On Wednesday evening, the iconic Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa and her crew were greeted with a welcoming ceremony at the Washington Canoe Club on Water Street. White House dignitaries and members of the Hawai‘i congressional delegation were present to usher the canoe into the nation’s capital.
Christy Goldfuss, director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, announced the sighting of the Hōkūle‘a and briefed the audience gathered at the canoe club of the welcoming event.
Hōkūle‘a arrived at the destination escorted by a canoe flotilla, as the traditional sounding of the conch and ‘ohana chant were conducted by [the Hōkūle‘a crew]. The event also featured a cultural welcome of song and dance by students and educators from Kamehameha Schools and Hālau O ʻAulani.
Along with Goldfuss, other White House representatives who were present included US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and US Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith.
“What you are doing here with the [Worldwide Voyage], what you are doing here with the culture is something that will live on for generations to come. So we are enormously proud of the leaders, the crew, the volunteers, and supporters of this epic journey,” said Secretary Jewell.
US Senators Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono from Hawai‘i along with US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island were also present and provided remarks to welcome Hokulea and her crew to Washington, DC.
“When I think about Hōkūleʻa and her first journey to prove what Native Hawaiians were capable of, it’s an incredible story. Now we take that message and turn it into a global message of sustainability and mālama honua,” remarked Senator Schatz.
“Here we are in Washington, DC, the nation’s capital, with Hōkūleʻa with the message they are taking around the world. It’s the voice of Hawaii, and I am very proud of our crew and all of the young people who have been so involved in this voyage,” said Senator Hirono.
After engaging with the community in Washington, DC, Hōkūleʻa is scheduled to sail to New York City in June for World Oceans Day on June 8.
More than Adventure
Beyond a daring expedition, the Worldwide Voyage is quite possibly the most important mission that Hawaiʻi has ever attempted. As people of Oceania, we are leading a campaign that gives voice to our ocean and planet by highlighting innovative solutions practiced by cultures around the planet.
We could not have begun this great journey without your support, nor can we continue to its completion.
Exactly two years and 20 legs into the World Wide Voyage, Hōkūleʻa and her crew began a momentous sail up the Potomac river, stopping at Hull Springs Farm to learn about Longwood Universityʻs work in conservation and sustainability.
Dina Leech, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Biology at Longwood University explained, “I can say honestly that the Hōkūleʻa coming to Hull Springs has been one of the highlights of our history here. There is a lot of excitement surrounded by Hōkūleʻa and how we could connect our message with your message of conservation and sustainability.”
Leech explained, “There was a lot of planing that involved, you know, how could we share the Hōkūleʻa with the community but also let them know about the great work thatʻs going on in their own backyard. And so there was a lot of excitement about figuring out how to best share our work with your work.At Hull Springs we host a lot of groups, we bring students. It’s a place thatʻs open to the community and to other institutions as a learning environment and outdoor learning environment.”
For the crew, the time in Hull Springs was spent engaging with local students and community members.
”We decided that it would be fun, for not only for the general public but also the Westmoreland county schools, to not only tour the canoe but also learn more about what we have going on here at Hull Springs.”
Kalā Tanaka, crew member on Hōkūleʻa said, “Today we had different groups, different ages and all of them were very receptive and its interesting because we relate so much, you know we may not have creeks but we are still facing both of us in Hawaiʻi and here in Hull Springs the same issue of shoreline degradation of erosion of how we can restore our wetlands. And I feel that having the kids run through these different stations, I feel that it brought us really closer together and showed us just how much we are a like and not different.”
Leech reflected, “I think there was just a lot of energy a lot of excitement with the Hōkūlea coming and hear these people that want to share the same message of protecting our environment, using our resources more sustainability yea just sharing that vision and making our voices louder.”
More than Adventure
Beyond a daring expedition, the Worldwide Voyage is quite possibly the most important mission that Hawaiʻi has ever attempted. As people of Oceania, we are leading a campaign that gives voice to our ocean and planet by highlighting innovative solutions practiced by cultures around the planet.
We could not have begun this great journey without your support, nor can we continue to its completion.
Hōkūleʻa crewmembers and a delegation from Hawaii asked permission of the Piscataway Indian Nation to enter their lands as the original stewards of the land in the Washington D.C. area. They were welcomed to Piscataway with joy and warmth in celebration of the Mālama Honua mission of the Worldwide Voyage.
