The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) is a non-profit research and educational corporation based in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. PVS was established to research and perpetuate traditional

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

n voyaging methods. Using replicas of traditional double-hulled canoes, PVS undertakes voyages throughout Polynesia navigating without modern instruments.

History

The society was founded in 1973 by nautical

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

Ben Finney Ben Rudolph Finney was an American anthropologist known for his expertise in the history and the social and cultural anthropology of surfing, Polynesian navigation, and canoe sailing, as well as in the cultural and social anthropology of hum ...

, Hawaiian artist

Herb Kawainui Kane In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

, and sailor Charles Tommy Holmes. The three wanted to show that ancient Polynesians could have purposely settled the

Polynesian Triangle The Polynesian Triangle is a region of the Pacific Ocean with three island groups at its corners: Hawai‘i, Easter Island (''Rapa Nui'') and New Zealand (Aotearoa). It is often used as a simple way to define Polynesia. Outside the triangle, th ...

using non-instrument navigation. The first PVS project was to build a replica of a double-hulled voyaging canoe. In the genesis of the Society, the

East–West Center The East–West Center (EWC), or the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peopl ...

was instrumental in convincing the UN authorities in the Pacific of the necessity of the project. The navigator Pius "Mau" Piailug, master of the techniques of traditional navigation, was named Special Fellow by the Center.The Polynesian Voyaging Society and the East-West Center: An early and enduring relationship
''Eastwestcenter.org'' (accessed on 31 May 2019)

Hōkūleʻa

On March 8, 1975, the first voyaging canoe to be built in the Hawaiian Islands in over 600 years was launched with captain

Kawika Kapahulehua Elia Kawika David Kuualoha Kapahulehua (July 13, 1930 – May 17, 2007) was a Hawaiian sailor who was the first to captain an ocean-voyaging canoe from Hawaii to Tahiti in modern times. Background Kapahulehua was born on Niihau, Niihau, in 19 ...

and crew. Named the ''

Hōkūleʻa ''Hōkūlea'' is a performance-accurate ''waa kaulua'', a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Launched on 8 March 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, it is best known for its 1976 Hawaii to Tahiti voyage completed with exclusiv ...

'', it left Hawaii on May 1, 1976 for

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

in an attempt to retrace the ancient voyaging route.

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

n navigator

Mau Piailug Pius "Mau" Piailug (pronounced ; 1932 – July 12, 2010) was a Micronesian navigator from the Carolinian island of Satawal, best known as a teacher of traditional, non-instrument wayfinding methods for open-ocean voyaging. Mau's Carolinian ...

, using no instruments, successfully navigated the canoe to Tahiti, arriving there on June 3, 1976. After an attempted voyage to

in 1978 was aborted when the ''Hokulea'' capsized near Lānai and crew member

Eddie Aikau Edward Ryon Makuahanai Aikau (Kahului, Hawaii, May 5, 1946 – March 17, 1978) was a Hawaiian lifeguard and surfer. As the first lifeguard at Waimea Bay on the island of Oahu, he saved over 500 people and became famous for surfing the big Hawaii ...

was lost at sea, Piailug trained Nainoa Thompson in the ancient navigation methods. Two years later in 1980, Thompson replicated the successful 1976 voyage to Tahiti, becoming the first modern Hawaiian to master the art of

Micronesian navigation Micronesian navigation techniques are those navigation skills used for thousands of years by the navigators who voyaged between the thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean in the subregion of Oceania, that is commonly known as Mi ...

. Since that voyage, the ''Hokulea'' and her sister canoe the '' Hawaiiloa'' (built 1991–94) have undertaken voyages to other islands in Polynesia, including

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. More recently, in 2012 the Polynesian Voyaging Society built a further sister ship, the '' Hikianalia''. From 2014 to 2017, Nainoa Thompson and the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage engaged on a 3-year trip to visit 13 marine

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

s around the world.

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

and the Polynesian Voyaging Society had signed a partnership agreement to promote those historical sites through PVS' sailing adventures.

Alingano Maisu

On January 23, 2007 the ''Hokulea'' and the ''

Alingano Maisu ''Alingano Maisu'', also known as ''Maisu'' , is a double-hulled voyaging canoe built in Kawaihae, Hawaii by members of Na Kalai Waa Moku o Hawaii and Ohana Wa'a members from throughout the Pacific and abroad as a gift and tribute to Satawalese n ...

'' set sail on a voyage to Micronesia and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In March 2007, the canoes arrived at Piailug's home island of

Satawal Satawal is a solitary coral atoll of one island with about 500 people on just over 1 km2 located in the Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district in Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia. Satawal is th ...

where five native Hawaiians and sixteen others were inducted into

Pwo {{for, Pwo languages, Pwo languages Pwo is a sacred initiation ritual, in which students of Micronesia navigation, traditional navigation in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia become navigators (''palu'') and are initiated in the associated secrets. ...

as master navigators. The event was the first Pwo ceremony on Satawal in 50 years and the ''Alingano Maisu'' was presented to Piailug as a gift for his contribution in reviving

wayfinding Wayfinding (or way-finding) encompasses all of the ways in which people (and animals) orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. Wayfinding software is a self-service computer program that helps users to find a location, ...

navigation.

Funding

The ''

Times Online ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

'' reported in March 2009 that the US Congress had earmarked $238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society. The funding was targeted by

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

pork-barrel ''Pork barrel'', or simply ''pork'', is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district. The usage originated in American English, and i ...

-funding.

Recognition

*2015: Nainoa Thompson is awarded the Asia Pacific Community Building Award by the

References

* Ben R. Finney; ''Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors: Reviving Polynesian Voyaging'' (Bishop Museum Press, 2004 ) * Ben R. Finney; ''Voyage of Rediscovery: A Cultural Odyssey Through Polynesia'' (University of California Press, 1994 ) * Will Kyselka; ''An Ocean in Mind'' (University of Hawaii Press, 1987 ) * David Lewis; ''

We, the Navigators ''We, the Navigators, The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific'' is a 1972 book by the British-born New Zealand doctor David Lewis, which explains the principles of Micronesian and Polynesian navigation through his experience of placing hi ...

: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific'' (University of Hawaii Press; 1994 {{ISBN, 0-8248-1582-3)

External links

Polynesian Voyaging Society
official site

Hawaii culture Organizations based in Hawaii Yachting associations Hōkūleʻa Polynesian navigation Maritime organizations 1973 establishments in Hawaii Organizations established in 1973