A few years ago, we introduced many of our readers to Huna Kane (hoonah kahnay), a traditional Hawaiian massage and breathing practice that was beginning to make waves on the mainland of North America. Our extensive 1997 interview with Nicki Katchur – who brought Huna Kane to Winnipeg – is reprinted here in the next column.

Nicki has since returned to "The Big Island," but not without leaving a few students behind. In the following article, her protégé Monique Southam lets us in on her own life-changing discovery of Huna Kane.

By Monique Southam

To Hawaiians, the ancient spiritual technique of Huna Kane literally means "the inner knowing of the Higher Self." Like a massage and a counselling session rolled up into one, Huna Kane helps a person clear emotional baggage and discover their inner wisdom. The result is greater balance, peace, and harmony. For me, Huna Kane has meant a whole new way of life.

My first encounter with Huna Kane came in 1997 when I was invited to a demonstration by Nicki Katchur. At the time, I had spent several months on a healing journey from stress that had almost reached the point of burnout. As we watched a volunteer receive the full Huna Kane massage, the rest of us were invited to do "the Ha breath": in through the nose and out through the mouth with a big sigh. Haaaaaa . . . We were encouraged to imagine that the ha outbreath is sending back to God (Creator, the Source of All That Is . . .) all those things that are no longer necessary or useful in our lives. The void created within us by that release could then be filled with the healing, loving light of the Higher Power. 

I listened, breathed – and cried. Nothing had ever had such an impact on me. I promptly began Huna Kane sessions and workshops. 

While massaging their clients' bodies, Huna Kane practitioners speak to their clients' unconscious minds, subtly inviting them to release limiting beliefs associated with different parts of the body. Throughout, the clients do the Ha breath. Sandra Michael, the American healer who helped revive Huna Kane in Hawaii twelve years ago and taught my own teacher, Nicki Katchur, has developed a body map that shows just where specific emotions are held. For example, control issues are generally held in the shoulder area. When massaging it, the practitioner invites the client to replace control issues with a willingness to go with the flow.

In August of 1997, on the third day of my first Huna Kane retreat on the shores of Lake Manitoba, I was receiving massage with other students on the front of our bodies. For the stomach area, the Huna Kane dialogue says: "Think of the things that you can’t stomach in your life." 

Well . . . I threw up! There was no time to excuse myself and leave the room – just time to grab a bucket. Thankfully, my embarrassment was short-lived. I was simply accepted for who I was; no one judged me. But I was left to wonder: "What is it that I cannot stomach in my life?"

The answer arrived a few days later. We had been practising the Dance of Creation (the basic movements of Huna Kane massage) in the grass and I had nearly stepped on a frog. Frogs had always been repulsive to me, primarily because when I was a teenager a group of boys thought it might be great fun to throw one at me. Throwing that frog at me was a minor incident, but it had affected me deeply. After the dance, we moved on to a different exercise. And then it hit me. I am the frog. I cannot stand me. 

I began to laugh hysterically. You see, French-Canadians are sometimes derogatively referred to as "frogs," and I'm a French-Canadian. I now had another question: "What is it about me that I cannot stand?" This marked the beginning of months of self-study. And with each new discovery, my self-esteem grew. I began to make positive changes in my life. One of those changes came in the spring of 1999 when I retired as a classroom teacher to become a full-time practitioner of Huna Kane.

I am truly blessed to be able to walk this path of ceaseless love. As one of my clients has put it: 

I am never so centred, so grounded within myself as I am after a Huna Kane session. It’s as close as I’ve ever come to experiencing the very essence of myself and who I am. I feel so loved, so peaceful, knowing that all is right with my world.

Huna Kane has come to Winnipeg in the energetic form of Nicolette (Nicki) Katchur. Winnipeggers have come to know Nicki through private body work sessions, advanced massage therapy classes, high ceremonies, and Canadian and Hawaiian Retreats. Nicki is currently planner two summer week-long lakeside rejuvenation vacations and two family fun river camps here in Canada. In January she is offering guided tours to Hawaii. Editor of the Aquarian, Anna Olson interviewed Nicki to find out more about the origins and practice of Huna Kane.

Nicki: I received my initial degree as a licensed massage therapist from Santa Barbara School of Massage in California back in 1977. While managing a full service salon in Kauai, I took many advanced classes in acupressure, reflexology, polarity, chakras, rebirthing and underwater birth of babies. My son was born underwater in a geothermal pool. I moved to the Big Island of Hawaii in I984 and began hosting sister circles and sweat lodges.

