Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 4, 1 April 2007 — "Kū Holo Mau" voyage [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
"Kū Holo Mau" voyage
On March 14, after a journey of more than 3,500 miles from Hawai'i, the voyaging canoes Alingano Maisu and Hōkūle'a reached their primary objective for the "Kū Holo Mau" voyage - the tiny island of Satawal, home to Grandmaster Navigator Pius "Mau" Piailug, who brought the lost art of traditional navigation back to Hawai'i when he guided Hōkūle'a to Tahiti in 1976 without the use of navigational instruments. The purpose of the current voyage was to deliver the Alingano Maisu to Mau as a gift to help perpetuate the navigators' art among his own people. The eanoe, was built for Mau over the last several years by the Hawai'i Island voyaging society Nā Kālai Wa'a Moku o Hawai'i with the help of hundreds of volunteers. After journeying through Micronesia with stops in Majuro, Pohnpei and Chuuk - and accompanied mueh of the way by drenching stonns - the canoes made landfall at Satawal aeeompanied by the singing of children and the blowing of eoneh shells. Only about a mile long and half a mile wide, and lying just eight feet above sea level, Satawal is home to about 600 people. The island has no airstrip, and is supplied by monthly cargo ship visits. Seven Satawalese voyagers arrived home aboard the Alingano Maisu, including Mau's son, Sesario Sewralur, a trained wayfinder as well as a polieeman on the island of Yap. After formally presenting the eanoe to Mau, the five senior Hawaiian navigators aboard the canoes were surprised when he announced that he would lead a ceremony to induct them into a loeal navigator's society. Nāinoa Thompson, Shorty Bertehnann, Bruce Blankenfeld, Chadd Paishon and Chad Baybayan were formally initiated as "pwo," or master navigators. It was the first time Polynesian navigators have been inducted into the society, and marked something of a vindication for Mau, who over the years has been criticized by some of his own people for sharing his ancestral knowledge with outsiders. Along with the Hawaiians, eleven loeal navigators received the pwo initiation, whieh Thompson said had not been performed in 50 years. During the ceremony, according to Honohihi Star-BuIIetin reporter Gary Kubota, who has been traveling aboard Hōkūle'a through Micronesia, Mau rubbed medicinal herbs on the heads and chests of the initiates to symbolize the requirement that they have the right hearts and minds as master navigators. Pwo naviSee V0YAGE on pagE lū
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Grandmaster Navigator Mau Piūilug (seated) welcomes the voyaging crews to Sūtawal. Pboto: Gary Kubota/Honolulu Star-Buktin
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CūntinuEd fram page Ū4 gator Lambert Lokopwe, who was in charge of cultural protocols for the ceremony, told Kubota that master navigators are also ambassadors to other islands. "Navigation is a life of service, and to serve, you must be able to have the qualities of respect, humility, leadership and courage and carry the light of knowledge," he said. "Today was not about us. Today was about our ehildren continuing their tradition, culture and ancestry," Thompson told Kubota after the ceremony. Baybayan added: "I'm hon-
ored, but it's also the realization that with this entitlement, you hold the stewardship of an art, whieh is a big responsibility." On March 19, the canoes departed from Satawal for visits to the atolls of Woleai and Uliīhi, then on to the islands of Yap and Palau. From Palau, Alingano will return to its permanent home on Yap, and Hōkūle'a will sail on alone to Okinawa and lapan in the second portion of the journey, dubbed "Kū Holo Lā Komohana - Sail On to the Western Sun." The voyage will honor the ties between lapan and Hawai'i and the historic journey of King Kalākaua to Yokohama in 1881, whieh lead to the start of Iapanese immigration to Hawai'i. E3