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Hawaii's Back Yard

Fest celebrates Polynesian navigators

By Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Sep 21, 2008

(Page 1 of 2) | Single Page View

History books are replete with tales of heroic mariners such as the Norseman Leif Ericson, Christopher Columbus of Spain, Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal and James Cook of England. Lesser known are the accomplishments of the Polynesians -- arguably the most skilled seamen of all -- who were navigating the Pacific centuries before any European explorer left port.

HILO WAYFINDING AND NAVIGATION FESTIVAL

» Place: Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii at Hilo, 600 Imiloa Place, Hilo, Big Island

» Date and time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 7-12

» Call: (808) 969-9700

» Admission: Free for festival offerings. Regular admission will be charged for entry to Imiloa's Exhibit Hall and Planetarium shows (except for shows that are part of the festival). Prices are $17.50 for adults, $9.50 for ages 4 through 12; free for younger than 4. Kamaaina rates are $12 and $7, respectively. Buy a six-day pass for access to the Exhibit Hall and one Planetarium show during the festival (admission to another show may be purchased for $6). The pass is $20 for adults and $10 for children.

» E-mail: info@imiloahawaii.org

» Web site: www.imiloahawaii.org
From the Marquesas, those courageous pioneers sailed over 2,000 miles north to settle the islands of Hawaii. Amazingly, they made those epic voyages guided only by the stars, winds and ocean currents.

Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii celebrates the achievements of master Polynesian navigators with a new annual Big Island event, the Hilo Wayfinding and Navigation Festival, Oct. 7 through 12.

"Attendees can learn about wayfinding or navigation without instruments," said Justina Mattos, the festival's coordinator. "Talks, demonstrations and hands-on experiences will show how well Polynesian wayfinders are in tune with nature."

Were it not for visionary Hawaiians such as Myron "Pinky" Thompson, Herb Kawainui Kane, Ben Finney and Tommy Holmes -- founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society (pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu) -- the art of wayfinding might have been lost. Over 30 years ago, they sought an expert willing to share the knowledge.

Mau Piailug, a master navigator living on the remote Micronesian island of Satawal, agreed to help. Using skills they learned from him, a 15-man crew sailed the double-hulled waa (long-distance canoe) Hokulea from Honolua, Maui, to Papeete, Tahiti, in 34 days, from May 1 to June 4, 1976.

Kalepa Baybayan, Imiloa's "navigator-in-residence," served as captain and navigator for eight of nine subsequent Hokulea voyages, as well as trips on two other waa, Hawaiiloa and Hokualakai. He helped spearhead plans for this year's inaugural Hilo Wayfinding and Navigation Festival, which features a look at Polynesian exploration and settlement of the Pacific, canoe-building techniques, talks by prominent Hawaiian navigators, and the legacy of Hokulea in stimulating interest in wayfinding and the renaissance of canoe voyaging.

"The festival closely relates to many of Imiloa's exhibits," said Mattos. "We have a one-fifth scale model of Hokualakai, which is berthed in Hilo Bay. We also have over 500 square feet of exhibit space devoted to voyaging and canoes."

Imiloa hosted its second-annual, by-invitation-only Navigation Training Workshop for waa crews in collaboration with the Polynesian Voyaging Society and Aha Punana Leo (www.ahapunanaleo.org) this spring. The intensive three-day course grew from 40 participants last year to more than 100 this year, hailing from all the Hawaiian islands, New Zealand and Japan.

"Participation in the workshop is limited, but the Hilo Wayfinding and Navigation Festival is open to everyone," said Mattos.

"Education sparks interest in an endeavor, which, in turn, leads to commitment to it. Hopefully, the festival will help inspire the next generation of wayfinders."

DAILY SCHEDULE

From 9 a.m. to noon
» Oct. 7: Knot tying
» Oct. 8: Hawaiian sea songs and riddles
» Oct. 9: Display of a 7-foot cross section of a waa's hull
» Oct. 10: Learn how to use a Hawaiian "compass," a tool that organizes the horizon into 32 segments that help navigators find the rising and setting points of stars
» Oct. 11: Use your hands to calculate degrees
» Oct. 12: All the above

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
» Canoe carver Ray Bumatay and his team display three waa in various stages of completion. On Oct. 11 and 12 you can board two canoes complete with sails and rigging.
» Oct. 12: "Family Navigation Day" with "talk story" sessions with members of the Big Island's canoe voyaging community, demonstrations of canoe carving and building, and a presentation on Pwo, the mastery of wayfinding that carries the responsibility to teach it, at 3 p.m. by Kalepa Baybayan. Last year, when the crew of Hokulea gifted a long-distance canoe to Mau Piailug on Satawal, Baybayan and four other navigators were given the honored title.

