Aloha my name is Kauila Clark and I have been on the Board of Directors for the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center for 22 years.  During my 10th year as a Board Member I was invited to do the logo for the 20th anniversary of the Health Center and so I designed the logo, which was later adopted as “the logo” for the Health Center. 

The symbolism behind the logo is that it has an open Maile Ilima lei.  The Ilima identifies Oahu.  The Maile liilii was harvested from Mount Kaala, which is in back of the Health Center and that was Maile lii, which is the small Maile.  That was to indicate that we’re from the island of Oahu from the Wai`anae side.  At the center of the logo is a mortar and pestle, which indicates the energies that’s brought together in order to establish good medicine.  The mortar and pestle represent ku energy – with the vertical figure, hina energy – with the bowl, and so in mixing the energy you’re combining ku energy and hina energy together for healing energy.  

The lei is open to represent that our aloha flows from the Health Center to the community.  That is important because usually Maile lei is tucked and folded over so that it closes the aloha to the person that is wearing the lei.  But this symbol shows that we are open to the community.

The shadowing in the logo simply shows that we are on the side where the sun sets.  So when I did the logo I was facing south and the sun as it’s setting, would cast shadows to the left of the logo.  The shadow represents the light and dark, the ao and the po.  Po is the beginning of time where all was created and ao, the creation of the solar system, which gave us sunlight.  So with that combination of po and ao, we also combine the energies of the whole universe.

This logo was created to express a cultural perspective, to express the function of the Health Center and to also captivate the energy that is here at the Health Center.