METC, Honolulu —
Hōkūle‘a and her sister canoe Hikianalia will sail 1,000-miles statewide, from May-October 2013, to connect with communities here before leaving for the South Pacific in May 2014. The canoes will visit 30 ports in the Hawaiian islands on their statewide sail. Click here for a Google Map with a Schedule and Location of ports.
Since 2008, PVS and ʻOhana Wa‘a have been preparing, planning and training for the Worldwide Voyage – a 45,000 nautical mile journey to circumnavigate Island Earth. Before leaving home in May 2014, we have a kuleana to our ʻohana and ‘āina (family and islands) to ensure that the voyage is pono and paʻa (good and solid).
Our vision to weave a lei around the world to mālama honua (care for Island Earth) starts at home; the five-month long statewide sail will strengthen the foundation for the WWV by bringing our diverse communities on board. We seek to engage leadership from these communities to support local efforts to shape sustainable food, energy and environmental practices and to mālama Hawaiʻi.
The final leg of the WWV in 2017 will also be a sail around the Hawaiian Islands, with the two voyaging canoes bringing home gifts gathered from abroad: global knowledge and wisdom about we can all work together to mālama honua.
Objectives
The Mālama Hawaiʻi leg of the WWV will bring on board hundreds of volunteers working on various parts of the WWV, to share their knowledge, experience and ideas. Under the leadership of ʻOhana Wa‘a, 500 crew members will be provided the leadership and safety training required for the next 22 legs of the WWV. At each stop, crew members will also be involved in community and educational outreach.
Community Outreach: Our voyaging leadership and crew members will coordinate and lead 36 public events and talk-story sessions in 30 communities. Moreover, they will participate in 30 service learning opportunities with communities who are caring for their coastal waters, lands and people.
Education Outreach: The first two months of Mālama Hawaiʻi will focus on teacher training, with 200 teachers and education leaders invited to be crew members. PVS will also work with 1,500 educators to pilot curriculum developed for the WWV and reach out to educators in every school in Hawaiʻi to participate in the WWV via our website at http://hokulea.org or through crew member visits. We plan to engage more than 25% of our schools in Hawai‘i with classroom presentations and invite 6,000 school children on board for canoe tours.
PVS will continue its youth leadership program and succession leadership training, as well as document the voices of our children and young leaders in Hawaiʻi, so we can share their messages of mālama honua around the Pacific and the world. PVS will also test scientific research projects aboard Hikianalia, gathering data on plankton, water quality, marine debris, and ocean sound, as well as testing an aeroponic system for growing fresh food plants at sea.
Documentation & Communications – PVS will test Hōkūle‘a‐to‐Hikianalia documentation equipment and protocol at sea and in port to ensure that stories gathered can be documented and shared with our communities and networks. Moreover, we will launch our media campaign to raise public awareness about the WWV.
Worldwide Voyage
The mission of Hōkūle‘a’s Worldwide Voyage is to navigate toward a healthy and sustainable future for our home, the Hawaiian Islands, and our Island Earth through voyaging and new ways of learning.
(To view the six-minute video at full screen, click on the expand button between “HD” and “Vimeo” on the right side of the control bar. Press escape to return from full screen video to this page.)
By voyaging around Island Earth, Hōkūle‘a and Hikianalia and their crews seek to elevate awareness of inspirational people and organizations who are working to address global and local threats to communities and environments. By connecting as many of these efforts as possible, we hope to show how people can successfully meet challenges by working together as a single crew.
Protecting the Ocean
The WWV will join with other organizations in a global effort to protect the ocean because the ocean connects us all and is essential to the health of the planet. The ocean and its organisms play vital roles in the cycles of replenishment of water and air. It’s a source of food and other resources that has to be protected from pollution and debris.
A rise in sea level due to climate change is also threatening islands and putting at profound risk millions of island inhabitants who are experiencing measurable impacts such as the submergence of their ancestral homelands and loss of resources, leading to the abandonment of traditional practices and loss of cultures. As island and ocean people, we must take action to mālama Island Earth by learning more about it; raising awareness of issues facing the coastlines, reefs and deep waters of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific; and honoring leaders who are wisely managing ocean and coastal resources.
