Keeping It Real

Three 30-somethings are mending more than sore backs at their Native Hawaiian healing center

There is a style of massage that uses hot rocks, says Keola Kawai‘ula‘iliahi Chan, one of three owners of Moku Ola, a Native Hawaiian healing center in Hawaii Kai. “It was developed in California,” Keola says. Then, one day, a shrewd businessman in Hawaii thought, “Why don’t we use Hawaiian rocks and call it pohaku?” Today, what is often described as Native Hawaiian hot rock massages is offered all over these Islands.

It’s very profitable.

“But it’s not Hawaiian,” says Keola, 30. “I am not going to lie, it does feel good. But don’t sell it off as our culture, because you want to turn a profit. If you are going to do it, give praise to those who created it. You take away from them and you also degrade our culture.”

From left, Aoi Wright, Pi‘ilani Wright and Keola Kawai‘ula‘iliahi Chan. photo: Karin Kovalsky

Keola is explaining the heart of Moku Ola, a business he, cousins Pi‘ilani Wright, 36, and Aoi Wright, 37, opened at Koko Marina in November so they could offer what is truly Native Hawaiian massage and medicinal treatments. “For me, there were just so many spas that over-glorified so many things that are Hawaiian practices,” says Keola, who like Aoi and Pi‘ilani, is a lomi practitioner and licensed massage therapist. “In Hawaiian, we have a word called maoli, which means real, without over-glorifying or sugar-coating things. Real. This shop is pretty much what it is. This gave us the opportunity to do things as it was passed down to us.”

That is much more than an ideological statement at Moku Ola, that’s a business model. Aoi says decades ago the Waikiki experience was colored by the warm and natural exchange between locals and visitors. Somewhere along the way, Aoi says, Waikiki became so profit driven what made the place special was lost. Somewhere, pohaku massage became Hawaiian.

“Money got in the way,” says Aoi.

At Moku Ola, people are treated the old way, like friends, not customers. “As you come through the door, it’s like coming into our house,” Keola says. The result has been a growing base of clients that are mostly kama‘aina who relish a non-rushed massage experience steeped in Hawaiian traditions. Keola expects that strong local base to become a strong attraction for visitors. Like in old Waikiki, visitors liked to go where locals went.

Aoi says in the first year they expect to pull in only about $80,000 in revenue. In the second year, Moku Ola should collect $160,000 and more than double that number in the third year. Aoi says the expectation is to struggle in the first years, partly surviving on savings, but the shop in Hawaii Kai has the potential for more than $500,000 and the trio is in discussions to open a second store at Honolulu Airport or Kahului Airport.

Not that the trio is trying to get rich. Though they have a strong business plan — one that American Savings Bank backed — the idea is simply to share their culture and provide for their families and staff. Aoi says, when business is good, there are times when they don’t charge clients, who perhaps can’t afford the treatment but need it, particularly the kupuna.

Keola explains: “That is a Hawaiian concept. When you go fishing, you only fish for what you need. You don’t scrape the entire ocean and leave nothing there for the next person, or the next day. And if you did catch more than you needed, you give to the next person that needs it more.”

So it goes with Moku Ola. “Sure, we’ll never be millionaires,” he says. “But it is nice when you walk around and people say ‘Hey you the guy who took care of my grandmother. She felt so good.’ Sometimes that is better than having $40, $60 in your wallet.”

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to Hawaii Business Magazine »