Aunty Margaret Machado

I had the honor of studying with Aunty Margaret Machado in the Spring of 2002. Aunty is known as the Kapuna of Hawaiian Lomilomi massage. She is revered as one of the first Hawaiians to teach lomilomi outside their ohana. Aunty was the first state licensed teacher to teach Hawaiian lomilomi. She lived from 8/21/16--12/28/09.

Aunty offered her classes on her porch in South Kona on the Big Island, where students would stay in tents on the oceanfront grounds for a month long lomilomi training. This training included not only lomilomi massage techniques and anatomy, but also traditions like hot steam/cold plunges, lei making, the practice of Ho’oponopono, or right thought, forgiveness, and more.

I’ll always remember Aunty’s assistant/friend Pili, who was also an elder, giving me a note/Blessing saying that she could see a pink light shining off of my arms as I did lomilomi. I still have that note!

It was a great honor to study with Aunty Margaret.