Home calls for Hawaiians who sailed the world, guided only by the stars
Crew of Polynesian vessel travelled 40,000 miles with no modern tools to keep traditions of ancestors alive
FOR three years they relied on the stars. Without modern navigational instruments, the ocean swells and birds were used to guide them.
This weekend, after a three-year, 19-country, 40,000 nautical-mile journey, the crew of a Polynesian canoe finally sailed back to Hawaii’s shores, having taken its message of preserving traditional cultures around the world.
“We really are sailing in our ancestors’ wake,” said Ka’iulani Murphy, 38, an apprentice navigator. “We had to relearn what our ancestors had mastered.”
For much of the 20th century, anthropologists assumed the thousands of far-flung islands of the Pacific were settled after being accidentally found by sailors. But native Polynesians have long argued that settlement was the result of deliberate journeys of exploration by highly skilled navigators. The voyage perpetuated the traditional wayfinding that brought the first Polynesians thousands of miles to Hawaii, hundreds of years ago, and helped train a new generation of navigators.
Arriving back on Saturday, the team completed the first-ever round-theworld voyage by a traditional Polynesian vessel, a predecessor of the modern catamaran.
In a canoe named Hokule’a, which translates as “star of gladness”, the 17-member crew had rotated on and off the vessel, in month-long stints.
The canoe was built and launched in the 1970s, when there were no Polynesian navigators left on Hawaii. The Polynesian Voyaging Society eventually tracked down Mau Piailug, from a small island called Satawal in Micronesia. He was among the last half-dozen people in the world to practise the art of traditional navigation, and he agreed to guide Hokulea to Tahiti in 1976.
“Without him, our voyaging would never have taken place,” the Polynesian Voyaging Society said. “Mau was the only traditional navigator who was willing and able to reach beyond his culture to ours.”
This time the Hokulea set out to inspire a new generation of navigators and spread a message of “malama honua”, or caring for the earth.
The crew were forced to be environmentally sustainable, supplementing packaged foods and water with fish caught during the trip and rainwater.
The voyage has had challenges and reaching South Africa in 2015 – the journey’s halfway point – was the most dangerous leg because of complicated ocean conditions. Last week the crew spotted the 10,023ft high Maui mountain Haleakala in the distance, signifying Hokulea’s return to Hawaii waters.
David Ige, the governor of Hawaii, welcomed the Hokulea and its crew back during the homecoming ceremony. “Watching you on your epic voyage, you taught us that there is more that connects the world than divides us,” he said.