The Maui News
Polynesian voyaging canoes Hokule’a and Hikianalia are getting ready to set sail Tahiti on a “Kealaikahiki Voyage,” which will focus on navigational training and cultural protocols to prepare the crew and test the canoes before they embark on the Moananuiakea Voyage next year.
Polynesian Voyaging Society announced that next generation voyaging leaders will captain and navigate the two canoes to Tahiti, including Lehua Kamalu, who will captain Hokule’a, which will make her the first woman to captain and navigate a canoe from Hawaii to Tahiti. On Hikianalia, Pwo navigator Bruce Blankenfeld will be training two captains, Kaniela Lyman-Mersereau and Kaleo Wong.
While in French Polynesia, voyaging leaders will also be participating in the Blue Climate Summit, a meeting to discuss ocean protection and climate change. More than 250 leaders, scientists, engineers, community, business, youth, policymakers, and conservationists are expected to participate.
The canoes are tentatively scheduled to depart Sand Island on Oahu on March 30, weather permitting, and will arrive in Papeete, Tahiti at the end of April.They are expected to return to Oahu by June 15.
“2022 is truly a building year for PVS. With this Tahiti Voyage and through July we will be conducting 8,000 miles of deep-sea leadership training focused on captains and navigators who will take the canoes around the Pacific for the Moananuiakea Voyage,” said Pwo navigator and PVS CEO Nainoa Thompson. “If the state of COVID-19 allows it, we will train 220 new crew members from the end of this voyage through 2023.”
Thompson added that they plan to sail 3,000 miles around the state, connecting with schools and communities in 25 different ports.
One of the main purposes of the “Kealaikahiki Voyage” is to follow the ancient voyaging protocol of sailing to the sacred navigational heiau of Taputapuatea in Ra’iatea, French Polynesia to seek permission to launch a major voyage.
Following the cultural ceremonies in Tahiti, Thompson will co-convene the The Blue Climate Summit, which will be held in French Polynesia in May, to promote ocean-related solutions to climate change.
The Blue Climate Summit is an endorsed action of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and is co-hosted with the Government of French Polynesia.
The voyage to Tahiti has been postponed three times over the last two years due to the pandemic.
“Our priority is the health and safety not only of our own crew and their families, but of our community and the communities that graciously allow us to visit,” said PVS medical officer Dr. Seren Tokumura. “We are currently seeing Tahiti’s numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths matching the trends worldwide, and with our current health and safety protocols in place, we feel that we are ready to return to Tahiti at this time.”
Major sponsors include Atherton Family Foundation, Shaw US Foundation, Nakupuna Foundation, Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate, Sealaska Foundation, Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, HEI, Hawaiian Electric, American Savings Bank, Hawaii Tourism Authority, Matson and Hawaiian Airlines.
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