Hōkūle‘a’s 50th Anniversary
As Hōkūle‘a celebrates 50 years of sailing, female navigators carry a message of cultural resilience and hope to a worldwide community.
This year, as Hōkūle‘a commemorates the milestone, it sails as a proud symbol of Polynesian navigation on a continuing journey that’s helped spark a Hawaiian renaissance in culture, music and language. Back in 1975, the scrappy replica of a traditional voyaging canoe struggled through skepticism and squabbles before proving that celestial navigation—without the aid of modern instruments—could guide crews across oceans and around the world. During its three-year Mālama Honua journey that started in 2014, crew members visited 150 ports in more than 18 countries. Join the celebrations at hokulea.com.
Wāhine Wayfinders | Events | Hōkūle‘a Timeline
SEE ALSO: Your Insider Guide to Hōkūle‘a’s 50th Birthday Celebration
Lehua Kamalu. Photo: Polynesian Voyaging Society/Jonathan (Sav) Salvador
Wāhine Wayfinders
While steering Hōkūle‘a miles from shore, navigator Lehua Kamalu relies on the sea and sky rather than GPS and satellites. “It’s really hard for anything else actually to penetrate into your focus because you just are constantly looking at the ocean, looking at the waves, looking at the sky, taking every possible clue and cue that’s out there,” she says. “They’re all trying to tell you what’s going on, where you are, and you’re really trying to make sense of it all.”
Kamalu, a captain with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, grew up speaking Hawaiian, immersed in cultural learning at Ke Kula Kaiapuni ‘o Pu‘ohala in Kāne‘ohe. Now 38, her first encounter with the canoe was during a field trip as a student there before she transferred to Kamehameha Schools. After receiving her mechanical engineering degree, she landed full time with PVS in 2013 and underwent extensive training with veteran voyagers.
For Hōkūle‘a’s worldwide voyage, she coordinated logistics. She believes the widely publicized voyage showcased Native Hawaiian culture and linked Hawai‘i more deeply to the rest of the world. “I think we’ve come to a place of really embracing that much larger global community, allowing Hōkūle‘a to be this connecting point between Hawai‘i, its place and its people and everything that it represents to the wider world,” says Kamalu, who was interviewed in Tahiti, where she’s planning future journeys.
Master navigator and PVS CEO Nainoa Thompson estimates that about 650 crew members have served on Hōkūle‘a over the past 50 years, including about 60 navigators. He sailed with the first two female crew members, Keani Reiner and Penny Rawlins, from Tahiti in 1976. He now estimates that the number of female crew members has grown to roughly 1 in 3.
Thompson says PVS has always functioned as a values-based organization with women playing critical roles. “Women are very focused; they’re disciplined,” he says. “And they come to the training with an open mind, open heart.”
Kayla Kalepa. Photo: Polynesian Voyaging Society/Perrin James
Crew member Kayla Kalepa, 19, is among the youngest aboard. She grew up around the canoe because of her father, renowned Maui lifeguard captain and waterman Archie Kalepa. “When I was little, I didn’t understand why my dad was sailing around the world,” she says. “When I turned 14, that’s when I started sailing, because my dad built his own canoe, a 30-foot replica of Hōkūle‘a, and after that, I was hooked.”
Kai Hoshijo. Photo: Polynesian Voyaging Society/Jonathan (Sav) Salvador
Meanwhile, having sailed on Hōkūle‘a to Tahiti in 2022, Kai Hoshijo, 27, appreciates the life skills of training at sea. “We’re going to be resourceful and flexible and resilient based on what our voyage might be, whether it be a task or a job, and there’s huge value in that,” she says.
Events
March 8, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
Hōkūle‘a’s 50th Birthday Commemoration will be celebrated at the 16th Annual Kualoa/Hakipu‘u Canoe Festival at Kualoa Regional Park. In partnership with the City and County Department of Parks and Recreation, this free, family-friendly event will take place where the canoe was first assembled, blessed and entered the ocean.
March 10, 3–6 p.m.
Hōkūle‘a will offer dockside canoe tours at the Hawai‘i Convention Center. The public is invited to step aboard Hōkūle‘a and hear from young crew members and navigators training to for the next chapters of the Moananuiākea Voyage.
March 14, 5–9 p.m.
Hōkūle‘a’s 50th Birthday: E Ola Mau, Bishop Museum
Bishop Museum will host an after-hours event honoring Hōkūle‘a’s 50th. As a pivotal partner in Hōkūle‘a’s inception, the museum will host this tribute to the canoe’s origins and legacy with special exhibits and programming dedicated to the history of traditional Polynesian voyaging.
Hōkūle‘a Timeline
1973: The Polynesian Voyaging Society is founded by artist Herb Kawainui Kāne, anthropologist Ben Finney and waterman Tommy Holmes.
March 8, 1975: The society launches Hōkūle‘a for the first time, from Hakipu‘u, Kualoa, O‘ahu.
1976: Hōkūle‘a sails to Tahiti and back for the first traditional deep-ocean voyage from Hawai‘i in 600 years.
1980: Nainoa Thompson navigates Hōkūle‘a to Tahiti and back, making him the first Native Hawaiian since the 14th century to complete a voyage using only traditional wayfinding techniques.
1985: Hōkūle‘a voyages to New Zealand, venturing outside of tropical waters for the first time.
1992: Hōkūle‘a sails to Rarotonga, while 30,000 students connect and talk with navigators aboard Hōkūle‘a and astronauts on the Columbia Space Shuttle.
1995: Hōkūle‘a and Hawai‘iloa travel to Seattle with Hawai‘iloa heading to Alaska to thank the Tlingit, Haida and Tshimshian tribes for donating two Sitka spruce logs for the Hawai‘iloa hulls and Hōkūle‘a sailing down the West Coast for the first time.
1999: Hōkūle‘a sails to Rapa Nui, successfully visiting the three outer corners of the Polynesian Triangle.
2004: Hōkūle‘a sails to Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
2007: Hōkūle‘a sails to Japan and Mau Piailug’s home island of Satawal in Micronesia.
2007: Five Hawaiian navigators are initiated into the navigator rank of Pwo, a ceremony initiated by navigator Mau Piailug. The five are Nainoa Thompson, Shorty Bertelmann, Onohi Paishon, Bruce Blankenfeld and Kalepa Baybayan.
2013–2017: The Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage takes Hōkūle‘a across the globe to 18 countries and 150 ports.
2023: Hōkūle‘a begins the Moananuiākea Voyage from Alaska. This is the 15th major voyage in the canoe’s first 50 years.
