Hawai‘i Maritime Center Opens Canoe Voyaging Exhibit
Exhibit Celebrates Hōkūle‘a’s 2007 Voyage to Micronesia, Japan
Honolulu , HI … Indigenous cultures around the world share many similar practices—among them canoeing. The Canoe: An Alaskan and Hawaiian Tradition opens at the Hawai‘i Maritime Center (HMC) January 19, 2007 and will remain on view indefinitely. This exhibit, produced in cooperation with the Alaskan Native Heritage Center , presents a comparison and contrast of Hawaiian and Alaskan canoe voyaging traditions. The Canoe also celebrates the upcoming 2007 January through March voyage of Hōkūle‘a, Ku Holo Mau (Sail On, Sail Always, Sail Forever), to the western Pacific and the island nations of Micronesia and Japan.
The exhibition is an initiative under the Office of Innovation and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education. Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations, also known as ECHO, provides educational enrichment to Native and non-Native children and lifelong learners. The project is funded by the U. S. Department of Education.
Canoes (wa‘a) were fashioned by Polynesian land-seekers from Tahiti and the Marquesas making it possible for them to voyage long distances to Hawai‘i. For thousands of years, Alaskans have traveled in qayaqs and canoes, in rivers, along coastal areas, and on the rough and freezing Bering Sea . Canoes were the main means of travel for both Polynesians and the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska . Ocean voyaging vessels were used for fishing, hunting, and to transport people and supplies from one shoreline to the other.
In their daily quest for survival, Native Alaskans and Hawaiians used natural resources from their environment to make canoes. Materials such as wood, tree bark, animal skins, roots from plants, dyes, and other items were collected and utilized in canoe building traditions. Both these indigenous cultures became adept at gathering and processing materials, fashioning hand-made tools, and training skilled navigators to sail the canoes. Canoe building was a community effort.
Navigator priests, experts at wayfinding without the use of modern navigational instruments, were key to sailing the canoe. The sun, moon and stars were their guides, and by observing the wind, waves, cloud movements, flight path of birds, and the presence of marine animals and plants, they ascertained which course to follow.
Among the featured items will be Hawaiian and Alaskan canoe-building materials including adze, lashing materials, dye, seal skin, bearded seal thong, birch bark and cedar bark, kapa, coconut husk cordage, and basalt rock. In addition to Hawaiian voyaging artifacts, there will be Alaskan items and information about the Athabascan, Yup’ik and Cup’ik, Aleut, Inupiat, and Alutiiq peoples, among others.
This exhibit complements Bishop Museum ’s Canoe Do-It outreach program currently available for public and private schools. Science educators take portable canoe kits with and hands-on teaching materials into the classrooms to engage students of all ages in the Hawaiian traditions of canoe building and voyaging. Hawai‘i Maritime Center also offers a companion field trip program where children may learn about canoe building and voyaging with a docent-guided tour and special canoe displays which enable students to study and learn about the various parts of canoes and how they are constructed.
The Hawai‘i Maritime Center is the home for Hōkūle‘a when it is not voyaging. The 2007 voyage will include a visit to the island of Satawal to honor master navigator Mau Piailug. The Hōkūle‘a will accompany the voyaging canoe Maisu, built locally by Na Kalai Wa‘a Moku o Hawai‘i. The Maisu will be a gift to Piailug.
For more information about The Canoe: An Alaskan and Hawaiian Tradition, call the Hawai‘i Maritime Center or various Canoe Do-It educational programs at (808) 536-6373 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org. The Hawai‘i Maritime Center is located at Pier 7 in Honolulu Harbor , across from Aloha Tower Market Place . Admission is $7.50 for adults; Youth 4-12 are $4.50; Seniors 65 and over are $6; Children 3 and under are free. The HMC is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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