By Kevin Majoros
It has been said that the early settlers of Polynesia arrived from the west at those islands in their voyaging canoes by accident. Long known to be experienced sailors, it is believed that they drifted there using navigation skills that were passed down through the centuries.
There were no maps, compasses or global positioning systems. Instead, these navigators used the sun, stars, wind, swells, birds, weather and other patterns of nature to chart their course.
Over the centuries, that art was lost to the current inhabitants of the islands. In 1973, the Polynesian Voyaging Society was formed to perpetuate the art and science of traditional Polynesian voyaging. In that spirit, two years later they launched a traditional double-hulled Polynesian voyaging canoe named Hōkūle’a.
The Society tapped Mau Piailug, a Micronesian wayfinder who was in possession of the lost art and eager to share it, to lead Hōkūle’a on its first voyage to Tahiti. The success of the Micronesian-Polynesian exchange had an impact that was felt in every part of the Pacific.
Through her subsequent voyages, which have surpassed 150,000 nautical miles, Hōkūle’a has sparked a reawakening of Hawaiian culture, language, identity and revitalized voyaging and navigation traditions throughout the Pacific Ocean. In 2012, a sister ship was launched named Hikianalia.
To become a figurative and literal flagship for the cultural renaissance, Hōkūle’a embarked on the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage at the end of 2013. She will cover over 60,000 nautical miles, visiting 100 ports and 27 nations. Hōkūle’a, along with her Pacific voyaging sister ship Hikianalia, are expected to culminate the worldwide voyage on June 17 when they sail into Magic Island in Hawai’i.
Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) President and Pwo Navigator, Nainoa Thompson, sums up the experience by saying, “We are voyaging because what is happening to climate, ecology, and the chemistry of the earth is happening to all of us. There are stories out there of solutions, hope and leadership. These stories can build a sustainable future when we come together to protect what we love. That is what Hōkūle’a has always done.”
Eric Co, a crew member on two of the legs of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage is the leader of one of PVS’s major environmental initiatives, Promise to PaeʻĀina o Hawaiʻi. His participation on the voyage on two separate legs, one through American Samoa and one through the Caribbean, brought him new perspectives for what the journey means in terms of caring for the environment as it pertains to the cultural rebirth in the Polynesian Triangle.
“Being on a canoe in a sacred space, using nature as our guide, resulted in many lessons learned including just how reliant we are on the environment,” says Co. “Our ability to take care of our space is directly reliant on our ability to care of ourselves.”
By sending Hawaiʻi’s greatest treasure, Hōkūle’a, out into the world, PVS is raising global consciousness on shared issues such as marine conservation, sustainability and global health. The challenge for PVS is that when Hōkūle’a returns from her four-year voyage, will anything be different from when she left.
With that in mind, Promise to PaeʻĀina o Hawaiʻi has engaged two dozen organizations in Hawaiʻi to achieve three goals and twenty commitments.
“There are a lot of different voices in the room but we are focused on working towards our shared goals,” Co says. “There is an incredible amount of data that has never been utilized to determine what it is telling us. We are building a single comprehensive marine data set to be used in making marine decisions.”
The goals of the initiative include effecting an immediate change on oceans and how they are valued; implementing policy measures that ensure healthier oceans in the future; and catalyzing long-term collaborative ocean management.
The outreach is multi-pronged and includes maintaining healthy marine fish and coral reefs, mapping out career pathways, creating coalitions on clean beaches and encouraging homegrown talent to become marine professionals.
Eric Co shares his thoughts on the initiative, “It’s amazing for me to think about the idea that during the diaspora of who would become Polynesians over six to seven thousand years from west to east, how many times a small, intrepid group of people stood on the beach – and having no idea what was out there or what would become of them – set sail in these double-hull canoes to discover a new home. How many times did that play out through this history? Hundreds, maybe thousands of times I assume. It’s partly why Nainoa Thompson rightly calls voyaging canoes the spaceships of their time. As we talk about these ‘voyages’ to tackle the issues facing our oceans, it’s maybe not so different. You’re either content with our situation, or you team up with the willing to band together and set out for something better. That to me is what the Promise to PaeʻĀina is really about.”
Co says he is excited about the return of Hōkūle’a and the prospect of making a new commitment to what can be achieved through the success of her voyages. Her homecoming will allow the many people who never leave their island to dream about what is possible and understand what can be accomplished. Co’s own adventure aboard Hōkūle’a left him with a sea of metaphors which he likes to share.
“Understanding where you are going is a direct function of where you are, which makes it fascinating to watch a navigator at work. They have vision beyond what they can see. It’s kind of a magical thing,” says Co. “We all need to find that within ourselves. Your vision is your own roadmap.”