Connecting Relationships
By ʻOiwi TV
The biggest reason why we’re sailing around the world is because this earth is not on the right sail plan, and we’ve got to shift course. I think Hōkūle’a can be that catalyst, globally.
“I really feel that there is mana in this voyage. Undoubtedly, every single time I come around, METC [Marine Education Training Center], or the Polynesian Voyaging Society, or crewmembers, I feel it, it’s so much more than one person. It’s so much more than one organization. It’s so much more than one canoe or two canoes. It’s about touching the minds and the hearts of the people, and having our minds and our hearts touched as well. With the ports that we go to, and in that same reciprocal relationship, we’re going to try to listen as much as we possibly can to them, because we have so much to learn too,” said Hōkūleʻa education specialist Linda Furuto.
By listening and engaging in Mālama Honua at these ports, crewmembers are sharing and gaining knowledge for educational opportunities back home, and around the world!
“The reason I voyage is to keep those classrooms there to be a bridge for whatever I can take from the canoe and give to my community and to give to those kids so that they can come down and do it. If a child from Asia knows a child from Africa, same age, they are able to be connected over similar interests in something as Hōkūleʻa. That’s a really cool thought. That’s a really cool vision,” said apprentice navigator Austin Kino.
“We’ve been, for the last six years, trying to define what does success look like? What does it feel like locally, at home and around the world? I think the biggest reason why we’re sailing around the world is because this earth is not on the right sail plan, and we’ve got to shift course. I think Hōkūle’a can really be that catalyst, globally. I truly think it’s going to come from the individual people that tag into the voyage along the way and actually respond with feedback that because we visited this community and told this story. So I see it as this like web of a movement that just starts springing up from the ground up,” said apprentice navigator Jenna Ishii.
