Brief History

With population increasing in Hawaiʻi and on the rest of the globe, human exploitation and consumption are rapidly depleting our resources and seriously and, in some cases, irreversibly damaging the environment. Many centuries ago, Polynesians explored the Pacific and discovered ways of meeting the needs of their populations within the available resources of island homes; today, the need to explore and discover ways to insure the survival of humanity is more critical than ever. The Polynesian Voyaging Society is committed to the spirit of exploration and discovery, and to contributing to a safe, healthy, productive, and sustainable future for Hawaiʻi and the rest of the world through its research and education programs.

1973 - 1998

The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) was established in 1973 by Dr. Ben Finney - an anthropologist from California, Herb Kāne - a Hawaiian artist, and Tommy Holmes - a man who loved the sea, to scientifically prove that the ancient Polynesians had purposefully settled the Polynesian Triangle in double-hulled, voyaging canoes using non-instrument navigation. The Society’s first project was to construct a replica of an ancient voyaging canoe. On March 8th, 1975 this replica, Hōkūleʻa, the first voyaging canoe to be built in Hawaiʻi in more than 600 years, was launched.

On May 1st, 1976 Hōkūleʻa left Hawaiʻi on her maiden voyage to Tahiti, attempting to retrace this traditional migratory route. Navigated without instruments by Micronesian navigator, Mau Piailug, the canoe arrived 33 days later in Papeʻte, Tahiti to a crowd of more than 17,000 -- over half of the island had turned out to greet the canoe. What had begun as a scientific experiment to prove a theory about the settlement of Polynesia, had touched a deep nerve of cultural pride in Polynesian people.

After the voyage Mau returned to Micronesia, and with him went the knowledge of the traditional art of wayfinding. But Mau had ignited a strong interest in many members of the Voyaging Society to continue sailing and learning about navigation. In 1978 in response to this interest, Hōkūleʻa again left for Tahiti. Six hours into the voyage in the middle of the night, Hōkūleʻa , capsized somewhere between Oahu and Lanai. In an heroic effort, Eddie ʻikau, one of Hawaiʻi’s most experienced ocean men left on a surf board to get help for his fellow crew members. He was never seen again. Eddie’s death was a painful experience, but it raised the standards of preparation and safety to a new level, and since 1978 not a single crew member has been lost at sea.

Recognizing that it was unprepared to conduct a long voyage, PVS turned to Mau and asked him to teach them about sailing and navigation. Mau agreed, and for the next two years he helped prepare the members of the Voyaging Society for the enormous task of sailing and navigating a deep sea voyage. In 1980 a crew from Hawaiʻi successfully sailed Hōkūleʻa to Tahiti and back to Hawaiʻi, but this time the canoe was guided by one of Mau’s students, Nainoa Thompson, the first Hawaiian to navigate a voyaging canoe in more than 600 years.

From 1985-87, Hōkūleʻa sailed more than 16,000 miles of traditional migratory routes from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti, Rarotonga (Cook Islands), Aotearoa (New Zealand), Tonga and Samoa -- the Voyage of Rediscovery. This voyage demonstrated that it was possible to navigate these routes without instruments, and that contrary to popular theories, it was possible for traditional voyaging canoes to sail against the prevailing winds, by taking advantage of seasonal wind shifts. Hōkūleʻa’s voyages to date had demonstrated that the ancient Polynesians had intentionally settled the Polynesian Triangle -- an area of 10 million square miles, the largest nation on Earth -- one of the greatest feats of exploration in human history. But while scientific research was the impetus for these initial voyages, the recovery and perpetuation of Polynesian voyaging and navigation traditions became the main emphasis. The voyages of Hōkūleʻa inspired pride among Polynesians for their history and heritage, and sparked a revival of interest in canoe building, sailing, and navigation.

