Celestial Navigation and the Hawaiian Renaissance

by Milt Lum, staff writer

The constancy of the planetary movements during the earth’s daily rotation on its axis and its annual journey around the sun was codified by the observations of Copernicus and Galileo in the 16th century. Centuries earlier societies inhabiting the islands of the Pacific Ocean had developed a celestial navigational guide using these observations. This tradition became extinct due to technological advances until a part-Hawaiian expat, Herb Kawainui Kane, began exploring his ancestral roots.

Kane, born to a Danish mother and a Hawaiian-Chinese father in Minnesota, retained his Hawaiian roots by travels to his grandparents’ home in the islands. He became a successful commercial artist in Chicago but returned to Hawaii in 1970 with a specific interest in the early sailing canoes of his ancestors. Researching historical documents, communicating with scholars around the world, and listening to stories from older Hawaiians, Kane envisioned building a canoe seaworthy enough to replicate the journeys of the early Polynesians.

Concurrently Ben Finney, who holds a Ph.D from Harvard in anthropology, introduced Kane to the prevailing opinion promoted by Andrew Sharp, a New Zealand historian. Sharp  claimed that the early Polynesians had neither the canoes nor the navigational acumen to cross thousands of miles of open water, and that they found the islands only after being blown off course by storms. Having studied the illustrations of Captain Cook, Finney questioned Sharp’s opinion. In 1973 Finney, Kane, and Tommy Holmes, a famous island surfer and canoe paddler, formed the non-profit corporation, The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS),  to secure the funding to build a sailing canoe to replicate those illustrated by early explorers.

They set a deadline of three years to design, fund, and build a vessel capable of making the 2500 mile trip from Hawaii to Tahiti. In addition to the monumental task of financing and building the canoe, Finney considered it imperative that they make the journey without any contemporary navigational aides in order to refute Sharp’s premise.

On March 8, 1975 at a beach on the shore of Oʻahu, a 62 foot double-hulled sailing canoe, named the Hōkūleʻa  was launched. Fifteen months later, on June 6, 1976, the canoe sailed into Papeete Harbor in Tahiti thus demonstrating that the early Polynesians passed the nautical skills to reach their new home in the Hawaiian islands. In this case, however, the navigator was a Micronesian, Pius Mau Pilailug, one of the few men who was trained in the art of celestial navigation.

The Hōkūleʻa’s second voyage to Tahiti in March, 1978 met with disaster when it capsized in stormy seas five hours after leaving Honolulu. Eddie Aikau, a lifeguard and expert surfer, was lost at sea when he ventured out on a surfboard to get help. This tragedy forced the leadership of the PVS to examine the future of the Hōkūleʻa. The decision to continue with the voyage was made to honor the memory of Eddie Aikau and to restore the dignity of all native Hawaiians. Nainoa Thompson was selected to be the navigator for the next voyage. He had sailed on the Hōkūleʻa on its return trip from Tahiti and was also a crew member on the ill-fated second trip. Realizing that Mau’s experience was an essential part of his training, Thompson flew to Saipan when he learned that Mau would be there visiting relatives.

Mau met with Thompson and they spent the day together. In the end, Mao agreed to train Thompson and, in the spring of 1980, the Hōkūleʻa completed a 5000 mile round trip voyage from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti guided by Thompson.

The last two decades of the twentieth century saw a renewed interest in celestial navigation stimulated by Mau’s presence in the documentary films: The Navigators - Pathfinders of the Pacific by Sam Low and The Last Navigator by Steve Thomas. Mau accompanied Nainoa from 1985-1987 on a two-year, 16,000 mile voyage aboard the Hōkūleʻa retracing the traditional voyaging routes throughout Polynesia. In the wake of that trip, traditional canoes were built in New Zealand, Tahiti, and Rarotonga. As one of his final acts as a master navigator in 2007, Mau presided over the traditional ceremonial initiation of 11 men from Satawal and five from Hawaiʻi as masters of celestial navigation.

Thompson and his crew of Hawaiian watermen had proved to the world that their ancestors were worthy sailors equal to that of Captain Cookʻs crew who arrived centuries later. In the post-war years of the twentieth century, interest in Hawaiian arts and language was supplanted by the latest cultural imports from the mainland. The Hawaiian elders who retained the legacy of their ancestors were dwindling. The Hawaiian culture was appropriated by the tourist industry. The success of Hōkūleʻa awakened cultural pride in Hawaiians all over the globe. They reclaimed their ancestors as courageous navigators willing to cross the vast expanse of uncharted waters to a new land.

On March 8, 2025 at the 50th anniversary celebration of the launching of the Hōkūleʻa, Thompson, the current president of the PVS, extolled the courage and vision of the original founders. They defied the odds and succeeded. They had demonstrated that the vision and courage of the ancient Hawaiians had not been diminished. Since that first successful voyage, there has been: an increased enrollment at Hawaiian language schools, more schools teaching the classical forms of hula, and healing of lands ravaged by commercial agriculture. In 1993 the 103rd Congress passed a bill acknowledging the 100th anniversary of the January 17, 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and offered an apology for the United States’ complicity in that action. The cultural renaissance fostered by an ancient sailing canoe had become the inspiration to guide the future generations of Hawaiians.