By Sharael Feist
Summer 1996
The art of Polynesian canoe navigation has been reborn in the past decade, but now it is has taken a new turn…from the ocean to the classroom.
Nainoa Thompson, navigator of the Hokule’a, has made it possible for the skills and knowledge of canoe navigation to be passed on to the next generation through education.
Students at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa recently completed his first navigation class called Ka Ho’okele Holokahiki (Hawaiian voyaging). The class was taught mainly by Thompson with Lilikala Kame’eleihiwa, Hawaiian Studies department associate professor, handling the curricular development. The class was also assisted by navigators Ka’au McKenney and and Keahi Omai.
For the second semester Windvvard Community College students joined the UH class. Two more teachers assisted the second semester class, Hiroshi Kato, Dean of Instruction at Windward Community College and Dennis Kawaharada, Educational Coordiniator for the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Keiko Muramaka from Queen’s Medical Center also got involved in order to study native lifestyles and traditional foods for health. There were also numerous others that assisted throughout the year in which ever means possible.
The Hakipu’u Ohana in coordination with Kualoa Ranch provided land near the ocean at Kualoa to store the canoes. The program was sponsored by at least 32 organizations. It all started in October of 1993 when Thompson turned to Kame’eleihiwa for advice on how to start a navigation class at UH. At that time Kame’eleihiwa was the acting director of the Hawaiian Studies department.
In Fall 1994 the class was offered, but Thompson was busy training actual navigators for the 1995 voyage to Tahiti! so Chad Babayan taught the first navigation class at UH. Most of the time was spent in the classroom, not on the ocean.
Kame’eleihiwa took part in this effort and quickly learned that one semester just wasn’t enough time to teach something with so many facets to it.
“You can’t learn it in one semester. You need twenty years. The experience is hard to learn in a classroom. We weren’t learning how to sail, we were learning about it,” Kame’eleihiwa said. They then added a lab to the class which got them out of the classroom and provided more hands-on experience for the students.
“We felt we needed to teach students ocean skills,” Kame’eleihiwa said. Thompson felt the tradition of navigation had to be kept alive and the best way to do it was through educating future generations.
“We need to preserve and perpetuate Hawaiian traditions,” Thompson said. “The education I learned in the ocean really made me who I am. It provided broader education and new experiences. Education is about society as a whole. Everything is integrated. Society as a whole has to embrace responsibility for educating our future generations. Every generation has an obligation to the next. Navigation is about the pride, dignity and honor of one’s own contributions and how it effects the community.”
By teaching navigation in an educational institution Thompson had hoped to provide opportunities and ocean education from a cultural base. He chose to have the program offered through the Hawaiian Studies department because it had common values with the Polynesian Voyaging Society. He felt that was important since they would be working closely together.
When the Fall 1995 navigation class began, changes had been made from the year prior. The lab seemed like a positive step and the class was to spend most of the time on the canoes, learning the ocean.
Having sailed on the Hawai’i Loa, Kame’eleihiwa was able to experience the ocean first hand. “I loved it, just loved it,” Kame’eleihiwa said. “I was so surprised at myself. I was growing in a way I couldn’t have imagined. It was great to be there entirely with the ocean and the wind and the canoe. I felt at one with the elements. It really makes you change the way you look at the world. Once you try it, it’s in your blood. I want to sail for the next twenty years.”
Kame’eleihiwa said she realized just how important it is to pass on this tradition. “I am so happy to see that people are coming together to make sure that this knowledge is never lost,” Kame’eleihiwa said.
Thompson mentioned that one aspect of teaching this type of class in an institution is that it can lose its meaning. “Navigation is internal, not scientific. It takes great confidence. You must believe in yourself. You must use your intuition,” Thompson said.
He sometimes feels that it is difficult to teach these types of qualities. That’s why he feels it is very important for the students to decided whether or not they are willing to make the commitment it takes to learn navigation.
Keahi Omai, who helped teach the class, said that navigation is very challenging. “The more you put into the class, the more you will learn. I would discourage anyone who’s not sure about making the commitment. The class takes a lot of time,” Omai said.
Past students have said that it is not a “traditional” class where you show up, listen to a lecture and then leave. There are numerous field trips, sailing, camping, star gazing. The class depends upon the right weather conditions sometimes it just doesn’t work out as planned. The class requires students to be flexible, to an extent. The teachers feel it’s not the type of class a student should take just to fulfill a college requirement.
“We need to be selective about who we let into the class,” Thompson said. “Is this something the student really wants to do? The value they get out of it will be equal to what they put into it. We want students who are going to be committed. It takes a lot of time and energy. The students have to be serious about the class and willing to make sacrifices.”
Thompson said the navigator is only one part of the crew. He describes it as a privilege, but a very lonely position. He said the navigators are the eyes of the canoe. It demands tremendous teamwork. It takes more than one person to sail the canoe.
“Navigation teaches responsibility and the process of commitment to do something that is very difficult,” Thompson said.
The navigator must earn the respect of his crew. He said it is more than just getting the canoe to its destination. Thompson tells his students to remember that to become a navigator takes power in believing what you have learned from your teachers.
“It’s about growth to a high level of achievement. Nothing challenges you more than the ocean,” Thompson said.
One of the most important things navigation taught him is respect and pride for other cultures. “Culture is a powerful handle that people here are trying to hang on to,” Thompson said. “The canoes represent the families and communities of those who sail them.”
Kame’eleihiwa believes that navigation is also a way in which to unite cultures. She said sailing really brought people with differences together. “Everybody took care of each other,” Kame’eleihiwa said. “We had to work together to do what was good for the canoe and each other. For Hawaiians, it lightens our hearts and gives us joy and good health.”
Thompson has great concern and great hope for the future. “We believe we need to make a contribution to make sure the next generation will have a quality of life that is better than ours,” Thompson said.
He is teaching students so that they will become teachers. He hopes that if they found value in the course, they will take time to teach it to others. There are many people who want to learn navigation, but there are not yet enough people to teach it. There is not enough man power. Therefore those who do teach navigation appreciate it when those they have taught return to help teach others. “It takes a lot of people to keep the canoes sailing,” Omai said.
According to Thompson, navigation would not be where it is today without the courage and determination of those who were willing to try. He has great respect for navigators such as Shorty Bertelmann, Bruce Blankenfeld and Chad Babayan.
The future of navigation looks strong. Thompson and Kame’eleihiwa are attempting to make navigation a major through the Hawaiian Studies department at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.
Thompson said the key to navigation is to always remember that “you only know where you are by knowing where you came from.”