Noon
» A live Planetarium program focuses on the Hawaiian lunar calendar and "star lines." Navigators divide the sky into four parts; within each are certain stars "linked" by these lines. By understanding star lines, they have constant orientation to the horizon. This program also will be offered at 10 a.m., noon and 2 and 3 p.m. Repeats at 10 a.m., noon, 2 and 3 p.m. Oct. 12.
» Oct. 12: "Mau Voyager" film screening.

1 p.m.
» Guided tours spotlight the plants carried by the Polynesians on their voyages. The plants were valued for food, medicine, and the making of tools and shelter.

2 p.m.
Screening of films about long-distance canoe voyages:
» Oct. 7: "The Navigators"
» Oct. 8: "Wayfinders"
» Oct. 9: (To be determined)
» Oct. 10: "Rapa Nui and In the Wake of Our Ancestors"
» Oct. 11: "Proud Voyage Home"

3 p.m.
» Oct. 9: "Waa and Japan Perspectives": Crew member Kaimana Barcarse presents a slide show and talk on Hokulea's 2007 voyage to Japan.
» Oct. 11: "Historic Perspective of Waa in Hawaii" with Ben Finney, one of the founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, who discusses the challenges of building the Hawaiian navigation community over the past three decades.

6 p.m.
» Oct. 10: Kaiulani Kimura, Imiloa's associate director and a crew member on last year's Hokulea trip, moderates a panel on "Female Navigators," including Katherine Fuller, Kaiulani Murphy and Pomai Bertelmann.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Bulletin have won multiple Society of American Travel Writers awards.

History books are replete with tales of heroic mariners such as the Norseman Leif Ericson, Christopher Columbus of Spain, Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal and James Cook of England. Lesser known are the accomplishments of the Polynesians -- arguably the most skilled seamen of all -- who were navigating the Pacific centuries before any European explorer left port.

HILO WAYFINDING AND NAVIGATION FESTIVAL

» Place: Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii at Hilo, 600 Imiloa Place, Hilo, Big Island

» Date and time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 7-12

» Call: (808) 969-9700

» Admission: Free for festival offerings. Regular admission will be charged for entry to Imiloa's Exhibit Hall and Planetarium shows (except for shows that are part of the festival). Prices are $17.50 for adults, $9.50 for ages 4 through 12; free for younger than 4. Kamaaina rates are $12 and $7, respectively. Buy a six-day pass for access to the Exhibit Hall and one Planetarium show during the festival (admission to another show may be purchased for $6). The pass is $20 for adults and $10 for children.

» E-mail: info@imiloahawaii.org

» Web site: www.imiloahawaii.org
From the Marquesas, those courageous pioneers sailed over 2,000 miles north to settle the islands of Hawaii. Amazingly, they made those epic voyages guided only by the stars, winds and ocean currents.

Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii celebrates the achievements of master Polynesian navigators with a new annual Big Island event, the Hilo Wayfinding and Navigation Festival, Oct. 7 through 12.

"Attendees can learn about wayfinding or navigation without instruments," said Justina Mattos, the festival's coordinator. "Talks, demonstrations and hands-on experiences will show how well Polynesian wayfinders are in tune with nature."

Were it not for visionary Hawaiians such as Myron "Pinky" Thompson, Herb Kawainui Kane, Ben Finney and Tommy Holmes -- founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society (pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu) -- the art of wayfinding might have been lost. Over 30 years ago, they sought an expert willing to share the knowledge.

Mau Piailug, a master navigator living on the remote Micronesian island of Satawal, agreed to help. Using skills they learned from him, a 15-man crew sailed the double-hulled waa (long-distance canoe) Hokulea from Honolua, Maui, to Papeete, Tahiti, in 34 days, from May 1 to June 4, 1976.

Kalepa Baybayan, Imiloa's "navigator-in-residence," served as captain and navigator for eight of nine subsequent Hokulea voyages, as well as trips on two other waa, Hawaiiloa and Hokualakai. He helped spearhead plans for this year's inaugural Hilo Wayfinding and Navigation Festival, which features a look at Polynesian exploration and settlement of the Pacific, canoe-building techniques, talks by prominent Hawaiian navigators, and the legacy of Hokulea in stimulating interest in wayfinding and the renaissance of canoe voyaging.

"The festival closely relates to many of Imiloa's exhibits," said Mattos. "We have a one-fifth scale model of Hokualakai, which is berthed in Hilo Bay. We also have over 500 square feet of exhibit space devoted to voyaging and canoes."

Imiloa hosted its second-annual, by-invitation-only Navigation Training Workshop for waa crews in collaboration with the Polynesian Voyaging Society and Aha Punana Leo (www.ahapunanaleo.org) this spring. The intensive three-day course grew from 40 participants last year to more than 100 this year, hailing from all the Hawaiian islands, New Zealand and Japan.

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Courtesy Kaimana Barcarse, Aha Punana Leo
Early Polynesians might be considered among the world's great navigators, having discovered Hawaii before Capt. Cook, with only the sun, moon and stars to guide them.





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