Healers

The Festival of the Pacific Arts was larger and more inspiring than anyone expected. Here, we have just finished a prayer and closed a meeting of traditional healers. To the left of the picture is a man from Papua, New Guinea who knew Father Jerome Frey originally of New Orleans, LA. Father Frey is my close friend and spiritual advisor. He is a Marist priest living with the order he founded, The Community of Jesus Christ, Crucified, in Lafayette, LA. Among Fr. Frey's many accomplishments is his work as a missionary in New Guinea. The healer in the picture is renowned all over the world for his work with victims of torture. He has lived and studied in Denmark, a country which is dedicated to providing care to victims of torture from around the world. Of course, next, c'est moi. The pretty lady is a female healer from Hawaii, Christina MacKey. The man in the middle with the yellow shirt and red lava lava is the most famous Kahuna in Hawai'i. He is with Ali'i Lomi and is the scion of a long line of native healers or Kahunas. Then, the last person on the right is a male, native Samoan healer, dressed as a woman, wearing the big headgear. He is a "fa'a fa fine". He is a man who lives life as a woman. His choice is totally accepted in the Pacific Islands. The red hair is real human hair, but, not his. It is a wig. He is wearing woven mats which are much more coarse than cloth.