Sailing Canoe Brings Living Culture to Molokai

By Léo Azambuja
In less than five hours, the 62-foot, 5-inch Hawaiian double-hulled sailing canoe Mo‘okiha O Pi‘ilani sailed from Ma‘alaea Harbor on Maui to Molokai’s Kaunakakai Wharf last week. Its 17 crewmembers used ancient Polynesian voyaging skills to guide them throughout the voyage.
“The purpose of this is to practice. We practice our culture. We practice being safe on the water. We are practicing sharing and teaching voyaging and non-instrumental navigation with people of all ages, which is what Papa Mau taught us,” crewmember Malanai Kane Kuahiwinui said following the canoe’s arrival July 9.
Pius “Mau” Piailug, better known as Papa Mau, was a navigator born in 1932 on Satawal, a remote atoll in the island chain of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia.…
















