Voyage with Us
“Our mission is to inspire all people to mālama honua, or to care for island earth. Our earth needs help, and so this voyage is really just a catalyst to get people to feel like they’re a part of a movement,” says Apprentice Navigator, Jenna Ishii.
Pwo Navigator, Nainoa Thompson, says, “If we want to have a world that’s going to be sustainable, you need to teach children sustainability. If you want a world that we’re going to protect our environment for their grandchildren, then you need to teach that.”
“We are encouraging people through stories of hope and stories of place to look for ways that we can mālama our earth that are linked to local, indigenous, ancestral, ecological wisdom and to share those stories with the world and really figure out a way to bring that into schools and have that help to inspire education to be better and to put students at the center of designing a better future, says Education Coordinator, Miki Tomita.
“So one requirement of every crewmember is that they reach out to their local school or organization, to really truly have like a face to face and a more deeper personal connection with this voyage. This voyage is a little different from previous voyages, where previous voyages might have been to find an island, to close the Polynesian Triangle, uh this voyage is all about bringing community with us,” says Ishii.
Satellite transmission of video updates and still photos happen in near real time. Allowing for unprecedented engagement with communities back home and across the globe.
“There’s been various variations of this over the years but we’re really pushing on the edge of what technology will allow us to do,” says CEO of ʻŌiwi Television, Nāʻālehu Anthony.
Maui Tauotaha is a video journalist working for ʻŌiwi TV. The Native Hawaiian television network has a crew member onboard to capture and chronicle the voyage as it unfolds.
“But my one contribution, I believe that I bring to the canoe, is to help tell its story, and I think it’s important because the message of mālama honua and the whole purpose of this voyage is to spread awareness about what’s happening in this world and to try and change perspectives and behaviors so that we make sure there’s still a healthy world for our moʻopuna to have,” says Tauotaha.
Apprentice Navigator and Educator, Austin Kino, agrees in saying that “That’s how large it needs to be of a network of people benefiting from this, otherwise, like if you’re not going to be able to measure the impact of what these canoes are going to do for our communities, why take the risk?”
“So one of the ways that we would like to include everyone on this voyage, is our third canoe, we call it hokulea.com. Everything you need to know about how to track the voyage, how to talk to our crewmembers by asking them questions, how to adopt the voyage, and share what your community is doing around the world is all through Hokulea.com. So that instantaneous feeling of, ʻWow, I’m with these crewmembers, and I’m voyaging with them, and now I can do something for my community.’ I think that’s what we need to drive action,” says Ishii.
Continue to follow the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage by visiting us online and joining our global movement towards a more sustainable Island Earth.