In 1990 in recognition of the impact of voyaging on the revival of Hawaiian culture, the Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program, an organization working to strengthen the Hawaiian community based on its common history and heritage, contracted PVS to construct a double-hulled, voyaging canoe made entirely of natural materials. A 9-month search of the Island of Hawaiʻi’s koa forests resulted in nothing -- not a single koa tree large or healthy enough for the hulls of a voyaging canoe was found. The ancient Hawaiians built voyaging canoes from koa trees, but in 1990, given the decline of Hawaiʻi’s native forests we were unable to build even one. This taught the Voyaging Society a powerful lesson: the health of our culture is strongly tied to the health of our environment. Fortunately for the project, there was another historical source of wood for canoes – drift logs from the Pacific Northwest. In an extraordinary act of kindness, the native people of Southeast Alaska gave two, 400-year old, spruce logs to the Society to build a voyaging canoe. The effort brought together community groups, organizations, and countless individuals who together, contributed more than 500,000 hours to build and sail the canoe. Launched in 1993 this canoe, Hawaiʻi loa, represented a new level of community involvement in voyaging, a new appreciation for Hawaiʻi’s environment, and the start of a deep friendship with the native peoples of Southeast Alaska.

In 1992 Hōkūleʻa made its fourth voyage to the South Pacific, sailing to Rarotonga for the Sixth Pacific Arts Festival, part of which celebrated the revival of canoe building and traditional navigation. New canoes were being built in Aotearoa, Rarotonga and Tahiti, and with PVS’ help new navigators were being trained for the next voyage: from the Marquesas Islands, the ancestral home of the first Hawaiians, to Hawaiʻi. In 1995 six canoes: Hōkūleʻa , Hawaiʻi loa, and Makaliʻ from Hawaiʻi, one canoe from Aotearoa, and two from Rarotonga left the Marquesas Islands for Hawaiʻi. Five of the six canoes were navigated using only traditional methods, and all six arrived safely in Hawaiʻi.
Both the 1992 and 1995 voyages emphasized education, an important tool essential to sharing the experiences and values of voyaging with a larger audience. In addition to training new navigators and voyagers, PVS reached out to thousands of school children in the Department of Education through a long-distance education program. During the voyage students tracked the canoe on nautical charts, learned about the larger Pacific, and used the canoe and its limited supply of food, water, and space, to explore issues of survival, sustainability, and teamwork. On the 1992 return voyage PVS, educational programs reached as far as the Space Shuttle, as Shuttle crew member Lacy Veach, a Hawaiʻi native, participated in conversations about sustainability and exploration with the canoe and Hawaiʻi classrooms. In addition to these programs, PVS also began navigation and sailing courses at the University of Hawaiʻi and Windward Community College.

Within days of arriving in Hawaiʻi after the 1995 voyage, Hōkūleʻa and Hawaiʻi loa were shipped to Seattle. Hōkūleʻa sailed south along the West Coast, reaching thousands of people who no longer lived in Hawaiʻi, but longed to share in the canoe’s legacy. Hawaiʻi loa sailed north to thank the native peoples of Southeast Alaska for their gift of spruce trees. This was PVS’ opportunity to give back to them, but at each stop the canoe and crew were overwhelmed with gifts and kindness. These native people were responding to the fact, that like them the Hawaiians too, were working to recover their native traditions. This Northwest Voyage taught PVS a great deal about another culture’s efforts to renew its traditions, and about their determination to care for natural resources, in order to build a healthy future for their people.

In the wake of her accomplishments, Hōkūleʻa has helped to renew the pride that Hawaiian people have for their culture and heritage. In turn this has made a contribution to raising the self-esteem of Hawaiian people. Recognizing that self-esteem and health are inextricably linked, a partnership emerged in 1996 between The Queen’s Health Systems and the Polynesian Voyaging Society, called Mālama Hawaiʻi—“caring for Hawaiʻi.” Native Hawaiians have the worst health and socioeconomic indicators of any ethnic group in Hawaiʻi, and for years Queen’s was been working to improve these statistics. Mālama Hawaiʻi’s first project was the 1996-97 Statewide Sail, a 10-month, 2,000 mile journey, in which more than 25,000 school children and community members visited or sailed on Hōkūleʻa. The Sail was an effort to "connect" with Hawaiian communities, in order to find ways to improve and support their health. What Mālama Hawaiʻi found was cultural renewal taking place within these communities. Every community that Hōkūleʻa visited celebrated its strengths with pride, and did not define itself by negative statistics. The Statewide Sail helped Mālama Hawaiʻi to understand that the lives of the next generation of Hawaiians are already being shaped by this spirit of cultural renewal, and because of it we believe that they will not be burdened with the same negative health and socio-economic statistics.

