Sailing Canoe Brings Living Culture to Molokai

The Mo’okiha O Pi’ilani at Kaunakakai Wharf. Photo by Todd Yamashita

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. He is credited with the revival of ancient Polynesian ocean voyaging skills, which used for guidance the stars, the moon, the sun, winds, sea-currents, clouds, fish schools and seabirds.
Papa Mau’s skills guided the sailing canoe Hokule’a for 2,500 miles across the ocean between Hawaii and Tahiti without charts or instruments in 1976. He passed away July 12, 2010.
Kuahiwinui said her teachers promised Papa Mau they would continue to teach what he had taught them, so that Polynesian ocean voyaging skills may never be lost again.
The Mo‘okiha O Pi‘ilani left Maui at about 11:30 a.m. As she approached the wharf at 4 p.m., kids paddling outrigger canoes paused their practice and did an oli, or chant, to welcome the crewmembers of the sailing canoe to Molokai.
“They had a little bit of a protocol and cultural exchange,” Kuahiwinui said, adding the crew finished tying up the canoe at the wharf and went straight to Kulana O‘iwi to host a community outreach event.
Nine out of the 17 crewmembers were from the Kanehunamoku Voyaging Academy, based in Kane‘ohe Bay, Oahu. The crewmembers travelled from different Hawaiian islands to Maui to join the trip in a partnership with Maui’s Hui O Waʻa Kaulua, which owns the Mo‘okiha O Pi‘ilani.
The Maui-to-Molokai voyage and the community outreach, Kuahiwinui said, were chances to continue Papa Mau’s lessons, as well as to show local children the opportunities that the ocean can provide for them, such as having a good paying job if they become a mariner.
“That’s kind of a little big part of our project,” she said, adding the community events teach about food sustainability and basic voyaging skills. “We’re teaching about navigation. We’ve got knots over there. We’ve got a mariner here talking about that and spending time with the community, and really building community with one another.”
Kuahiwinui works for Kanehunamoku Voyaging Academy and recently received a captain license for the Kanehunamoku, a 29-foot, double hulled coastal sailing canoe. She said the Kanehunamoku is a smaller canoe that can only sail near the shore, while the Mo‘okiha O Pi‘ilani is built for open-ocean sailing.
“We really wanted to give our crew members and our students the opportunity to experience deep-sea sailing, sea voyaging. And Mo‘okiha O Pi‘ilani was the most accessible to us,” she said. “We wanted to really understand what does it take to crew the vessel, what does it take to provision the vessel with all of the food from our community.”
The crew spent the night on Molokai, and set sail on the next day, July 10.
“We’re very grateful for the community of Molokai and Lanai and Maui for hosting us as we visit each island,” Kuahiwinui said.
Hui O Waʻa Kaulua, based on Maui, conducts educational programs in partnership with other groups using voyaging to excite and challenge students and their communities to learn about, respect and care for the natural and social environment. Visit www.huiowaa.org for more information.
Kanehunamoku is a hands-on living classroom for students of all ages. Based in Kaneʻohe Bay, Oahu, students become crew members and learn all aspects of sailing the canoe. Visit www.kanehunamoku.org for more information.