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For the second year in a row, the Hawai`i Healing Garden Festival will cap its four-island tour on Nov. 1-2 at the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethno-Botanical Garden in Captain Cook.
As Hawai`i's only statewide collaborative health and green festival, the event will provide the opportunity for residents and visitors to "enjoy a dynamic series of multicultural events exploring healthy living in Hawai`i," said co-founder Katie Fisher.
Fisher, along with co-founder Michael Saiz, are the backbone behind the online Hawai`i Health Guide, from which the healing festivals were formed. Debuting on Kauai four years ago, the Garden Festival was the result of "finding a common denominator among people of different cultures," Fisher explained. Essentially the co-founders wanted to know what was a collective topic that the people from diverse ethnic backgrounds in Hawai`i talk about. The answer: medicinal plants.
This common thread tied together Hawai`i's Polynesian, Hawaiian, Chinese, Ayurvedic and Filipino cultures, enabling the sharing of the cultural use of medicinal plants and healing arts.
The vision became to share knowledge of Hawaii's rich botanical treasures and cultural traditions through the vehicles of educators, health practitioners, botanists, gardeners, cultural practitioners, health food dietitians and chefs. Fisher and Saiz then swept up local artists, musicians and performers to form an all-encompassing educational health fair. The 2008 series has been running through the islands of Kauai, O`ahu and Maui since June, spreading the message of nurturing hearty environments and creating strong communities.
Standard events of the Garden Festival include cultural healing arts demonstrations, concerts, healthy food, workshops, tours, Hawaiian cultural immersion and cooking classes. Some of the highlights of the festival: herbalists, acupuncture, massage; Wiggly Worm farming; Little Green Thumbs children's' programs; Chinese Tea & Qi; edible lei contest; unique products and plants; and hula and cultural entertainment.
The seeds of the festival have spread over the years as residents of each island have partnered with festival coordinators to develop specific participatory exhibits, location-based tours and specialized island workshops.
Fisher noted that the festival would not be what it is today without the botanical gardens, organic farms, restaurants, universities, organizations, private residents and businesses from the Hawai`i Island community. Last year, the first year in which the Garden Festival came to the orchid isle, the event was deemed a success.
"We received a lot of positive feedback," said Fisher, who noted that popular presenters included lapa lapa`au teacher Butch Richards and vegan chef Todd Dacey. "We had a lot of people come out to the festival, both residents and visitors."
This year the festival, which will be divided into Saturday's Festival Celebration and Sunday's Workshop and Tour Day and Healthy Tennis Workshop, will feature a number of topics specific to this island as well as some first-time mainland workshop educators.
Specialized Hawai`i Island presentations will include a demonstration with Jan Ellison and Darlene Bartlett on vog remedies, as well as a workshop called "Taro Talk" with Jerry Konanui.
A highlight of this year's festival will be the "Amazon Medicine Workshop: Healing the Heart of the Jungle," with ethno-botanical researcher Jerome River Black of Amazon Therapeutic Laboratories. Black will teach about the botanical medicines of the Amazon rainforest and Andes Mountains, detailing the healing secrets he's discovered from the region. Black will offer an interactive and informative workshop, touching upon specific modalities and the traditional medicine treatments such as intense immunities for therapeutic support, nourishing tonics and first aid remedies.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to sample and familiarize themselves with herb extracts and formulas from the founder of Herbs America and Maca Magic --- the first group to cultivate and distribute live maca root plants in the United States. [Black's free presentation will take place on Saturday and a half day workshop will take place Sunday for $25.]
Other free events festival-goers can look forward to begin Saturday with the Healthy Hawai`i Expo, featuring healthy and green vendors, natural products and organic goods. Nonprofit organizations will display information booths and educational experts will present short lectures. On Sunday, there will be in-depth workshops of from Black, Konanui and organic farmer Adam Trujillo as well as garden tours at Amy Greenwell. A tennis workshop will be held in Kailua-Kona in the afternoon.
For Fisher and Saiz, the Garden Festival's focus on the many multicultural traditional uses of medicinal and nutritional plants through personal health and healing is what they hope attendees will take away from the event.
"We hope the Big Island community really gets something out of this," said Fisher who feels the festival will empower the community with positive attitudes and behavior while nurturing a sustainable relationship with the environment. "We really want to convey [the idea] that food and plants are medicine."
