Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 7, 1 July 2005 — Following the SUN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Following the SUN

On the summer solstice, canoes carry a cultural delegation to re-establish spiritual ties with the Northwest "kūpuna islands" By Derek Ferrar In late June, the voyaging canoes Hōkūle'a and Hōkūalaka'i completed a historic week-long cultural voyage to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands of Nihoa and Mokumanamana (also known as Necker), both of whieh contain archaeological remains of an ancient Hawaiian presence. It was only the second major eanoe

because they are the oldest in the Hawaiian ehain. Traveling with the canoes was a cultural delegation that included, among others, kumu hula Pua Kanahele, Hawaiian studies scholar Lilikalā Kame'eleihiwa and burials expert Halealoha Ayau. Also on board, 30 years after Hōkule'a' s launeh in 1975, was anthropologist Ben Finney, co-founder of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. As the canoes were preparing to depart, Kanahele said that, for her, the trip "is like traveling the universe; it's an old world, and yet it's a new world for me, so it's like completing a cycle of rebirth." In addition to facilitating the cultural access to the islands, the voyage was intended as a deep-sea trial for the year-old Hōkūalaka 'i and a training sail for a new generation of voyagers, including 27-year-old Russell Amimoto, who captained Hōkūle'a on the journey. Veteran wayfinder Chad B aybayan, who served as Hōkūalaka'i' s captain and overall navigator on the voyage, said the journey carried a particularly "powerful dynamic, with Hōkūalaka'i, the youngest of the voyaging canoes [sailing with] Hokule 'a as the senior elder, while at the same time having the opportunity to take elders in the Hawaiian community to these islands for the first time."

Hōkūalaka 'i is owned by the 'Aha Pūnana Leo Hawaiian language immersion program, whieh uses the eanoe as a floating classroom. Hōkūle'a made the trip as part of its 30th anniversary sail throughout the state, whieh is being used in part to train crew members in advance of the canoe's planned voyage to Micronesia and possibly Japan next year. The canoes and their escort boats departed from Hanalei, Kaua'i, on June 17 and arrived the following day 160 miles away at Nihoa, a 170acre island fronted by rugged 900foot cliffs. More than 80 cultural sites are known on Nihoa, including habitation terraces and bluff shelters, religious sites, agricultural terraces and burial caves. It is believed that as many as 175 people may have onee inhabited Nihoa between A.D. 1000 — A.D. 1700. Next, the eanoes made the 180mile journey to Mokumanamana, whieh, although only 46 acres in size, contains 55 known cultural sites, including 33 thought to be wahi la'a, or religious sites. A variety of ki'i pōhaku, or stone images, are known to have been made on the island, along with stone adzes, grindstones, stone bowls and fishing tools. On June 21, the day of the summer solstice, the group conducted ceremonies in honor of the ancestors

at Mokumanamana. Kanahele said there is a connection in Hawaiian tradition between the northern islands and the summer solstice, when the sun is at the northernmost point of its annual journey. On that day, the sun sits directly over Mokumanana. "We especially wanted to travel this trail on the summer solstice, because for our ancestors the trail of the solstice is ke ala nui polohiwa a Kāne, the northern pathway of the sun," she said. "For Hawaiians, these islands are our northern limits, just as the solstice is northern limit of the sun. So as we go along the trail of our ancestors, we also complete the cycle of the sun." The canoes completed the voyage on June 24, returning to Hanalei. Master navigator Nainoa Thompson, who did not sail on the voyage, said he felt "really good about Hōkūle 'a sailing under the direetion of this younger generation." "In order to perpetuate and strengthen voyaging, you need to always be mindful of developing young leaders," Thompson said. "And in that process there comes a moment in whieh the previous leadership should step back and the younger leaders should step forward. Eaeh should have the wisdom to know when that moment is, and for us it's today."

Structures such as this religious site at Mokumanamana indicate the presence of the ancestors in the Northwest lslands. Below, left: Hōkūle'a sets sail from Hanalei for its "kūpuna islands" voyage last year. Photos: Monte costa

voyage to the Northwest Islands in modern times ( Hōkūle'a sailed there last summer), and the first intended specifically to re-establish a cultural and spiritual link with what some eall the "kūpuna islands"