Physical to Digital Outreach

“The goal is by March the canoes are ready to start sea trials and testing. So this last month is to try and get as many kids and teachers as possible to be a part of the outreach. Today was ʻIolani school, my alma mater. The kindergarteners came today,” said Hōkūleʻa crew member Jenna Ishii.

And similar to how crew members are readying themselves for their Worldwide Voyage, these ʻIolani students prepared for their trip to visit Hōkūleʻa.

Bringing Catherine Fuller into the classroom was a really important process on that. Through her is how we linked up to this excursion,” said Robin Campbell, a kindergarten teacher at ʻIolani School.

Catherine has been a Hōkūleʻa crew member since the early 1990s, and has actively shared her cultural experiences through Hōkūleʻa with the kindergarten teachers at ʻIolani.

I talk to them about Hokulea and what it’s like to be on a canoe. I decided to come with them to kind of reinforce some of the things that we had talked about,” said Catherine Fuller, a Hōkūleʻa crew member and teacher at ʻIolani School.

Where it’s science and ocean animals, and then, the compass and the navigating, and then going under the vessels. I can tell, my kids are, they’re very engaged and very interested, and they have a lot of questions,” said Robin.

“The goal is that our schools can be on the voyage with us. We are creating our third canoe, which is our website. So on April 1st we are going to launch the brand new website, where teachers and community members can plug into what’s happening,” said Jenna.

“The neat thing about it is that they will be able to track in the years ahead, following the Mālama Honua journey all the way through the grade levels and making that a part of our curriculum,” said Robin.

“so we are working with teachers, we are working with schools, and if anyone still wants to get involved, they can email us at pvshawaii@hawaiiantel.net or go on our website, hokulea.org to get more information,” said Jenna.

Pow Wow Hawaiʻi

Pow Wow Hawaiʻi and 808 Urban team up to add some artistic expressions on Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia.

The Polynesian Voyaging Society joined up with artist Kamea Hadar  of Pow Wow Hawaiʻi, clothing designer Keola ZXXX Rapozo of Fitted Hawaiʻi, and the talented youth from 808 Urban in a spirited gathering of visual creations upon the canoes.

“It started in Palm Springs of all places. I was doing a talk there about Pow Wow and some of the contemporary culture of Hawaiʻi. And Bruce was there, and he was doing a talk about some of the traditional cultures of Hawaiʻi and about Hōkūleʻa. And I actually joked that anytime you want us to paint on your boat weʻd love to do some crazy stuff on the sails, you know, just as a joke. And he actually said,ʻ Thatʻs kind of a good idea. Letʻs try and work something out,ʻ” said artist Kamea Hadar.

s”With this connection, with Pow Wow and Urban 808, I was so inspired by what theyʻre doing. Art is so important to a community. So we  get to talking about the voyage and all of the things weʻre doing. He had some ideas, and I said this is perfect,” said master navigator Bruce Blankenfeld.

“The designs they’re doing are representations of the genealogy of what Hōkūleʻa has done so far in its 140,00 miles of voyaging over three decades,” said Bruce.

“I sat with Bruce, and took notes for hours and hours as he was giving me all these stories of places they’d been. Basically these images are just me trying to translate his stories into some kind of visual language,” said Kamea.

“What they’re doing with the hatch covers, we’ve done that before with Hōkūleʻa in the past. It’s just a way of getting a large community or people outside of PVS and the voyaging community to come and be a part of putting the voyage together. And their mana sails with us,” said Bruce.

“We could have easily printed out a design with a computer and just put vinyls. But it’s important that it’s someone’s hand touched the work, and a person created this,” said Kamea.

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Make A Wish

“Make a Wish Foundation, primarily, their purpose is to grant wishes to  children who have life threatening conditions to create a memorable experience that promotes positivity and hope,” said Aolani Kailihou, Wish Coordinator at Make-A-Wish Hawaiʻi.