hokule'a voyage 2023

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Hokule‘a and Hikianalia to sail on 4-year voyage

By Linsey Dower

March 22, 2023

Editors' Picks Hokule‘a

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Crew members Keli Takenaga, left, and Kai Hoshijo stood aboard the Hokule‘a during Tuesday’s news conference.

Nainoa Thompson, CEO of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, discussed details Tuesday of the Hokule‘a and Hikianalia’s next major voyage, called Moananuiakea, during a news conferene at the Marine Education Training Center on Sand Island.

A cup of awa was offered to the ocean by crew member Nathan Wong.

Above, Snowbird Bento of Kamehameha Schools performed a welcoming chant.

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The Polynesian Voyaging Society announced Tuesday that the Hokule‘a is scheduled to embark June 15 on a 43,000-nautical-mile journey circumnavigating the Pacific. It will launch from Juneau, Alaska, while its sister canoe, the Hikianalia, is scheduled to join the expedition in August from Seattle.

The expedition is called the Moananuiakea Voyage, and PVS hopes it will spark a movement of “planetary navigators” by developing young leaders and engaging communities around the world to take part in navigating the earth toward a healthy and thriving future, according to a news release.

“This is about not just the oceans,” Nainoa Thompson, chief executive officer of PVS, said in a news release. “This is about taking discovery and moving it towards choices, and moving it towards the choices that will take action that we believe is going to help build a future that is good enough for our kids.”

A Tuesday news conference at the Marine Education Training Center on Sand Island, which announced the details for the upcoming voyage, was opened with an oli and a cleansing ritual. It was followed by a speech given by Thompson, in which he detailed the importance of cultivating a healthier earth.

He emphasized the vital role that education plays in preparing new generations to develop sustainable practices, and how the voyage is representative of the love and care that is necessary in a movement such as this. Thompson also highlighted voyaging’s ability to connect global communities toward this common goal by sharing one another’s life experiences.

Among the event’s guest speakers were representatives from a handful of Moananuiakea’s sponsors, some of which include Hawaiian Airlines and Kamehameha Schools. Represent- atives from each of the voyage’s four educational partners were also given the opportunity to speak, each of whom voiced their commitment to helping current and future generations achieve a sustainable future.

University of Hawaii President David Lassner commended the Hokule‘a’s accomplished history and PVS’ current goals.

“Hokule‘a represents the greatest source of pride we have in these islands, not only for Hawaiians, but for all of us who call Hawaii home,” Lassner said. “It provides a way to connect all of those who care about healthy oceans and a healthy planet to work together.”

Preparations for the Moananuiakea voyage have been underway for the past five years, and the journey is scheduled to take four years to complete, according to the news release. During their journey the canoes will visit more than 300 ports and 36 countries and archipelagos. Both boats will include a total of about 400 crew members.

The Hokule‘a will be transported to Alaska via Matson in April, and it is scheduled to arrive in Auke Bay on June 10. There the canoe and crew will be welcomed by native communities and partners, and crew members will spend five days participating in community and educational engagements before embark- ing on their voyage June 15.

Those who are interested in following the Hokule‘a and Hikianalia on their voyage can visit PVS’ Wa‘a Honua website at waahonua.com .

———

Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.

Hōkūleʻa begins four-year circumnavigation of the Pacific

• June 20, 2023

Voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa departed Statter Harbor in Juneau, Alaska on June 18, officially starting the Moananuiākea Voyage , a four-year circumnavigation of the Pacific. Many members of the University of Hawaiʻi ʻohana continue to play roles in Hōkūleʻa ’s journeys.

“The University of Hawaiʻi is proud and honored to partner with the Polynesian Voyaging Society on this next inspiring voyage,” said UH President David Lassner. “Moananuiākea will help focus Hawaiʻi and our Pacific ʻohana on healing our oceans as we celebrate the brilliance and courage of our navigators and voyagers from centuries present to today. Hōkūleʻa brings together all the people of Hawaiʻi like nothing else.”

The canoe and voyage received a grand ceremonial blessing, hosted by the Alaska Native community on June 15. Hundreds of people including Native Alaskans, Juneau community members, and supporters from Hawaiʻi and other places around the world attended and participated in the celebration.

The Hawaiʻi portion of the Global Launch Ceremony included the offering of ʻawa, a ceremonial drink used throughout the Pacific for events of importance. Lassner and East-West Center President Suzanne Vares-Lum were among the Hawaiʻi participants sharing their well wishes for the voyage.

“There’s just so much to love about the Moananuiākea voyage that we are here to launch,” said Lassner at the ceremony, “the sharing of knowledge, teamwork, wisdom and laughter and love, the weaving together of absolute brilliance and courage of the Pacific navigators and voyagers who went off into the unknown to learn and the modern science and technology that we see on the voyage today.”

