• Kilokilo: one who divines and predicts future events, a prophet.^[11]
• Nānāuli: soothsayers, diviners, prophets.^[7]

To master all ten branches made one a kahuna nui or high priest.^[7] Kahuna nui usually lived in places such as Waimea Valley, which is known as the Valley of the Priests. They were given slices of land that spanned from the mountain to the sea.^[12][13] Hewahewa, a direct descendant of Paʻao, was a kahuna nui to Kamehameha I. A contemporary, Leimomi Moʻokini Lum is a kahuna nui.^[14][15] David Kaonohiokala Bray was a well-known kahuna.^[5]

King Kamehameha IV, in his translation of the Book of Common Prayer, used the term kahuna to refer to Anglican priests, and kahunapule to refer to both lay and ordained Anglican ministers.^{[citation needed]}

Legal status

Craft kahuna were never prohibited; however, during the decline of native Hawaiian culture, many died and did not pass on their wisdom to new students. As an example, when the Hōkūleʻa was built to be sailed to the South Pacific to prove the voyaging capabilities of the ancient Hawaiians, master navigator Mau Piailug from Satawal was brought to Hawaii to teach navigation to the Hawaiians.^[16]

After American missionaries went to Hawaii in 1820, they reportedly prohibited kahuna practices. But, in the 100 years after the missionaries arrived, all kahuna practices were legal until 1831, some were illegal until 1863, all were legal until 1887, and some were illegal until 1919. Since 1919 all have been legal except sorcery, which was initially declared illegal but was decriminalized in 1972.^[17]

The first Christian missionaries arrived in 1820. Kaʻahumanu, one of the most powerful people in the Hawaiian nation, did not convert until 1825. Eleven years after missionaries arrived, she proclaimed laws against hula, chant, kava, and Hawaiian religion.^[18]

Non-Hawaiian uses

The term was used in the 1959 film Gidget, in which "The Big Kahuna", played by Cliff Robertson (Martin Milner in the TV episode), was the leader of a group of surfers. The figure of the Big Kahuna became commonplace in Beach party films of the 1960s, such as Beach Blanket Bingo, in which the Big Kahuna was the best surfer on the beach. Hawaiian surfing master Duke Kahanamoku may have been referred to as the Big Kahuna, but he rejected the term as he knew the original meaning.^[19]

In the New Age spiritual system known as Huna, which uses some Hawaiian words and concepts appropriated from Hawaiian tradition,^[20] kahuna denotes someone of priestly or shamanic standing.^[21] The prevalence of these works in pop culture has influenced definitions in English dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster, which not only defines kahuna as "a preeminent person or thing" but also offers "Hawaiian shaman" as a secondary definition.^[22] Wells College professor Lisa Kahaleole Hall, a Native Hawaiian, wrote in a peer-reviewed journal published by the University of Hawaiʻi that Huna "bears absolutely no resemblance to any Hawaiian worldview or spiritual practice" and calls it part of the "New Age spiritual industry."^[20]