What began in 1973 as a scientific experiment to build a replica of a traditional voyaging canoe for a one-time sail to Tahiti, became an important catalyst for a generation of cultural renewal, a symbol of the richness of Hawaiian culture, and of the sea-faring heritage which links together all of the peoples of Polynesia. No one could have imagined that by the end of the century, Hōkūleʻa will have sailed more than 100,000 miles reaching every corner in the Polynesian Triangle, and the West Coast of the United States. In 1973 there were no voyaging canoes, today there are six with others under construction. In 1973 there was only 1 deep-sea navigator that PVS knew of, today there are 9 with several more in training, along with 135 experienced deep-sea sailors in Hawaiʻi alone—ensuring that the Hawaiian people will never again lose their traditions of voyaging and navigation. Over the last 25 years, the family of the voyaging canoe has grown to more than 525,000 men, women and children who have participated in PVS’ programs of education, training, research and dialogue.

The 1976 Voyage to Tahiti: A Voyage of Scientific Research

The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) was established in 1973 as an organization to research the means by which Polynesian seafarers found and settled nearly every inhabitable island in the Polynesian Triangle. Its 1976 voyage to Tahiti in Hōkūleʻa, a replica of a Polynesian voyaging canoe launched in 1975, was scientific in intent: to show that this traditional route (the longest in Polynesia) could have been navigated without instruments in a canoe of traditional design. Satawelese navigator Mau Piailug and a Hawaiian crew made the trip to Tahiti in 31 days.
Voyages of Cultural Rediscovery—1980 and 1985-1987

In 1980, Hōkūleʻa sailed from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti and back; Nainoa Thompson became the first Hawaiian navigator in over 500 years to guide a canoe over this traditional route. From 1985-1987, the Voyage of Rediscovery took Hōkūleʻa on a 16,000 mile journey along the ancient migratory routes of the Polynesian Triangle—from Hawai‘i to the Society Islands, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, and back home via Aitutaki, Tahiti, and Rangiroa in the Tuamotu Archipelago. This Voyage of Rediscovery showed that it was possible for Polynesians to travel routes between islands of the Pacific using non-instrument navigation. It also showed that their canoes could sail from west to east in the Pacific when the prevailing easterly tradewinds were replaced by seasonal westerlies.
The voyages of Hōkūleʻa provided a wealth of information for scientists, anthropologists and archaeologists about traditional Polynesian migrations, documenting one of the greatest achievement of humanity—the exploration and settlement of islands in an area of over 10 million square miles during a period of over 1,000 years. But while scientific research was a component in the 1980 and 1985-7 voyages, cultural recovery became the main emphasis. Hawaiians were reclaiming their voyaging traditions; and as Hōkūleʻa traveled through Polynesia, it inspired among other Polynesians an increased awareness and native pride in their seafaring heritage. It also sparked a revival of canoe building and sailing, arts that had not been practiced in over a hundred years. In the wake of the accomplishments of Hōkūleʻa, the canoe became a symbol of the richness of Polynesian culture and the seafaring heritage which links together all of the peoples of Polynesia.

