JHF Board

On behalf of the Joyful Heart Foundation ‘ohana (family in Hawaiian), we honor dear friend and cultural practitioner Raylene Ha‘alelea Kawaiae‘a, who passed away on March 9, 2012. Since 2010, Raylene was an important contributor to Joyful Heart as a member of the Hawai‘i Advisory Committee.

Photography by: Lisa Denning

Raylene spent her early years in California and Hawai‘i, always with music, culture and family as her roots. Raylene was a mother of five, a grandmother, daughter and sister, as well as an auntie to many. She was a hula master with her own halau (schools of hula) in California and Oregon, as well as in Kapa‘au, Kohala, located on the very northern tip of the island of Hawai‘i, where she lived since the early 1990s. Raylene worked in the Kohala public schools with children and youth, as well as with kupuna (elders). Among her many talents, Raylene was a musician, dancer, teacher and storyteller of Hawaiian culture and traditions. However, she was also a gifted practitioner of ho‘oponopono, a spiritually-based healing and conflict resolution process based in Hawaiian values and beliefs. For the past decade, Raylene worked at the Queen Lili‘uokalani Children’s Center, providing services, counsel and mentorship to Hawaiian families in need. She was particularly dedicated to the children and youth of  Hawai‘i, traveling around the islands and the world with her students. She taught them by example how to extend aloha for themselves and to others. She was their hope, and they were her hope for a future of goodness and peace.

For all of her accomplishments, however, Raylene will always be remembered for the deeply human being she was, and for the ways she exemplified and extended the fullness of aloha to everyone around her. She was aloha; she was love. Raylene freely shared her gifts with people at venues around the globe at the invitation of so many people who could feel the genuineness of warmth and generosity that emanated from her. She taught hula in Poland and Japan, shared her life philosophy in New Zealand, Taiwan and Europe and, in 2007, was among only a handful of cultural practitioners who were granted a private audience with the Dalai Lama during a rare visit to Hawai‘i.

Anyone who had the honor of being in Raylene’s presence could feel the palpable essence of her calm yet powerful spirit, and at Joyful Heart we were blessed with many of those moments. One of the first gifts that Raylene offered Joyful Heart was an ‘oli (Hawaiian chant), specifically to honor Mariska as our founder. Raylene performed the chant with her colleague, Na‘auao Vivas, at Joyful Heart’s Neiman Marcus Hawai‘i event in September 2010. Raylene was a humble and unassuming person who spoke only barely above a whisper, yet when she opened herself to the strength of our ancestors, her voice resonated beyond space and time.

In January of this year, Raylene honored us with her presence at our new Joyful Heart Hawai‘i office open house, once again offering a blessing for our new beginnings. She moved through the afternoon visiting guests and staff with her usual kindness and warmth.

Over the short time we knew her, she affirmed her belief in Joyful Heart and her wish to continue her association with us by offering her skills, abilities and heart in “whatever way I can be of service.”

Jamee Miller, Co-Chair of our Hawai‘i Advisory Committee and Raylene’s co-worker, said after her passing that Raylene was one of those people about whom no one had a harsh or negative thought or feeling. This was in part because she lived her life as she carried on her practices; no conflict or hihia (tension) went unresolved. Peace, kindness, reverence and spirit were ever-present in her and, therefore, among everyone around her.

Raylene’s own voice best represents all that she was to Joyful Heart and to the communities around her who are mourning her loss:

“All things have this essence, all life does. Some people interpret it as unconditional love. Everyone has the capacity to be… love, and it’s up to each one to discover their own capacity of what that is… It is wonderful when we can remember to give appreciation for that which we are given, for this place [where] we live—for its mountains, and its oceans, and the land and all things that grow upon the land, and dwell on it, and fly above it, and swim within it, and crawl within it. And to acknowledge our ancestors that have walked before us, so that we are now who we are at this moment. And then also those who will journey in this world after us… and they too will be all of what they will be because of who we are. And to acknowledge those who guide us, and inspire us, and encourage us. And to life itself. To the breath of life that each of us is given. To the waters of life that exist within our bodies. That we have to have to exist. And all of this belongs to the creator. For we are it and it is us.”
–Excerpt from “Be Love ~ In Memory of Kumu Raylene Kawaiae‘a.”

We extend deepest sympathies to Raylene’s parents, children, grandchildren and extended ‘ohana who were so precious to her. We are so grateful for the brief but precious moments we at Joyful Heart shared with Raylene and are saddened by the opportunities for growth, change and aloha that we will not have in her physical presence. However, we are eased in knowing that a sacred soul such as Raylene’s lives on in each and every one of us who live aloha every day. As her friend, Mikihala Roy of Kona, reminds us, “A true pearl of Hawai‘i has simply shifted to another shoal. She glimmers still…”