As the legendary Polynesian voyaging canoe approached from the distance, the Native American community gathered at the dock, waiting for her historic arrival to their land. Chief Billy Tayac of the Piscataway Indian Nation and Chairman Francis Gray of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe gave the signal that allowed the Hawaiian crew to disembark and join them ashore, then led them to a private sacred ceremony between the ancient cultures.
The Hawaii delegation entered the ceremonial circle with traditional genealogy chants. Chief Tayac and Chairman Gray then addressed the Hawaiians and offered honor songs, followed by gifts and cultural exchange. The Hawaii delegation presented oli (song) and hula (dance). Pwo navigator Kālepa Baybayan formally requested permission of the tribe to enter Piscataway land, reflecting on the mission of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage and acknowledging his respect for their Native American hosts. Also participating in the ceremony were representatives of the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, Baltimore American Indian Center, Accokeek Foundation, Alice Ferguson Foundation, and the National Park Service.
More than Adventure
Beyond a daring expedition, the Worldwide Voyage is quite possibly the most important mission that Hawaiʻi has ever attempted. As people of Oceania, we are leading a campaign that gives voice to our ocean and planet by highlighting innovative solutions practiced by cultures around the planet.
We could not have begun this great journey without your support, nor can we continue to its completion.
About 1,000 residents from the Washington DC area gave a grand welcome as she arrived at the Waterfront Park Pier in Old Town Alexandria, VA today at noon (6:00 a.m. HST). The canoe was greeted in the Potomac River by a fireboat from the Alexandria Fire Department. Following the arrival, a Celebration of Friendship with Native Americans from the region and local officials took place at the Waterfront Park. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard also participated in the ceremony, which included cultural performances by the Native American tribes, DC-area hula hālau and students from Kamehameha Schools. Following the Celebration of Friendship, hundreds of people from the community came on board to tour Hōkūleʻa and meet with crew members.
“The mission of Hōkūleʻa extends far beyond sharing the aloha spirit and native Hawaiian culture with people around the world,” said Congresswoman Gabbard. “The mission of Mālama Honua is something that each of us can take and apply in our hearts and our work everyday,” she added.
The arrival marks the first of many community engagements that the Hōkūleʻa crew will participate in throughout the canoe’s two-week visit to the Washington DC area. Following are some of the public events that have been scheduled to date:
Monday, May 16 (1:00 to 4:30 pm) Canoe Tour City Marina, 0 Cameron Street, Alexandria, VA
The public is welcome to come aboard the Hōkūleʻa and meet the crewmembers who will share the history of the legendary canoe and the mission of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage.
Monday, May 16 (2:30 to 5:30 pm) Wa`a (canoe) Talk, followed by private canoe tour Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N Union Street, Alexandria, VA
A presentation for teachers and educators focused on connecting the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage, the values of voyaging, and Hōkūleʻa with classroom content and experiences.
Thursday, May 19 (10:30 am) “Navigating by the Stars” Presentation Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum
Hōkūleʻa’s navigators will talk about traditional wayfinding, navigating across the deep sea using the stars, waves, birds and other signs of nature.
Friday, May 20 (1:00 to 5:00 pm) and Saturday, May 21 (10:00 am to 3:00 pm) Canoe Tour & National Geographic and National Parks Bioblitz Washington Canoe Club – Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Park (C&O Canal)
The public is welcome to come aboard the Hōkūleʻa and meet the crewmembers who will share the history of the legendary canoe and the mission of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage.
During the May 20 and May 21 outreach, crewmembers and the public will be invited to help with a Bioblitz activity focusing on plankton. A BioBlitz is an event that focuses on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time. At a BioBlitz, scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members work together to get an overall count of the plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms that live in a place. May 20 and May 21 mark the National Geographic Bioblitz event dates, in partnership with National Parks Service. Hōkūleʻa crewmembers will conduct a plankton tow activity, adding plankton photos to the C&O National Park Bioblitz data.
Friday, May 20 and Saturday, May 21 (9:00 am to 5:00 pm) Polynesian Voyaging Society’s Mālama Honua Exhibit at the National Geographic and National Park Service BioBlitz The National Mall
Hōkūleʻa crew and Polynesian Voyaging Society staff members will be conducting hands-on activities and lessons on the importance of ocean health and the role of plankton from samples of water taken from the Potomac River. The crew will also celebrate the environmental efforts of the DC community by giving children and adults an opportunity to design their own quilt square with a message of what is special in their local environment and what they want the world to know about the project. The patches will be part of an “Aloha ‘Aina Peace Flag Quilt.” (aloha ‘aina means love of the land in Hawaiian)
Monday, May 23 (1:00 to 5:00 pm) Canoe Tour Washington Canoe Club – Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Park (C&O Canal)
The public is welcome to come aboard the Hōkūleʻa and meet the crewmembers who will share the history of the legendary canoe and the mission of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage.
