Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 7, 1 July 2017 — Youth exchanges enrich worldwide voyage [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Youth exchanges enrich worldwide voyage

By Lurline Wailana McGregor At almost every one of the 150 stops that Hōkūle'a made on the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage, dignitaries and eommunity members gathered to greet the wa'a. In ceremonies large

and small, crewmembers were welcomed onto distant shores. Over the course of their stay, loeal community members shared their history, their culture and customs, their particular oeean and environmental issues and projects they have undertaken to increase their sustainability. In turn, crewmembers talked about the purpose

of their mālama honua mission and how they are caring for the earth. They gave eanoe tours, explained the star compass and how they navigate by traditional methods. While the voyage opened doors for cultural and educational exchange, it wasn't limited to the crewmembers and the people they met. One of the most long-term impacts may be with the students from Hawai'i who traveled to meet the wa'a. "Pinky [Myron Pinky Thompson] felt that it was important to build relationships in the eommunities where Hōkūle'a made landfall, so he asked to bring a group of 10 students to Waitangi, Aotearoa in 1985," says Dr. Randie Kamuela Fong, executive cultural officer at Kamehameha Schools and Polynesian Voyaging Society cultural engagement group leader. "What he found was that the communities responded so positively to Hawaiian youth and were taken by their ability to express the Hawaiian culture in terms of performance, language, behavior and with a respectful and humhle demeanor. While crew members did the difficult work of sailing and caring for the canoes, the students would provide support for ceremonies as well as at school visits for cultural educational exchange."

In November 20 14, Kamehameha Schools students traveled back to Waitangi to greet Hōkūle'a when she arrived there on the Mālama Worldwide Voyage. This marked the first of 1 1 trips that students from Hawai'i took over the next three years to greet the wa'a and participate in cultural

and educational exchanges. [see sidebar for places visited] Dr. Fong and his wife, Jamie Mililani Fong, who is the manager of Ka'iwaklloumoku Hawaiian Cultural Center, located on the Kamehameha Schools Kapālama campus, are at the heart of the student program. Together, they developed the standards that guided the selection process, whieh ranged from strong performance skills to Hawaiian language knowledge to academic proficiency to proper conduct. For the Mālama Honua voyage, the student delegations were not only from the Kamehameha Schools campuses statewide, they were also from a number of charter and immersion schools, frommiddle school to high school. Other Hawai'i schools sent student contingents as well, including 'Iolani and Hō'ala School students, whose students traveled to Aotearoa, and Castle High School science students who traveled to the Galapagos. Nā Kelamoku, the Youth Leadership Initiative of the Polynesian Voyaging Society that is made up of students from different schools, and who are training to be the next generation of navigators and explorers, traveled to meet Hōkūle'a in Miami, Florida. Joy Domingo-Kameenui, now

15 years old, was a KamehamehaKapālama eighth grader in 2016 when she was selected to be one of 12 middle school students to travel to Washington, D.C. to greet Hōkūle'a. She and the other students took part in the welcoming ceremony for Hōkūle'a's arrival,

performing in front of hundreds of well-wishers who had eome to greet the wa'a in 01d Town, Alexandria. The students spent the next 12 days in the nation's capital, visiting Hawai'i's congressional delegation and museums. "I got interested in culture and anthropology from the trip and now I plan to do a double major in college in computer science and

anthropology," Joy said. A'ali'i Kelling, a 16-year-old junior at Ke Kula 'o Samuel M. Kamakau Laboratory Puhlie Charter School, whieh is a Hawaiian language immersion school, traveled to Rapa Nui, Tahiti and Moorea on his huaka'i to greet Hōkūle'a earlier this year. "I want to be a marine biologist after meeting with the scientists who were doing oeean and reef work in Rapa Nui. Their scientific work with marine life is from a cultural perspective, and we should be doing the same thing. This trip opened my eyes to what mālama 'āina truly is. On this trip a lot of kuleana was placed on the haumana to help with ceremonies. We practiced the 'awa ceremony a lot because we wanted to make sure we would get it right. We knew we were representing our people and our eulture, so we wanted to do our best." Maka Meleiseā, 18 years old and a 2017 graduate of KamehamehaKapālama, met Hōkūle'a in Tahiti this past April. Her school group traveled on to Ra'iatea, where they spent several days engaging with the community and being part of the ceremony at Taputapuatea, the spiritual center for voyagers of the Paeilie to launeh and close their voyages. "It was such a humbling experience, we never felt like we left home because of the love from

the people and the land. Hōkūle'a started the Mālama Honua voyage when I entered my freshman year, and I followed it all the way through high school. I was so glad I got to be part of it as I finished my senior year." Maka will attend the Univer-

sity of Hawai'i Mānoa in the fall and plans to major in Hawaiian studies and communications. ■ Lurīine Waiīana McGregor is a writer, teīevision producer, autlior of "Between the Deep Blue Sea aneī Me " and Hōkiiīe 'a Māīama Honua cre w member.

HO'ONAAUAO EDUCATI0N

Kamehaililani Waiau, Hiilani Young, Aalii Kelling, Kalehua Kelling, Kanoe Holl. - Photo: Courtesy of Kamehaililani Waiau