The Hawai`i Healing Garden Festivals are presented by Hawai`i Health Guide (HawaiiHealthGuide.com) and supported by the Forward Foundation, Hawai`i Tourism Authority, Bishop Museum, Waimea Valley, National Tropical Botanical Gardens, University of Hawai`i, Malama Kauai, Maui Community College, The Sustainable Living Institute of Maui, Amy Greenwell Ethno-Botanical Garden and many other local businesses and individuals.
For more Information on the Hawai`i Healing Garden Festival, go to http://www.HawaiiHealingGarden.com or (808) 638-0888.
Healing Festival schedule
Saturday Nov 1:
Festival Celebration Day
Amy Greenwell Ethno-Botanical Gardens
8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
* Arbor Day: Free Tree Giveaway & Plant Sale: 8:30 a.m.-noon
* Lei Contest: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
* Play Tennis: 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Pick up a racket and foam tennis ball and play tennis on the lawn with your family, neighbor, friends and Leilani Magee, tennis teaching professional. All equipment provided.
* Health Fair - Vendor Booths and Main Stage Presentations: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
* Food is Medicine: 9-10 a.m. with Randyl Rupar of Sanctuary of Mana Ke'a Gardens & Greg Smith of Earth Matters Farm present simple methods of choosing, planting, and preparing medicinal and delicious tasting foods and herbs.
* VOG Remedies: 10-11 a.m. with Janice Ellison L.Ac. DOM, will speak about important remedies for VOG exposure and Darlene Barrett of D. Medicine Woman, will share remedies for alleviating VOG and respiratory symptoms.
* Taro Talk: 11 a.m.-noon with Jerry Konanui of UH Hilo Tropical Agriculture Dept, covering Taro Identification, growing taro today, and Hawai`i County Bill 361, Ban of GE Taro and GE Coffee on Hawai`i Island.
* Kaleo Phillips of Pono: Noon-12:00-1:00 p.m., Hawaiian Slack Key Music
* Undress Your Salad: 1:00-1:45 p.m. with Dodi Rose of "Dodi-Liscious" demonstrates easy to make healthy and delicious salad dressings.
* Divine Deserts: 1:45-2:30 p.m. demonstration and tasting with vegan chef Todd Dacey author of "Vegan Inspiration" Cookbook.
* Amazon Medicine: Healing From the Heart of the Jungle Part I: 2:30-3:30 p.m. the Healing from the Heart of the Jungle workshop with Jerome Black, learn the amazing medicines and super foods of the Amazon.
* The New Noni Farm: Canceled
* Kaleo Phillips of Pono: 4-5p.m. Hawaiian Slack Key Music-
Sunday, Nov 2: Workshop & Tour Day
* Healthy Tennis Workshop: 2-4 p.m. Held at Holua Tennis Center in Kailua-Kona. Learn to use breath to handle pressure and to avoid "choking" in match play. Utilize techniques from Ayurvedic Self Massage to prepare for and recover from exercise. Pure, golden, cold pressed medicinal Black Sesame Seed Oil provided at no additional charge. Workshop led by Leilani Magee, Principal of Hawaiian Isles Tennis, and award winning tennis teaching professional, a committed community organizer, national coach and the '08 HI Grand Prix Women's Champion. Workshop fees apply.
* Amy Greenwell - Workshops & Tours: Community Taro-Kalo Planting: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. This free event will be divided into morning and afternoon sessions with a lunch talk story from noon to 1 p.m. Join Jerry Konanui for the community workshop and out-planting of Hawaiian kalo at Amy Greenwell Botanical Garden. Learn about varieties and uses of Hawaiian kalo and planting in rows and mounding (puepue) through this hands on learning workshop.
* Transitioning to Organics: Organic Farming Workshop: Time: 9 a.m. - Noon. Free event. Adam Trujillo presents the fundamentals of organic agricultural techniques, monoculture, permaculture, bio-dynamic farming, soil types and distribution He will also cover in the free workshop topics on food forests, edible landscape design, and off grid solutions as well as what is organic? NOP 1990 Organic Standards, Organic System Plan, Fertility Management, Composting, mulching and inputs, disease and pest management, erosion control, harvesting, handling and marketing, human ecological footprint, desertification and thrivability. Includes 30 minutes of Q&A.
Healing From the Heart of the Jungle Part II - Workshop: 1-4 p.m. $25.
* Amazon Medicine Workshop: Learn to use Botanical Medicines of the Amazon rainforest and Andes Mountains, with Jerome River Black, Ethno-botanical researcher of Amazon Therapeutic Laboratories (ATL). $25.
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