A brief discussion of Huna lineages is very much in need of the caveat contained in the ancient saying above: Rather than engage in useless infighting over who’s version of Huna is “more pure” or “more right”, realize that things of value can be learned from all of them, and that some people may naturally resonate more with one than another.

One of the foremost principles of the ancient teachings is to see the illusion inherent in all duality, of which “separate schools” would make an excellent example. Here are a number of the known lineages:

• The studies of Max Freedom Long, the first known Western researcher into the ancient Hawai’ian teachings who coined the term “Huna” for what he uncovered over the span of many decades under very adverse conditions.

  Long studied Huna since 1917 or so, at a time when the native Hawai’ians would not speak to Westerners about these matters, in part out of fear of legal penalties in place since the arrival of the Western missionaries after Cook until in some cases the 1960’s. Any errors or omissions on Long’s part can easily be forgiven in light of this context.

  He founded Huna Research Associates in 1945, with Rev. James Vinson Wingo, D.D. being the current president. There is a Yahoo group for this organization among other things.

• The lineage of Morrnah Simeona, currently carried forward by Dr. Hew Len and recently written about by Joe Vitale in “Zero Limits” can be found here.
• The lineage of Tanneo Sands Kumalae.
• The lineage of the Bray family (David “Daddy” Bray 1889-1968, and his son, David “Papa” Bray Jr.), has been carried forward by both Laura Kealoha Yardley and Tad James’ family. Tad’s son Matt currently teaches a workshop near Kona, Hawai’i (Big Island) with the blessing of several Hawai’ian elders, among them:

  Uncle George Na’ope, Master Kumu Hula (Kumu = “teacher”), founder of the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival, and designated by Congress a “Living National Treasure”. His student, Master Kumu Hula Etua Lopez, who trains Matt’s workshop participants in the principles of Hula. Also, Kumu Hula John Ka’imikaua who carried a lineage of the Hawai’ian Island of Moloka’i (1957-2006), and who taught at the workshop about Hawai’ian cultural issues and Hula until his passing in June of 2006. The class has since been taken up by his wife Ka’oi.

  Find out more at huna.com

  Tad James also incorporated elements from several other lineages that he was fortunate enough to come into contact with.

• The lineage of Serge Kahili King, who was adopted into the Kahili family, following its Huna traditions. He has also studied a variety of other forms of shamanism in his world-wide travels, and his may thus be considered a blended approach. His organization is called Aloha International, and he purportedly was also a member of Long’s organization for a while.

  Find out more at huna.org

• Dr. Rima Morrell maintains an organization called hunalight.com
• Wikipedia entry on Huna contains some lineage information.
• Feel free to add information on additional lineages known to you, or any concerns about errors or omissions in the comments section… E Kala Mai I Au.

Since the meaning of the term Kahuna is a combination of the root words for keeper (kahu) and secret (huna), as well as the adjunct roots for light (ka) and calm/balanced (na), in the most basic sense a Kahuna was an expert in his field of purview, similar to our modern-day concept of a "Ph.D."

The great number of the different types of Kahuna listed by e.g. Laura Yardley gives further credence to this view: There were besides the more spiritually and mentally oriented Kahuna some as straight-forwardly concerned as the "Kahuna Kali Wa’a" (canoe makers), or those expert in the intricate lava rock masonry used for everything from homes and walls to the famous Hawai’ian temples (heiau).

This is also how many people have heard the term first used in popular culture in relation to the "Kahuna of Surf" or the "Big Kahuna" (from 1950’s and 60’s film and television).

As for the class of the spiritually concerned Kahuna, major examples include the Kahuna La’au Lapa’au (medicinal healers and doctors), Kahuna La’au Kahea (mental healers or "psychologists"), Kahuna Po’i Uhane (spirit catchers), Kahuna Kilokilo (experts concerned with divination and omens), and Kahuna Na’au Ao (mystics of the science of mind), each typically with several sub-designations too long to reproduce here.

While most of these pursuits would have been considered on the side of the positive and of healing for the greater good of society, there were clearly also some that might be considered under the mantle of Black Magic or Sorcery, collective known as Kahuna Ana’ana (again with a number of subspecies). These were the ones later primarily – and one might say unduly – focused on by the Western missionaries.

This preoccupation with the morbid led to a state of affairs where the native keepers of these bodies of knowledge strictly kept things from the Westerners to themselves. Most Kahuna practices were formally outlawed since the early days of the missionaries, with several of the prohibitions, on things including the performance of the Hula, the Hawai’ian ritual dancing, chanting, and drumming performances, carried forward all the way into the 1960s.