Voyages of Education / No Nā Mamo (“For the Future Generation”)—1992 and 1995

Scientific research and cultural recovery continued to be a part of the next two voyages. In 1992, Hōkūleʻa sailed from Hawaiʻi to Rarotonga and back via Tahiti and Raʻiātea. In Rarotonga, the canoe and crew participated in the Sixth Pacific Arts Festival celebrating the revival of traditional canoe building and navigation in the Pacific. The 1995 Marquesas voyage concluded a 5-year Explorations Project funded by the Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program/Bishop Museum. The purpose of the project was to research traditional Hawaiian canoe-building and to retrace a migration route from the Marquesas Islands, from where earlier settlers to Hawaiʻi are believed to have come. PVS built a coastal sailing canoe Mauloa and a new voyaging canoe Hawaiʻi loa, as much as possible out of traditional materials and using traditional tools. PVS also trained a new generation of voyagers and traditional navigators, and successfully sailed Hawaiʻi loa and Hōkūleʻa to Tahiti and Nukuhiva. In the South Pacific the Hawaiian canoes were joined by voyaging canoes from Tahiti Nui, the Cook Islands, and Aotearoa (New Zealand) and two Cook Islands canoes and one Maori canoe made the voyage to Hawaiʻi with Hawaiʻi loa and Hōkūleʻa before returning to their homes in the South Pacific.

When Hōkūleʻa sailed from Hawai‘i in 1992 and 1995, it had a new emphasis: education. In addition to training new voyagers and navigators, PVS reached out to thousands of schoolchildren in Hawai‘i through a long-distance education program that included live daily radio reports from the canoes and educational packets distributed to the schools. Students tracked the canoe on nautical charts while learning about the achievements of Polynesian voyagers and the geography, oceanography, and meteorology of the Pacific. The community at large joined in the voyage through the radio, newspaper and television coverage. In 1992, a radio conversation with the space shuttle Columbia orbiting the earth was broadcast live.

Exploration Learning Center—Looking to the Future

In 1992, PVS not only shifted its emphasis from scientific research and recovery of voyaging traditions to education, it also began to explore the future survival of the land, sea, and people of Hawaiʻi.

While attempting to build traditional canoes, PVS discovered that there were no traditional canoe builders in Hawaiʻi and no koa trees large enough for the hulls of a voyaging canoe in native forests. A Micronesian—Mau Piailug, Hōkūleʻa’s 1976 navigator—was brought in to teach Hawaiians the ancient art of canoe building using stone adzes. The Tlingit, Haida, and Tshimshian tribes of Alaska donated two spruce logs for the hulls of the voyaging canoe. (Some of the biggest and finest Hawaiian canoes were made of driftwood logs from Northwest America.)

But while such support from outside of Hawaiʻi solved the immediate problems of building a traditional canoe, the question of long-term survival of the culture and people of Hawaiʻi was raised: What would happen to the knowledge of traditional culture that had been gathered from the five voyages of the voyaging canoes? What was the point of cultural recovery if the knowledge would not be perpetuated? And would there even be a future for the people of Hawaiʻi if the environmental degradation, of which the lack of koa trees for canoe building was a sign, was allowed to continue?

The vision and mission of the Polynesian Voyaging Society is now to make a positive contribution to Hawaiʻi’s future through education. It plans to take the lessons about human survival and successful voyaging it has learned over last 20 years and apply them to our future survival. Using the voyaging canoe as a classroom and a model for a limited environment, PVS is working with educational organizations and community groups to create integrated interdisciplinary programs for students.

Since 1987, PVS has established strong links with educational institutions such as the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Education, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Kamehameha Schools, and Nā Pua Noeau at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. In the 1994 and 1995 PVS established an Exploration Learning Center and conducted programs in cultural and environmental education at Konawaena High School, Waiʻanae High School, Hale-o-Hoʻoponono/KSBE, and the University of Hawaiʻi. These programs involved coastal or interisland sails.

In the summer of 1995, during a journey from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska, to thank Sealaska for the logs donated for the hulls of Hawaiʻi loa, the crew of Hawaiʻi loa, staff of PVS, and high school students from Hawaiʻi explored environmental conditions and programs in Alaska, and discussed with native Alaskans resource conservation and a sustainable future.

PVS will continue to develop programs under its Exploration Learning Center, in partnership with cultural, environmental, and educational groups in the community. The schools will provide the academic training and background needed for student success; PVS will provide real life experiences, challenges, and problems to solve, to which students can apply their learning. These programs will place students in positions of responsibility so they can learn leadership, resource management, and teamwork. And students will develop skills such as critical thinking, planning, and decision-making based on positive ethical values that will contribute toward a safe, healthy, and productive future for Hawaiʻi.

