Hoʻoponopono

What it is

The word is built from pono, which carries the sense of what is good, upright and in proper order. The hoʻo prefix turns that noun into an action, so hoʻoponopono means making something right again, or making it good. Native Hawaiian healers and relatives use it within the extended family, where the most senior member usually takes the lead. It is more than an apology. Those taking part look for the cause of the trouble, say it aloud, and then release it, so the family can continue together with the matter behind them.

Older roots

In old Hawaiʻi, sickness was often understood as the result of breaking kapu, the sacred rules. Early Hawaiian historians recorded that a sick person could not be made well until the wrong was atoned for, sometimes with help from a praying priest (kahuna pule) or a healing priest (kahuna lapaʻau). Mary Kawena Pukui, born in 1895, wrote down what she had seen as a child and published it in 1958. The scholar Nana Veary described hoʻoponopono as part of ancient Hawaiʻi, and oral histories from Hawaiian elders support this. Other Polynesian islands hold related beliefs about wrongdoing and sickness.

How a session runs

An elder calls the family together and opens with prayer. Someone states the problem, and the relatives talk it through. Silence may be kept so that people can sit with tangled feelings and hurts. Each person's feelings are acknowledged. Then come confession, repentance and forgiveness. Everyone lets each other go, an act called kala, and the past is cut off, ʻoki. To close, the family shares a ceremonial feast named pani, at which limu kala, a seaweed, is often eaten as a sign of release. Where a family cannot settle a matter alone, a respected outsider is asked to help.

Modern forms

In 1976 Morrnah Simeona, a kahuna lapaʻau, reshaped the practice for present-day life, widening it beyond a single family and turning it into a solo, inward process rather than a group one. Her teaching drew on her Christian schooling and on her reading about India, China and Edgar Cayce, and it describes problems as the fruit of negative karma. She used a fourteen-step process and no mantras. Later, psychologist Ihaleakala Hew Len, who first studied with her in 1982, taught a version he called Self-I-Dentity thru Hoʻoponopono, or SITH. With Joe Vitale he wrote Zero Limits in 2007, setting out the idea of a zero state and of taking full responsibility for everything in one's life.

Today

Hoʻoponopono also has a public side. From the late twentieth century, courts in Hawaiʻi began sending young and adult offenders to an elder who would conduct it with their families as an alternative to the usual court process, with the family choosing a practitioner from a court-approved list. Some Native practitioners offer it to people who might otherwise seek family counselling. Malia Craver, known as Aunty, taught traditional hoʻoponopono for over thirty years with the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children's Centers and spoke about it at the United Nations in 2000. Seminars in Simeona's lineage continue in Germany, Poland, France and Denmark.

How Hoʻoponopono is kept

The most senior family member gathers the relatives and begins with prayer. The trouble is named and discussed, and silence may be held while feelings settle. Each person is heard. Confession, repentance and forgiveness follow, then mutual release (kala) and a cutting off of the past (ʻoki). A feast called pani closes the session, often with limu kala eaten to mark the letting go. If the family is stuck, a respected outsider is brought in. Some families meet daily or weekly, others only when someone becomes ill.

When and where

There is no fixed date. Some families hold it every day or every week so that small grievances do not grow into large ones. Others call it only when a member falls ill, since sickness is often read as a sign that anger, guilt or an unsettled quarrel is still alive in the household.

The practice belongs to Hawaiʻi, where Native Hawaiian families and healers keep it. Related rites of confession and putting things right are found in other parts of the South Pacific, among them Samoa, Tahiti, New Zealand, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and the Cook Islands. From the late twentieth century, versions shaped by Morrnah Simeona spread further, with seminars held in Germany, Poland, France and Denmark.

What Hoʻoponopono means

Pono sits at the centre of it: what is correct, upright and in good order. To keep hoʻoponopono is to hold that a wrong left unspoken keeps its power, and that saying it aloud, together with forgiveness, takes that power away. The release works two ways, letting go of other people and cutting off the past, so that old harm stops shaping the family's future. Many treat the spirit of aloha as essential to the practice. At a University of Hawaiʻi-West Oʻahu event, Dr. Manu Aluli Meyer spoke of healing the collective with aloha.

Questions people ask about Hoʻoponopono

See also

KarakiaMāori incantations and prayers recited for spiritual guidance, safety and ceremonySweat lodgeA purification ceremony kept by Indigenous peoples of the Americas using a heated hut and steam.Twelfth NightThe closing evening of the Christmas season, kept with cake, carols and wassailJack-o'-lanternA carved pumpkin lantern lit with a candle to brighten and protect Halloween nights

Good reading and sources

• Hoʻoponopono on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.