Nicki: By being exposed to so many different therapies, my path led me to study metaphysical customs of ancient people. I was intrigued by the underlying causes of illness and health. I sat for thirty days in silent meditation, called vipassana. My personal soul growth flourished. Over the next few years. I was initiated as a water pourer for healing sweat lodges and went on a seven day vision quest. This experience created such profound positive change for me that I love to facilitate others on these same quests.

Nicki: It is the name of an ancient Hawaiian science for healing which was active for at least a thousand years up until the 1930s. In Hawaiian, it means "consciously knowing the inner higher self."
 

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Nicki: Just living on an active volcano island has its rewards. Naturally, I absorbed a lot of the Hawaiian culture. I became intrigued with Huna Kane, so I attended six intensive trainings with Sandra Michael. I received my Mastery Level in the Dance of Creation, Kofutu (a meditation used for fine tuning healers' hands), and High Altaring. Over that three-year period, I managed logistics for Sandra's trainings and taught certain portions of the class. I recorded many of her teachings for use as visual teaching tools including the Emotional Body Map.

Nicki: Like me, Sandra has an extensive background in the rebirthing field. She also seemed to have a natural hands-on healing ability. While on vacation on the Big Island, she was naturally drawn to seek out any remaining kahunas, or Hawaiian shamans or medicine people, who, by the early 1980s, were very old. There were very few younger apprentices at that time. Sandra began to have dreams which attracted her to visit ancient sacred sites called heiaus. She also dreamed about a dance. She told the kahunas her dreams, which inspired them to take more interest in her as an apprentice. She was invited to an old war heiau for a rededication ceremony to lift all the kapus, laws that had been keeping Huna secret.

This was the first time in the history of the Hawaiians that the Dance of Creation was seen by a caucasian. It had always been forbidden and secret. No one before this was allowed to see the dance or learn the chants, except Hawaiian royalty. As Sandra watched a high priestess in the Order of Kane dance up to a 300-foot high heiau, she realized that her dreams and this dance were similar.

Sandra searched out the foremost authority on Hawaiian dance, a kahuna named George Niaope. He is the founder of an event called the Merry Monarch Festival. This event is now a huge success, drawing dancers from all over the Pacific Islands to perform in this incredible exhibition. George is directly responsible for reawakening the traditions and culture for the Hawaiian people. After the rededication ceremony, George began tutoring Sandra for many years, teaching her chants and the philosophy behind I Huna. He is still teaching in Kona.

Winnipeg' John Tozeland of Trance-Action Consultants learned to chant from George Naiope as well. John uses the chanting in his private practice and trainings in hypnotherapy. He has recorded chants on a cassette that comes with a booklet in Hawaiian and English. We both teach from the same foundation in Huna – John with expertise in chanting, or lono, and me with the dance applied as a body treatment, or kane.

Nicki: Huna refers to inner wisdom. Kane refers to the higher self being connected to the body through the Dance of Creation. The dance can then be applied to another body as a hands-on healing.

The study of lono connects the higher self to the mind through chanting. Lono also applies to the study of herbal healing remedies. These customs were active for at least a thousand years until the turn of the century. Much like the aboriginals of Canada, the Hawaiians were prohibited from practising their culture when missionaries arrived.

I feel it must have been a wise act of foresight that inspired the remaining kahunas to lift the kapus in the 80s and "Let these words fly." They surely had the betterment of all mankind in their heart. By lifting those kapus, they allow anyone with a genuine appreciation for the teachings an opportunity to learn and teach.

Nicki: In the 1930s, an author named Max Freedom Long was the first caucasian to research the old customs and traditions of the kahunas. Long had been intrigued by stories of kahunas walking on coals and healing broken bones with their hands in minutes while chanting over the person's body. Since no kahunas were able at that time to actually reach him because of the kapu, he thought they must all be dead. He went to great lengths to explain how they did it from an analytical point of view. His books are written like a scientific thesis, corroborating his conclusions with volumes of references, some dating back as far as ancient Egypt.

Nicki: After much research, he broke the secret code of the old language of symbols and found the significance of the sounds in certain sequences. Long felt he had made sense of the "other" message the sounds were conveying.