A Voyage to Rapa Nui

In the summer of 1999 Hōkūleʻa voyaged to Rapa Nui to “close the triangle,” sailing the only major ancient migratory route in Polynesia that the canoe has not yet traveled, to the third corner of the Polynesian Triangle. Rapa Nui is the most isolated high island on Earth, and its discovery by Polynesian navigators is one of the greatest feats of exploration in human history. The voyage will:

1. perpetuate the traditions of Polynesian voyaging and celebrate one of its extraordinary accomplishments;

2. train crew members and navigators from each island who can contribute to the perpetuation of voyaging traditions in Hawaiʻi;

3. become a catalyst for educational and media projects focused on both the cultural achievements of voyaging and the lessons that Rapa Nui’s history holds for the future of Hawaiʻi and other Pacific islands. (Over the course of their history, the people of Rapa Nui consumed many of their natural resources and exceeded their island’s capacity to sustain a healthy environment and community. Yet they endured, and are today working to restore their island’s natural resources, improve their health and, renew their culture.);

4. connect the people of Hawaiʻi with the people of Rapa Nui and make a positive contribution to the renewal of the culture, environment and health of the people of Rapa Nui;

5. become a catalyst for positive change in communities on islands which the canoe visits.

Rapa Nui Voyage / Educational Objectives

The educational objectives of the Rapa Nui Voyage are:

1. test a hypothesis about how a canoe of traditional design, navigated without instruments, might have found and settled Rapa Nui—the most remote island in Polynesia, 1200 miles upwind of the nearest inhabited high island;

2. develop crew members and navigators as resource people for educational programs;

3. develop a curriculum and materials and deliver a message focused on: (1) sustainability, (2) cultural achievements in voyaging, and (3) connections among peoples of the Polynesia;

4. assist in the delivery of curricula on voyaging, environment, and health developed by PVS-partners. (This assistance will include daily reports from the canoe.);

5. assist in the development of books, articles, and documentaries about the Rapa Nui voyage.

Bibliography / Polynesian Voyaging Society

1976 Voyage

Finney, Ben. Hōkūleʻa: The Way to Tahiti. New York: Dodds, Mead, 1979.

1980 Voyage

Kyselka, Will. An Ocean in Mind. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi, 1985)

1985-87 Voyage

Finney, Ben. Voyage of Rediscovery, A Cultural Odessey through Polynesia. Berkeley: University of California, 1994.

1976, 1980, and 1985-87 Voyages

Finney, Ben. “Voyaging in Polynesia’s Past” in Sea to Space. Palmerston North, NZ: Massey University, 1992.

For summaries, crew writings and journals about the voyages from 1976 to 1995 (Nukuhiva and Alaska): See “Voyages” on the Polynesian Voyaging Society Information Service at http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/pvs.

Bibliography / Polynesian Voyaging

Buck, Peter (Te Rangi Hiroa). Vikings of the Pacific. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959. (Originally published as Vikings of the Sunrise in 1938 by J.B. Lippincott Co.)

Dodd, Edward. Polynesian Seafaring. New York: Dodd Mead, 1972.

Emerson, N. B., “Long Voyages of the Ancient Hawaiians,” Papers of the Hawaiian Historical Society, May 18, 1893 (No. 5) 5-13.

Holmes, Tommy. The Hawaiian Canoe. Honolulu: Editions Limited, 1981.

Irwin, Geoffrey. The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonization of the Pacific. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Jennings, Jesse D., ed. The Prehistory of Polynesia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979.

Kamakau, Samuel Mānaiakalani. Tales and Traditions of the People of Old / Nā Moʻolelo a ka Poʻe Kahiko. Honolulu: Bishop Museum, 1993.

Kāne, Herb Kawainui. Voyagers. Bellevue, WA: Whalesong, 1991.

Lindo, Cecilia Kapua and Nancy Alpert Mower, ed. Polynesian Seafaring Heritage. Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools, 1980.