Polynesian Voyaging Society CEO and Pwo Navigator Nainoa Thompson gave opening remarks about the Voyage and its purpose. One of the goals of Moananuiākea: A Voyage for Earth is to connect nations around the Pacific and the globe to build a collective movement to care for the oceans.

Weather permitting, Hōkūleʻa ’s crew is planning to visit several communities in Southeast Alaska: Kake, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Metlakatla and Hydaburg. Hydaburg will be the last stop in Alaska before the canoe enters British Columbia.

Learn more about the Moananuiākea Voyage at the Polynesian Voyaging Society website.

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This legendary Polynesian canoe will sail 43,000 miles, from Alaska to Tahiti

The crew of the Hōkūleʻa is embarking on an arduous 47-month journey across the Pacific Rim.

The feat of Polynesian wayfinding—navigating by stars, wind, and waves—had long been discounted by scholars on the grounds that ancient Polynesians didn’t have the knowledge to be master navigators. But in 1976, a traditional 62-foot, double-hull voyaging canoe called Hōkūleʻa sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti with a crew of 15, proving that the old ways were more than enough to carry people across the vast ocean.

Now, the next generation of Polynesian wayfarers is stepping up and getting onboard. Beginning June 15 in Alaska, Hōkūleʻa and her sister canoe Hikianalia will set off on a 43,000-nautical-mile, 47-month circumnavigation of the Pacific Ocean. The journey will take them to 36 countries and archipelagoes, nearly a hundred Indigenous territories, and 345 ports. There’ll be about 12 crew on each canoe at a time, switching out about every four weeks, for a total of 400 crew members over four years.  

Here’s what to know about this epic voyage.

Hōkūleʻa ’s history

Named after Arcturus , the zenith star of the Hawaiian Islands, Hōkūleʻa (“star of gladness”) was conceived and built by the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS). This Honolulu, Hawaii-based organization was established to research the means by which Polynesian seafarers found and settled on islands within the immense Pacific Ocean. Since her first voyage, Hōkūleʻa has traveled throughout the globe. Its founders want to explore and reclaim Polynesian culture, traditions, and relationship to both home and the planet.

“ Hōkūleʻa allows us to find the connection that a lot of people believed was lost,” says National Geographic explorer Lehua Kamalu , Hōkūleʻa ’s first female captain and the voyaging director of PVS.

( How did this woman navigate a 3,000-mile Pacific voyage without maps or technology? )

The Moananuiākea voyage

Hōkūleʻa ’s Moananuiākea (“the vast Pacific”) Voyage embarks this month from Alaska due to a partnership that began in 1990. At that time, the Polynesian Voyaging Society approached the Tlingit , Haida , and Tsimshian peoples of the Sealaska Corporation after searching unsuccessfully for koa logs large enough to build a Hawaiian voyaging canoe from traditional native materials. The nonprofit Alaska Native conservation group gifted the society two Sitka spruce logs.

“That’s why we’re starting in Alaska,” says Randie Fong, leader of ʻAha Moananuiākea Pacific Consortium . “It’s important when we travel that we acknowledge the global Indigenous community and our traditional systems in the pursuit of solutions to climate change and the restoration of our oceans and landscapes.”

( Australia hands control of its newest national parks to Indigenous peoples .)

“We wanted to bring it all home to the Pacific, because our culture is here,” says navigator and PVS president Nainoa Thompson. “We know that the great systems of the planet are connected. We don’t have a number of different oceans. They’re all one.”

How to follow the Hōkūleʻa

As Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia journey on the Moananuiākea Voyage, their paths will be tracked on Hokulea.com so anyone can follow along. The website will also post specific port dates throughout the journey.

From Alaska, the canoes sail along the west coasts of North and South America , through Polynesia and north along the West Pacific. Hōkūleʻa will then be shipped from Japan to Los Angeles to sail home to Hawaii. From there, it will voyage to Tahiti in the spring of 2027.

“The ocean will do what it wants,” says Kamalu. “ Hōkūleʻa is an open vessel, so we’re highly exposed and there’s no way to hide from heavy weather. Your skin may be soggy for days.”

( Meet the fearless women taking on the ‘Everest of the Seas.’ )

While the crew will most certainly face challenges along the way, the measure of success isn’t about how much hardship they can take, but what they’re responsible for—making sure that the next generation of wayfinders can take things even farther.

To that end, the Polynesian Voyaging Society has also launched Wa’a Honua , the Canoe for the Earth. The virtual global hub is meant to inspire people to become future navigators for the planet. “This voyage and its impacts reach far beyond the crew that sails,” says Kamalu.

Hōkūleʻa will likely be at sea for the canoe’s 50th anniversary, on May 1, 2026. But there’s no rush to get to a specific destination for that day. “The beauty of voyaging is not to go fast,” says Thompson. “It’s to go slow and take your time. You can’t look up at the stars and tell where you are. In this kind of navigation, you only know where you are by memorizing where you sailed from.”