Hōkūleʻa-Inspired Events at National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), throughout May
Throughout the month of May, NMAI will be focusing on Hōkūleʻa’s visit with a film series and weekend festival that will celebrate traditional Polynesian wayfinding, as revived and practiced by the Polynesian Voyaging Society. The month of events will culminate with the Mālama Honua: Hōkūleʻa Worldwide Voyage Celebration, a weekend-long festival taking place on Saturday, May 28, and Sunday, May 29, from 10 am to 5 pm each day. The program will be an opportunity to to meet the navigators and crew from the voyage, enjoy music by Robert Cazimero and Halau Na Kamalei, and to experience a special “pop up” planetarium collaboration with the ʻImiloa’s Astronomy Center and other hands-on activities. For full detail’s on NMAI’s Hawaii program series, please click here: http://www.nmai.si.edu/calendar/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Dseries%26seriesid%3D1318501
More than Adventure
Beyond a daring expedition, the Worldwide Voyage is quite possibly the most important mission that Hawaiʻi has ever attempted. As people of Oceania, we are leading a campaign that gives voice to our ocean and planet by highlighting innovative solutions practiced by cultures around the planet.
We could not have begun this great journey without your support, nor can we continue to its completion.
Hōkūleʻa captain and pwo (master) navigator Kālepa Baybayan of the Polynesian Voyaging Society led his crew ashore on Piscataway lands today. The delegation from Hawaii followed Hawaiian cultural protocol to ask permission of the Native Americans to enter their lands as the original stewards of the land in the Washington D.C. area. They were welcomed to Piscataway with joy and warmth in celebration of the Mālama Honua mission of the Worldwide Voyage.
“It’s incredibly important that we engage with the indigenous peoples of any community we visit. It’s a different perspective. [The Piscataway people] have been here for thousands of years, and so when you meet them and learn about their communities, you engage in a very deep way about the spirit and nature of the people who settled these lands,” said Kālepa Baybayan.
As the legendary Polynesian voyaging canoe approached from the distance, the Native American community gathered at the dock, waiting for her historic arrival to their land. Chief Billy Tayac of the Piscataway Indian Nation and Chairman Francis Gray of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe gave the signal that allowed the Hawaiian crew to disembark and join them ashore, then led them to a private sacred ceremony between the ancient cultures.
The Hawaii delegation entered the ceremonial circle with traditional genealogy chants. Chief Tayac and Chairman Gray then addressed the Hawaiians and offered honor songs, followed by gifts and cultural exchange. The Hawaii delegation presented oli (song) and hula (dance). Pwo navigator Kālepa Baybayan formally requested permission of the tribe to enter Piscataway land, reflecting on the mission of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage and acknowledging his respect for their Native American hosts. Also participating in the ceremony were representatives of the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, Baltimore American Indian Center, Accokeek Foundation, Alice Ferguson Foundation, and the National Park Service.
Following the ceremony, the crew welcomed the community aboard Hōkūleʻa for warm and joyous cultural exchange, and the celebration continued throughout the day. The day’s private ceremonies will be followed tomorrow by a public welcoming celebration at Waterfront Park in Old Town Alexandria.
More than Adventure
Beyond a daring expedition, the Worldwide Voyage is quite possibly the most important mission that Hawaiʻi has ever attempted. As people of Oceania, we are leading a campaign that gives voice to our ocean and planet by highlighting innovative solutions practiced by cultures around the planet.
We could not have begun this great journey without your support, nor can we continue to its completion.
Aloha mai kākou, this is Moani Hemuli on Leg 20 of the Worldwide Voyage. We just arrived in beautiful Piscataway, Maryland and we just finished our opening ceremony with the native peoples of this land. We are here in Mount Vernon – George Washington’s home – and tomorrow we are moving to Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. We will have public canoe tours on Sunday from 3p-5p at the Waterfront Park Pier . Please continue to follow us on Hokulea.com.
More than Adventure
Beyond a daring expedition, the Worldwide Voyage is quite possibly the most important mission that Hawaiʻi has ever attempted. As people of Oceania, we are leading a campaign that gives voice to our ocean and planet by highlighting innovative solutions practiced by cultures around the planet.
We could not have begun this great journey without your support, nor can we continue to its completion.
