In the late 1990s, Polynesian Voyaging Society president Nainoa Thompson conversed with his friend Charles Lacy Veach about the concept of exploration, and about what it means to “be from Hawai‘i.” Veach was a NASA astronaut who grew up in the islands, and during a 1992 trip to space, he smuggled along with him a Hawaiian basalt adze, the tool used to create wa‘a kaulua, or Polynesian transoceanic sailing canoes. To the astronaut, these canoes were the space shuttles of their era. Veach showed Thompson a photo of the adze floating in front of the space shuttle’s portal, with the Hawaiian-Emperor archipelago in the background. “He said we need to understand and remember the journey of our ancestors, and go back at least 500 years to figure out how they learned to live so well in Hawai‘i,” Thompson remembers.
Founded in the mid-1970s, PVS was created, in part, to validate the oral histories and legends of voyages made by Polynesians prior to Western contact. The men who navigated vessels to faraway archipelagos were supremely adept at sea, using wayfinding techniques that relied solely upon celestial bodies, waves, wind, and birds. Polynesians built massive canoes from the largest, straightest trees, tied together with lashings from intricate weaves of coconut fiber, and carved with adzes from the dense basalt of mountain quarries.
To revive the ancient tradition of wayfinding, PVS built its first canoe—albeit out of modern materials of fiberglass, wood, and resin—and named her Hōkūle‘a, or “star of gladness.” What remained uncertain, however, were the traditional forms of knowledge needed to navigate the beloved canoe. What unfolded next was a story that has since rippled through the Pacific: In 1976, Mau Piailug, a navigator from the tiny island of Satawal in Micronesia—the last on his island to be initiated with the secrets of wayfinding—taught the intrepid first crews of Hōkūle‘a how to sail to Tahiti as their ancestors had. The vessel soon became emblematic of the diverse people of Hawai‘i.
The canoe has since sailed with dozens of crews across the Pacific, finding port in Japan, the United States, Alaska, and Micronesia. Traditional sailing and navigation courses are now taught in universities. Hōkūle‘a has also spawned a wave of cultural seafaring: Wa‘a kaulua have since been built in Tahiti, Micronesia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, and all major Hawaiian Islands, creating new legends of adventure, community, and ecological connection.
After years of planning, PVS embarked on its biggest adventure yet in 2013. The worldwide voyage, named Mālama Honua, meaning “to care for our Earth,” will span more than 46,000 nautical miles to reach 26 countries, 85 ports, and 12 World Heritage marine sites. By the beginning of 2016, Hōkūle‘a and her rotating crew will have traveled the Pacific and Indian oceans and entered the Atlantic using traditional wayfinding techniques. Captain Billy Richards, a crewman of Hōkūle‘a’s first voyage, is one of many passing on knowledge to a new generation. “People ask me how much it takes to build a voyaging canoe,” Richards said at a recent training class at the Sand Island port in Honolulu. “I tell them, ‘Your life.’ People see these canoes, and don’t realize the maintenance, the hours, the time invested in them, the relationships necessary to sail—almost all of it completely voluntary. These canoes have taken and given us so much more.”
Support Hōkūle‘a’s Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage by purchasing Sea Salts of Hawai‘i gift boxes, of which $1 from every gift box sold goes to support the trip. For more information and to follow the voyage, visit hokulea.com.
The 20-foot ocean-voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a combines traditional elements with new materials, such as fiberglass hulls, canvas sails, and synthetic lashings.
Knowledge of traditional wayfinding is now being passed to the new generation, like apprentice navigator Austin Kino, shown here.
“We need to understand and remember the journey of our ancestors, and go back at least 500 years to figure out how they learned to live so well in Hawai‘i.”
In the late 1990s, Polynesian Voyaging Society president Nainoa Thompson conversed with his friend Charles Lacy Veach about the concept of exploration, and about what it means to “be from Hawai‘i.” Veach was a NASA astronaut who grew up in the islands, and during a 1992 trip to space, he smuggled along with him a Hawaiian basalt adze, the tool used to create wa‘a kaulua, or Polynesian transoceanic sailing canoes. To the astronaut, these canoes were the space shuttles of their era. Veach showed Thompson a photo of the adze floating in front of the space shuttle’s portal, with the Hawaiian-Emperor archipelago in the background. “He said we need to understand and remember the journey of our ancestors, and go back at least 500 years to figure out how they learned to live so well in Hawai‘i,” Thompson remembers.
Founded in the mid-1970s, PVS was created, in part, to validate the oral histories and legends of voyages made by Polynesians prior to Western contact. The men who navigated vessels to faraway archipelagos were supremely adept at sea, using wayfinding techniques that relied solely upon celestial bodies, waves, wind, and birds. Polynesians built massive canoes from the largest, straightest trees, tied together with lashings from intricate weaves of coconut fiber, and carved with adzes from the dense basalt of mountain quarries.
To revive the ancient tradition of wayfinding, PVS built its first canoe—albeit out of modern materials of fiberglass, wood, and resin—and named her Hōkūle‘a, or “star of gladness.” What remained uncertain, however, were the traditional forms of knowledge needed to navigate the beloved canoe. What unfolded next was a story that has since rippled through the Pacific: In 1976, Mau Piailug, a navigator from the tiny island of Satawal in Micronesia—the last on his island to be initiated with the secrets of wayfinding—taught the intrepid first crews of Hōkūle‘a how to sail to Tahiti as their ancestors had. The vessel soon became emblematic of the diverse people of Hawai‘i.
The canoe has since sailed with dozens of crews across the Pacific, finding port in Japan, the United States, Alaska, and Micronesia. Traditional sailing and navigation courses are now taught in universities. Hōkūle‘a has also spawned a wave of cultural seafaring: Wa‘a kaulua have since been built in Tahiti, Micronesia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, and all major Hawaiian Islands, creating new legends of adventure, community, and ecological connection.
After years of planning, PVS embarked on its biggest adventure yet in 2013. The worldwide voyage, named Mālama Honua, meaning “to care for our Earth,” will span more than 46,000 nautical miles to reach 26 countries, 85 ports, and 12 World Heritage marine sites. By the beginning of 2016, Hōkūle‘a and her rotating crew will have traveled the Pacific and Indian oceans and entered the Atlantic using traditional wayfinding techniques. Captain Billy Richards, a crewman of Hōkūle‘a’s first voyage, is one of many passing on knowledge to a new generation. “People ask me how much it takes to build a voyaging canoe,” Richards said at a recent training class at the Sand Island port in Honolulu. “I tell them, ‘Your life.’ People see these canoes, and don’t realize the maintenance, the hours, the time invested in them, the relationships necessary to sail—almost all of it completely voluntary. These canoes have taken and given us so much more.”
Support Hōkūle‘a’s Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage by purchasing Sea Salts of Hawai‘i gift boxes, of which $1 from every gift box sold goes to support the trip. For more information and to follow the voyage, visit hokulea.com.
The 20-foot ocean-voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a combines traditional elements with new materials, such as fiberglass hulls, canvas sails, and synthetic lashings.
Knowledge of traditional wayfinding is now being passed to the new generation, like apprentice navigator Austin Kino, shown here.
“We need to understand and remember the journey of our ancestors, and go back at least 500 years to figure out how they learned to live so well in Hawai‘i.”
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