Long found that four elements were essential for learning and healing. First, a natural willingness or desire of the prospective student was essential. Also the student needed the correct intention to do good for others. Second, the Dance of Creation brought in balance (or pono). Third, the "Ha" breath oxygenates and flushes toxic waste from the tissues of the body. Fourth, the chants help to attract the life force, or mana.

Nicki: In Hawaii, a guard would be stationed at the entrance to the schools of Kane and Lono. He would ask the prospective student if he or she was ready to die. What the guard meant was to "die" to the old ways of being that no longer served the person. It would definitely scare off the indecisive or someone with bad intentions.

Nicki: The Dance of Creation links the dancer to direct information about what is out of balance in his or her body. As a person dances, the body begins to react by becoming tight or painful in any area that is holding unconscious negative emotion. By using the Body Map, he or she can identify the specific emotion responsible for the imbalance.

Nicki: The Ha breath is also a connected rhythmic breath, much like the rebirthing breath, except instead of breathing in and out of the mouth, the person inhales in through the nose and exhales through the mouth with a "Ha" sound or sigh of relief. It is actually easier on the body than rebirthing. It enables the person to expel pain from the tissue with a minimum of physical discomfort.

Most people resist bringing up painful feelings. They fear that dealing with the pain will hurt too much or even kill them. The Ha breath makes the clearing process a lot easier. People are able to go beyond the normal threshold of resistance and experience the relief of releasing suppressed pain.

Nicki: The chants mean more than just the translatable equivalent in English. These chants directly' affect the cortex of the brain which helps attract more mana. It translates to a selfless state of pleasure and oneness with all things in the now moment. You know, that pleasant feeling you get sometimes that makes life worth living?

Nicki: Unless the person wants to become a practitioner, I don't teach them the Dance of Creation as such. Instead, I apply the dance to the body as a massage. As the body is massaged with the Dance, rhythmic spirals begin to deeply penetrate the physical tissue. As the person breathes, using the Ha breath, the body easily clears of pain. These sessions are done on a floor cushion with the client wearing comfortable clothing.

The first session is applied to the back of the body, transforming negative emotions from the past such as anger, guilt, blame, and heartbreak into forgiveness, gratitude for lessons, blessing of self, and unconditional love for others. I always recommend that the clients take hot salt baths, sleep more, and drink a lot of water after their sessions. That promotes the cleansing of toxins and old emotions from the physical tissue.

In the next session, we move on to the front of the body where more confrontational issues are held. We deal with things that have been hard to face, impossible to see or hear, difficult to stomach – or whatever has stopped the person from going forward. We focus on these things to learn the lesson and to rise above it. The body reacts by becoming more relaxed, flexible, and grounded in reality.

After the biggest chunks of unconscious mindsets are lessened, the format changes to High Altaring. This form of Huna Kane is in the original Hawaiian tradition. The client lays face down on a massage table and warm oil is applied to the body. Hawaiian chanting is playing in the background as the Dance is applied to the body with fluid and fast movements. The energy goes up and down the body, opening up all the meridian lines. The person experiences a free flow of life force through the entire circulatory system. High Altaring honours the body as being sacred and innocent again.

Nicki: Yes. My clients are always telling me about insights and clarity they have received during sessions. Usually the state of higher consciousness continues long after the breakthrough and gets more and more solidified during subsequent sessions. People begin to understand themselves more and may have deep realizations about changes they need to make.

Nicki: At present there are about nine people finishing up a year-long apprenticeship in Huna Kane. I also give lectures, demonstrations and advanced massage training for health and wellness organizations. People can also book private sessions with me or with one of my students.

Nicki: Yes. Right now we are offering a Huna Kane Rejuvenation Vacation – one in June and the other in August. I have rented a beautiful lakeside retreat with a huge sundeck that goes out over the lake. It's on 138 acres of wilderness. There is a large sauna on the property as well. This retreat is for adults only, but I am also planning a Family Summer Fun Camp in July and again in August at Waterhen River Lodge.

Nicki : From January to March, 1998, I will be offering tours of the Big Island which will include visits to sacred sites, remote beaches, the volcanos, geothermal pools, jungle fresh water lakes, and snorkeling with turtles and dolphins. Huna Kane body sessions will be offered, as well as classes in the Dance and chanting.

Nicki: I met my husband while he was on vacation in Hawaii and he asked me to come back to Canada with him. I have really enjoyed the open friendly people of Manitoba and the response to Huna Kane has been very positive, so I am happy to stay.