The Polynesian Voyaging Society’s Hōkūleʻa crewmembers were welcomed to Virginia’s Tangier Island this morning, accompanied by two Tangier locals including Tangier Island mayor and waterman James “Ooker” Eskridge, on their sail over from Reedville,VA where Hōkūleʻa docked overnight after departing from Yorktown,VA.
The crew engaged with the community through canoe tours and a short discussion about the local environment. PVS leadership, along with David Schulte, a marine biologist with the US Army Corps of Engineers Norfolk District, participated in a discussion conducted by sixth grade students from Virginia’s Northumberland County. As part of a Community Problem Solving team, the students were assigned to find and work on an issue affecting Chesapeake Bay, for the upcoming school year. The students learned how Tangier Island is facing environmental challenges, and became actively involved in spreading awareness about the situation and helping to raise funds for the community.
More than Adventure
Beyond a daring expedition, the Worldwide Voyage is quite possibly the most important mission that Hawaiʻi has ever attempted. As people of Oceania, we are leading a campaign that gives voice to our ocean and planet by highlighting innovative solutions practiced by cultures around the planet.
We could not have begun this great journey without your support, nor can we continue to its completion.
Aloha! Yesterday we had a busy day doing outreach to diverse groups. Our morning starting in a small Episcopal Church meeting hall with the Rotary Club briefly sharing with the service organization about our voyage. They were keenly interested in both Hōkūleʻa and what we have learned during the past two years of the Malama Honua voyage. Although our presentation and Q&A was brief they appreciated our visit and even took a photo to put in their newsletter.
We then whipped across a few towns into Norfolk, Virginia to do outreach at Campostella Elementary, a public elementary school. We were excited because it was with a community we had not yet worked with, and we did not just meet with one class of second graders, but three, all at once! For those who have experience working with lower elementary aged students, you can imagine that having 60 second graders in a small cafeteria, set up for lunchtime (not much open space was a bit of a challenge) but still a great time!
We shared our oli kahea, showed them our update video from the stops of 2015, which we have found to be particularly engaging for younger students because it shows a lot of youth and indigenous peoples from around the world dancing. It was interesting to observe the young students watch the film because they would giggle with all the cultural clips of which they were unfamiliar (hula, kapa haka, Aboriginal and Balinese dancing). For some it seemed as if they had never heard of Hawaii, so it was especially exciting for us to teach them what “aloha”, “mahalo,” and “mālama ʻāina” meant.
After the short film, we broke them up into groups to explore working with lines (ropes), canoe gear, and the star compass. Moani even taught them all the names and motions to memorize the houses of the Hawaiian star compass. They were such an engaged, spirited and active bunch of kids; their enthusiasm was infectious. They all wanted to do every station first, over and over again. When they left they were heading out the door yelling “aloha!”
When we arrived back in Yorktown we made both ourselves and Hōkūleʻa look tidy because we had a VIP canoe tour with the president and provost of the College of William and Mary. I was a bit nervous knowing that the president of such a fine university and his wife would be asking us questions, but they were all really nice, and in the end, not so intimidating.
Following the tour, while shoving pizza down in the car, we rushed off to get to a lecture we had to give, hosted by Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (William and Mary). The venue was well attended by a mix of veteran and college-age learners. Three of our crew members presented different aspects of Polynesian Voyaging and this voyage. Moani, Kaniela, and Jason did an fantastic job sharing about the history of Hōkūleʻa, canoe life, and celestial navigation. They each did an incredible job engaging the audience through their humor, knowledge, and sincerity. It has been really awesome watching all our crew members get stronger and more comfortable presenting both formally and informally.
Thankfully, today was not nearly as busy as yesterday, but just as important, because we took time to mālama and aloha our māmā Hōkūle’a. Emptying every berth, we scrubbed her til she gleamed! Cleaning is important on any ocean-going vessel, but feels especially intimate when cleaning and caring for Hōkū. The entire crew felt so proud of our clean wa’a! So much so we sent a message to our dear Captain Bruce so he would know we were keeping up his tidy ways and giving Hōkūleʻa the love she deserves. Leg 20 flies in over the next couple days and they will be happy to take over such a beauty!
Mahalo for following! -Starr
More than Adventure
Beyond a daring expedition, the Worldwide Voyage is quite possibly the most important mission that Hawaiʻi has ever attempted. As people of Oceania, we are leading a campaign that gives voice to our ocean and planet by highlighting innovative solutions practiced by cultures around the planet.
We could not have begun this great journey without your support, nor can we continue to its completion.
