Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2010 18:56:29 GMT 10
I have just listened to a repeat of one of the Massey Lectures on ABC Radio, The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World. I was delighted to hear how the holistic Polynesian art of navigation or wayfinding, suppressed by colonial powers, had survived generations in which it was mostly passed down surreptitiously as theory, without the opportunity of putting it into practice on the open sea.
The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) is a non-profit research and educational corporation based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. PVS was established to research and perpetuate traditional Polynesian voyaging methods. Using replicas of traditional double-hulled canoes, PVS undertakes voyages throughout Polynesia navigating without modern instruments.
History
The society was founded in 1973 by nautical anthropologist Ben Finney, Hawaiian artist Herb Kawainui Kane, and sailor Charles Tommy Holmes. The three wanted to show that ancient Polynesians could have purposely settled the Polynesian Triangle using non-instrument navigation. The first PVS project was to build a replica of a double-hulled voyaging canoe.
Hokuleʻa
On March 8, 1975, the first voyaging canoe to be built in the Hawaiian Islands in over 600 years was launched with captain Kawika Kapahulehua and crew. Named the Hôkûleʻa, it left Hawaiʻi on May 1, 1976 for Tahiti in an attempt to retrace the ancient voyaging route. Micronesian navigator Mau Piailug, using no instruments, successfully navigated the canoe to Tahiti, arriving there on June 3, 1976.
After an attempted voyage to Tahiti in 1978 was aborted when the Hokuleʻa capsized near Lânaʻi and crew member Eddie Aikau was lost at sea, Piailug trained Nainoa Thompson in the ancient navigation methods. Two years later in 1980, Thompson replicated the successful 1976 voyage to Tahiti, becoming the first modern Hawaiian to master the art of Micronesian navigation.
Since that voyage, the Hokuleʻa and her sister canoe the Hawaiʻiloa have undertaken voyages to other islands in Polynesia, including Samoa, Tonga, and New Zealand.
History
The society was founded in 1973 by nautical anthropologist Ben Finney, Hawaiian artist Herb Kawainui Kane, and sailor Charles Tommy Holmes. The three wanted to show that ancient Polynesians could have purposely settled the Polynesian Triangle using non-instrument navigation. The first PVS project was to build a replica of a double-hulled voyaging canoe.
Hokuleʻa
On March 8, 1975, the first voyaging canoe to be built in the Hawaiian Islands in over 600 years was launched with captain Kawika Kapahulehua and crew. Named the Hôkûleʻa, it left Hawaiʻi on May 1, 1976 for Tahiti in an attempt to retrace the ancient voyaging route. Micronesian navigator Mau Piailug, using no instruments, successfully navigated the canoe to Tahiti, arriving there on June 3, 1976.
After an attempted voyage to Tahiti in 1978 was aborted when the Hokuleʻa capsized near Lânaʻi and crew member Eddie Aikau was lost at sea, Piailug trained Nainoa Thompson in the ancient navigation methods. Two years later in 1980, Thompson replicated the successful 1976 voyage to Tahiti, becoming the first modern Hawaiian to master the art of Micronesian navigation.
Since that voyage, the Hokuleʻa and her sister canoe the Hawaiʻiloa have undertaken voyages to other islands in Polynesia, including Samoa, Tonga, and New Zealand.