Hōkūle‘a is a whole story of miracles. -Nainoa Thompson
Last night I went to hear Nainoa Thompson, master navigator of the Hōkūle‘a and President of the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS), talk story about voyaging, the memory of Eddie Aikau as a force of inspiration, and hope for Island Earth. Because of the symbolic significance of the Hōkūle‘a and its upcoming Worldwide Voyage, host Jodi Wilmott called this event the "most culturally important" talk story of eighty so far held by Surfer [the Bar] at Turtle Bay on the North Shore of O'ahu. The night began with Hawaiian music playing softly in the background, and the event opened with a beautiful oli for Nainoa about leading Hōkūle‘a on the right path. (Here is a full video of the event.)
Nainoa was nervous. The interviewer said so, and he said so: "I'm honored and nervous at the same time." How could this courageous navigator and ocean elder be nervous about talking to us?
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| Nainoa Thompson and Jodi Wilmott discuss grandmaster navigator Mau Piailug (on the screen behind them) who shared the science of traditional Polynesian deep-sea wayfinding with the PVS. |
Wilmott asked Nainoa how it feels to go out to sea, and through the story he shared the audience learned that he had been nervous many times before. He told a story about the fear he felt in 1979, just before leaving for Tahiti from Big Island: "the voyage was just so huge and the pressure was so immense." Everyone in the audience was quiet and still. No glasses clinking, no whispering; instead, respectful silence as we listened to Nainoa.
"How does it feel? I can't explain it but when we went outside Hilo breakwater, everything . . . went away. It was like noa. It was completely free [. . .] There's a time to go and there's a time not to question. We went out to sea, outside the breakwater, and it was just like everything went away. We were under the canopy of the capturing of clouds in Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and we sailed till about 10:30 at night or so, and I remember when we went outside the breakers the first star we saw on the Southeastern horizon was Ka Makau Nui o Maui, it's the fishhook of Maui it was Eddie's constellation -- that we'll always believe that he pulled Tahiti out of the sea -- it was the first [constellation] to see. It's these moments of being in a blessed place, but not understanding what it's about. It's about knowing, but not knowing how you know. It's more about trust than it is about anything else. That's what it feels like to go deep sea."
Reclaiming Voyaging
Nainoa told us about the first non-instrument wayfinding Hōkūle‘a voyages in the 1970s and 1980 -- from Hawaii to Tahiti and back -- a feat which hadn't been embarked upon since the 14th century.Teacher, artist, and visionary Herb Kawainui Kāne researched voyaging canoes and built Hōkūle‘a at a time when Hawaiians were, in many ways, facing cultural extinction. Nainoa said, "When I graduated from high school, I knew nothing about who my ancestors were and where did they come from or how did they get here." The Hōkūle‘a proved that "it was possible after all for the Polynesians to have come from Tahiti with their double-hulled canoes to settle Hawai'i!" (Hui Lama speech on the first voyage to Tahiti, 1976), in response to a dismissive theory by academics that gave Polynesian voyagers only enough navigational credit to have ended up in Hawaii by accident.
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| Hōkūle‘a at Waimea Bay for the Eddie Aikau Opening Ceremony Photo by @Aseaofpeople (on Instagram). |
This is just a hint of the cultural importance of the Hōkūle‘a, which Nainoa described as a "flashlight in the darkness" for native Hawaiians. For most people of Nainoa's generation, the creation of the Hōkūle‘a was "the first time that [they] had recognized something Hawaiian as elegant, powerful, beautiful, a promise to [their] children."
But the Hōkūle‘a had to find Tahiti, to sail over 5,000 miles to Tahiti and back, using the steering stars, the moon, the movement of the waves, to prove that populating the Hawaiian islands was no accident.
"Extinction was so powerful in the whole 10 million square miles of Polynesia, the biggest country in the world, 600 times more water than it is land, but discovered by those voyaging canoes of the past, in the last 3,000 years, and navigated and crewed by extraordinary seamen. So much so that we would humbly argue that those voyaging canoes, especially the one that came here, to the dirt that you stand on, you sit on now, [to] the single most isolated archipelago on the planet, the last place on Earth to be discovered, which fundamentally makes Hawaiian culture the youngest [. . . ] and yet maybe the most expansive. The ones that sailed the farthest. The ones that could be, arguably, the best at deep sea voyaging."
Nainoa's fears were about failing his ancestors. He said that "failing and shame are the same thing," and that the feeling of shame is "chronic with Native Hawaiians." After the Hōkūle‘a capsized in 1978, Mau Piailug trained the crew intensely for over two and a half years. He navigated the first voyage in 600 years, sailing through the two biggest wind systems on the planet, through the area called the Doldrums for seven days, where you can no longer see the stars and are sailing by instinct, navigating by the waves. At the time, no one else could do this but Mau Piailug.