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Hokule‘a makes first stop in Canada as part of voyage around the Pacific

Hokule‘a is seen off the coast of Haida Gwaii, an archipelago of British Columbia, on Tuesday. It’s the voyaging canoe’s first stop in Canada after two months of sailing through Alaska. Michael Wilson / Polynesian Voyaging Society photos

The Maui News

Hokule’a arrived in British Columbia, Canada, on Tuesday evening after two months sailing through southeast Alaska, the Polynesian Voyaging Society announced Wednesday.

The transit from Hydaburg on Tuesday morning took about 12 hours, with fair weather, excellent wind and following seas allowing the canoe and crew to sail up to 8 knots, the voyaging society said.

Arriving at the Haida village of Old Massett (Gaw) in Haida Gwaii, an archipelago of British Columbia, Hokule’a was greeted by tribal leaders and hundreds of community members, who performed song and dance, gifted them with cedar bark headbands and treated them to stew and salmon sandwiches.

According to the Old Massett Village Council, the lands and surrounding waters of Haida Gwaii, along with parts of southern Alaska, are the unceded, ancestral and traditional territories of the Haida, who have occupied, governed and responsibly managed Haida since time immemorial. Before the arrival of Europeans, they numbered in the tens of thousands, with many of their town sites scattered across the archipelago. The arrival of Europeans brought foreign diseases like smallpox, measles and typhoid, and their numbers fell to 600 in the early 1900s.

Community members aboard a canoe welcome Hokule‘a and the crew to Haida Gwaii, an archipelago of British Columbia, on Tuesday.

As the Haida population dwindled, their people migrated away from their ancestral villages and eventually settled in either Old Massett or Skidegate. Today, Haida Gwaii is home to 5,000 full-time residents, with Haida people making up about half of the population.

Old Massett Village is the Haida community located on the north side of Haida Gwaii and is home to Xaada families who previously lived in a number of different villages in their territory. Each village had its own dialect and there are five different dialects currently spoken by Old Massett residents.

Weather permitting, Hokule’a is scheduled to make additional stops in British Columbia, including Prince Rupert, Hartley Bay, Bella Bella and Port Hardy.

The canoe and crew are in the first months of a 43,000-nautical-mile, four-year journey around the Pacific Ocean as part of the Moananuiakea Voyage.

For the latest updates and to track the voyage, visit hokulea.com.

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WATCH: Take a tour of Hokulea as crew members prepare for 4-year Pacific voyage

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hokulea is a marvel to behold.

Vance Kaleohano Kahahawai Farrant, 24, has been sailing with the Polynesian Voyaging Society for three years and still has to pinch himself when he hops onboard.

“This is our steering sweep ‘Kawainui’ named after Herb Kawainui Kane, one of the founders of Hokulea,” Farrant said, during a recent tour.

Hokulea, Hikianalia to embark on 4-year journey circumnavigating the Pacific

Hokulea’s crew is preparing for a four-year journey around the Pacific that will launch from Alaska in June.

Farrant clearly enjoys sharing Hokule’a’s story.

That seed perhaps planted when he was a Kamehameha fifth grader more than a decade ago, getting a tour from now Hokule’a captain Lehua Kamalu.

“We are going to be influencing lives of others. We are looking toward the even younger navigators and sailors who are coming after us and how do we honor that,” he said.

Copyright 2023 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

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Click here for a visual timeline of Hōkūleʻa’s history.

On March 8, 1975, Hōkūle‘a, a performance-accurate deep sea voyaging canoe built in the tradition of ancient Hawaiian  wa‘a kaulua (double-hulled voyaging canoe), was launched from the sacred shores of Hakipu‘u-Kualoa, in Kāne‘ohe Bay on the island of O‘ahu. She was designed by artist and historian Herb Kawainui Kāne, one of the founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. The canoe was named Hōkūle‘a (“Star of Gladness”), a zenith star of Hawai‘i, which appeared to him growing ever brighter in a dream. This launching was one of many events that marked a generation of renewal for Hawai‘i’s indigenous people. Along with the renewal of voyaging and navigation traditions came a renewal of Hawaiian language, dance, chant, and many other expressions of Hawaiian culture. The renewal represented a new-found respect and appreciation for Hawaiian culture, by all of Hawai’i’s people.For the Hawaiian people, it has meant that they once again have begun to feel proud of who they are, and where they come from.

During that generation of voyaging (1975-2000), Hōkūle‘a sailed on six major voyages from Hawai‘i, at the apex of the Polynesian triangle, to Aotearoa (New Zealand) at the southwestern corner, and finally to Rapa Nui, at the southeastern corner. Her voyages inspired a revival of canoe building and voyaging throughout Polynesia.

To view or download hi-res diagram of Hōkūleʻa click here.

Hōkūleʻa at a Glance:

• Built in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi and launched on March 8, 1975
• Has sailed over 140,000 nautical miles across the Pacific
• Length: 62 feet
• Width: 20 feet
• Hōkūleʻa is the Hawaiian name for the star Arcturus