The stage is set for the global launch of Moananuiakea: Voyage for Earth circumnavigation of the Pacific on June 15.
Until then, Hokulea, her crew and a delegation of Hawaii educators and Polynesian Voyaging Society partners have been in the midst of a cultural and educational exchange conference with their Alaska hosts.
The crew arrived at Auke Bay in Juneau, Alaska, aboard Hokulea on June 10 with Captain and Pwo Navigator Bruce Blankenfeld at the helm following the Heritage Sail. Hundreds of people gathered at the shoreline bordering the traditional lands of the Aʻaakw Kwaan to greet the voyaging canoe.
After a ceremonial protocol, the crew joined 80 members of a Hawaii delegation that included three of the remaining four original crew members from Hokulea’s maiden voyage to Tahiti in 1976 — John Kruse, Pwo Navigator Shorty Bertelmann and Billy Richards.
The delegation also included Pwo Navigators from the Cook Islands, Tua Pitman and Peia Patai; Pwo Navigator from Aotearoa, Jack Thatcher; Hawaii Rep. Ed Case; and Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola.
Case earlier released a statement of the occasion saying, “Our country is a Pacific nation, and together with my home state of Hawaii and the rest of our Pacific Islands ohana, we continue to embrace this historic journey by the Polynesian Voyaging Society as Hokulea pursues its four-year voyage around our Earth’s largest ocean and our cultural home.”
A tribal welcome protocol included chanting and dance by Kamehameha Schools, as well as awa offered to Auke Bay–Aʻaakw Kwaan and to the Na Pohaku o Taputapuatea, three stones from the sacred voyaging temple in Raiatea carried aboard Hokulea.
Also present, PVS CEO and Pwo Navigator Nainoa Thompson greeted the crowd and spoke of Hawaii’s 31-year relationship with southeast Alaska with gratitude for the compassion and generosity of Alaska Natives Judson Brown, Byron Mallott and Ernie Hillman. Thompson shared how their leadership turned to friendship, then to family, and how that small family grew to thousands today.
“We begin with a 31-year relationship with the native people of southeast Alaska,” said Thompson in a June 1 PVS news release. “And I think Alaska is the appropriate place to begin because in the end this is about family — the family of the Earth. And so we go from one family to another, building relationships grounded in respect and trust — a crucial pathway for peace.”
After initially arriving at Juneau, Alaska in May, Hokulea and her crew embarked on a Heritage Sail through southeast Alaska, paying homage to and reconnecting with the families of those who were pivotal in the construction of the double-hulled canoe, Hawaiiloa, in 1991.
Hokulea sailed from Juneau to the first stop of Yakutat, home of the late Byron Mallott, who, as then CEO of Sealaska Corporation in 1990, offered to donate two 200-foot Sitka spruce logs for the hulls of Hawaiiloa.
With the crew were veteran voyager Joey Mallott, son of the late Tlingit elder Byron Mallott, and Tlingit Heather Powell of Hoonah, niece of the late Ernie Hillman.
“It was a pretty emotional thing for me coming from my grandfather’s land (Yakutat) and coming down the outside and coming past Lituya Bay, seeing the waters,” said Powell in a PVS news release. “They’re not always forgiving, and seeing the waves come crashing over the front of the waʻa was a pretty amazing thing, to see the power of the water, the strength of the people, but seeing everybody join in calmness.”
The crew stopped at Glacier Bay National Park where they were invited to stay the night at Xunaa Shuka Hit, the Huna Tribal House. From there, they sailed to Hoonah and were greeted by the Hoonah community.
Hoonah was the home of former Sealaska Forestry Manager, the late Ernie Hillman, who was tasked with finding and felling the two spruce trees.
From Hoonah, Hokulea made its way to Haines, home of the late Alaska Native elder Judson Brown, whose friendship with PVS co-founder Herb Kawainui Kane, led PVS to Mallott.
The crew visited Brown’s resting place with his family where Thompson spoke of Brown’s profound kindness and compassion for another native people trying to revive and hold on to tradition, an effort that led them to Mallott, Hillman and Brown, and ultimately, as Brown had once said, to “the gift of our children.”
During their stop in Haines, Hokulea crew member Moani Heimuli spoke to KTOO partner, KHNS, about the lost art of wayfinding. KTOO is a nonprofit Juneau-based corporation providing telecommunications services to Juneau and the public throughout Alaska.
The global launch of Moananuiakea Voyage (weather permitting) will include a four-hour ceremony to bless and celebrate the start of Hokulea’s circumnavigation of the Pacific.
The June 15 event takes place at 1 to 4 p.m. Alaska Time and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. HST and will be live streamed on the PVS website.
Sarah Yamanaka covers events, environmental and community news for Spectrum News Hawaii. She can be reached at sarah.yamanaka@charter.com.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Article has been updated to with information regarding Hawaiiloa. (June 14, 2023)