Pulling Tahiti Out of the Sea
"Eddie is, in my life, a whole series of stories. When he became a crew member, he was so heroic, I couldn't even talk to him."
Nainoa told the audience what Eddie Aikau said to him the first time they met, as the candidates for the first Hōkūle‘a voyage were being brought together. (I had also heard Nainoa recall this in ESPN's “Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau,” and read it in Nainoa's "Eddie Went" article in Mana Magazine.) Eddie said, "You know, Nainoa. I need to sail on the Hōkūle‘a. I need to go down the road of my ancestors, and I need to pull Tahiti out of the sea. I need to bring pride and dignity back to our kapūna because they deserve it, and give it to children." |
| Nainoa on board the Hōkūle‘a at the Eddie Aikau opening ceremony in Waimea Bay last week. At Turtle Bay on Dec. 11, Nainoa said, "Eddie is with us all the time." www.Hokulea.org Photo by Billy Richards |
Children admired Eddie, and many people loved him, across age, gender, and race, and all of them felt the pain of his loss. Nainoa continued to tell the legendary story, and even though we'd heard it before, the audience was completely captivated.
"When Hōkūle‘a capsizes and [Eddie] leaves [. . .] that morning he asked the captain to leave in the gale. The rain wasn't vertical; it was horizontal. Only one keel is above sea level, the rest of Hōkūle‘a is underwater, fully rigged. Capsized in the Molakai'i channel. No communication. No escort boat. Nobody knows."
The visibility was terrible, and it was "so windy that every single wave that breaks on the ocean throws salt into the air. Salt is heavier than air, so what you have is like a fog on the horizon. It's called ehukai. [. . . ] You couldn't see O'ahu."
The emotion in the air was as palpable as the ehukai on the horizon on the day we lost Eddie. Nainoa told this story because it impacts all of the decisions he makes as a leader. He went on: "And you knew he'd be paddling at night. The thing about Eddie that I will never ever forget: he had bad eyesight. So Eddie would paddle out to an island he couldn't see to save his friends."
For Nainoa, Eddie is saying "are you willing to go for something you are ready to stand up and protect? That's the earth. That's your home. Are you willing to go for that, even against the risk? Eddie helps me find courage in the times that I am most afraid, and nobody else can do that."
Here is video footage of this year's Eddie Would Go Opening Ceremony with the Hōkūle‘a on Dec. 5.
Cultivating Ocean Instincts
"This culture is not defined by ethnicity, it's defined by kindness."
Nainoa believes strongly that giving children opportunities to experience a love for life and love for the oceans needs to start early, and that it is the responsibility of the community to support such education. "If we don't transition those schools into the hearts and minds of children then I think we fail. I can't change the public school system, but I can build a school that will spark the flame." Nainoa, Jenna Ishii, and many others are creating a school founded on these ideals. The Malama Honua Learning Center in Waimanalo opens in the summer of 2014 and is currently seeking early childhood educators for grades K - 2. Nainoa explained, "Mālama Honua is asking the question of culture. Not from the lens of ethnic diversity, but from the lens of humanity. [. . . ] It's going to be the poor Hawaiian kids who will change the planet because they will understand how to do that."
By the end of the night, the room was invigorated and inspired. Nainoa's final words were about the global vision of the Worldwide Voyage, beyond the boundaries of race or nation. The mission of taking Hōkūle‘a around the earth is to use the boat as a global classroom, touching people with stories, teaching unity, and "seeing the many lights around the earth." Nainoa explained this educational philosophy: "The premise is that home is innate. Home is instinctual. Everyone who understands it needs to stand up and fight for it and protect it. Home is not longer just a place you live; no longer the Hawaiian Islands; it's the earth. Island Earth. The only one we got by the way."
Canoe Tour
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| On Saturday, Dec. 9, Jenna Ishii and Cat Fuller gave a Hokule'a canoe tour for `Iolani teachers who are thinking about ways to incorporate Hōkūle‘a's Worldwide Voyage into our K-12 curriculum. Photo by Allison Blankenship |
Allison Blankenship invited me on a canoe tour of the Hōkūle‘a I didn't know what to expect, but was beaming with excitement, and imagined taking a "tour" of Keehi Harbor and sailing around Sand Island. It turns out that a "canoe tour" is actually a tour of the canoe, as it's docked, but I was not disappointed! As I leaned against the sturdy wooden ledge of the ship, I listened to Catherine Fuller describe the transformative experience of a Hōkūle‘a voyage. Cat was relating the shock she experienced after a long journey to New Zealand. As she told it, she went from having three pairs of salt-covered shorts and three salty shirts for thirty days, back to a closet full of fresh clothes, and that's just one example of the culture shock that ensued upon reaching dry land. Debbie Millikan, 'Iolani's Sustainability Coordinator and 7 Generations blogger, added that excess and overconsumption are problems she addresses in her work, and we talked about ways to convey the message of living simply to younger generations through the platform of the Hōkūle‘a.
