'The Oceans Have Always Connected Us' | Environment
Category: News & Politics
Via: kavika • last year • 36 commentsBy: Jenna Kunze (Native News Online)
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- Yahoo News
Details By Jenna Kunze June 10, 2023
A dozen Native Hawaiian navigators will set sail from Juneau, Alaska this week to begin a four-year voyage around the Pacific Ocean by canoe.
The expedition will stop in 36 countries and archipelagoes, visiting 100 Indigenous territories with the goal to educate and learn from communities on Indigenous knowledge and planetary health.
The Moananuikea Voyage, meaning "the wide expansive oceans" in Native Hawaiian, was named for the heart of the trip's mission.
"In some beliefs, people believed that the oceans separated us. But we're of the belief that the oceans have always connected us," said Chris Blake, a Native Hawaiian crew member and captain-in-training who teaches high school science and celestial navigation in Oahu. "Its health both above water and below is important to ensure that this amazing space is going to be taken care of for generations to come."
A rotating crew of 400 volunteers—members of the Polynesian Voyaging Society— will participate in the four-year journey for stints of about a month at a time, Blake told Native News Online . They will sail on two canoes: Hklea, a 60-foot double hulled Polynesian deep-sea voyaging canoe; and Hikianalia, a 72-foot, engine powered, deep escort sea vessel. Each canoe will be staffed with roughly a dozen crew members the entire journey, Blake said.
The voyage will make stops in: British Columbia, Seattle, the West Coast, Mexico, Central America, South America, Polynesia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, Palau, Japan, and Tahiti. At each port along the 43,000 nautical mile route, the crew will visit with Indigenous communities, and connect with both educators and students.
"The hope is to inspire and discuss and share, and to help to nurture this network of educators so that after the vessels are gone, the longer lasting connection we have is through education," Blake said.
The 47-month expedition will stop in 36 countries and archipelagoes, visiting 100 Indigenous territories with the goal to educate and learn from communities on Indigenous knowledge and planetary health. (Map: Polynesian Voyaging Society)
Stories collected throughout the voyage—including videos, blogs, educational resources, and virtual reality—will be continuously uploaded to an online learning platform.
Two weeks ago, the Hklea set sail on a pre-voyage trip around Southeast Alaska. The trip was intended to honor contributions from the Alaska Native communities that helped perpetuate traditional Native Hawaiian voyaging practices.
In 1990, the Polynesian Voyaging Society, in an attempt to revive traditional canoeing practices, devised a plan to build a canoe using solely traditional materials, such as the koa tree. But deforestation kept them from finding a suitable tree, so voyaging society leaders asked for help from southeast Alaska Native communities who also traditionally relied on canoeing.
The late Tlingit elders Judson Brown— former chairman of the Sealaska Foundation—and Byron Mallott, former CEO of the Sealaska Corporation, gifted their Native Hawai'ian relatives two 200-foot Sitka spruce logs to help construct the voyaging canoe, Hawai'iloa.
At pre-voyage stops in Yakutat, Hoonah and Haines, Blake said he saw similarities between Alaska Native communities and his own.
"The last generation of elders in Alaska doesn't have the ability to speak their language, because their parents didn't want to have them undergo persecution," Blake said. "That mirrors what happens in Hawai'i."
But so, too, does the resurgence of Indigenous languages, culture, and traditions in both communities, Blake said. "Now, the ground is much more fertile to begin to ask questions that are rooted in our Native Hawai'ian culture, to begin to be asked by our Native learners about their culture, and how we can begin to push things into making sure that our voices are continued to be heard."
"(Some) people believed that the oceans separated us. But we're of the belief that the oceans have always connected us," said Chris Blake (pictured, far left), a Native Hawaiian crew member and captain-in-training. (Photo: Chris Blake)
Hklea is scheduled to arrive in Juneau on June 10, where it will be welcomed on the traditional lands of the A'akw Kwaan. The canoe and crew will stay in Juneau for a week of community and educational engagements, and push off for its circumnavigation voyage on Thursday, June 15.
"You can't know where you're going unless you know where you've been," Blake said of the significance of the journey. "The way that we look to our past in order to shape our future, and these communities that are doing it in their excellence, are some of the reasons why I see it as a privilege to be able to sail for our island home.
"These communities that are welcoming us with open arms deserve to have their stories told and shared, and Hklea allows for that platform to show the world what can be done when we choose peace, and we choose the health of our Earth."
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This will a fascinating. The Polynesian people are some of the best ocean navigators in the world.
I was in Samoa when Samoa built an outrigger canoe and used their ancient skills of reading the waves, they had NO modern technical equipment just then innate ability. They set sail for Hawaii which is 2,500 miles across the open ocean and came within a quarter of a mile of their landing goal in Hawaii.
This will also help with the possible movement of as part of the settling of the Americas know as the ''Kelp Highway'' the movement via water down the west coast of the Americas from what is now Alaska.
And now (thanks to anthropogenic global warming) everything is changing.
The polar ice is melting at an unprecedented rate.
Global sea level is rising even faster than projected just a few years ago.
Extreme climate events are now the new norm.
Even far right wing fascist climate change deniers are starting to understand.
This is very interesting. I'm really looking forward to following the progress of this great adventure.
Was in a rock band in Denver back in the day and our lead singer was married to a huge Samoan who would take me sailing in his 20 footer on Grand Lake. The guy could sail as easily as most folk could walk.
Ended up buying a Sunfish and sail it to this day (not as much as I would like).
I traveled to and lived in Samoa for some time, both American Samoa and Samoa it was quite the adventure and a great learning experience.
Spent time in the PI teaching Kali and Arnis to folk who hated whites.
Teaching martial arts in PI. Isn't Arnis/kali a form of martial arts developed in the PI's?
I've been to American Samoa. It was a great place. I've also been to the Kingdom of Tonga, and another time I went to the Cook Islands. Polynesia is very interesting, and those trips were a lot of fun.
Polynesia is a very interesting part of the world with culture/language being exceptional, IMO.
Morning...would be an amazing sea journey to do and hope all goes well for them...
They are some of the best seafarers in the world, shona. It will be great to be able to follow their adventure and discoveries.
The first modern effort to navigate a long distance using ancient traditional methods occurred in 1976 with the 2,500 plus mile voyage of the Hokule'a from Hawaii to Tahiti, which was followed by other voyages around Polynesia and the Pacific, including Canada and Japan.
Interestingly, the navigator for the first Hokule'a voyage was actually from Micronesia. He was the most knowledgeable and qualified at navigating using traditional methods. His name was Mau Piailug and he passed away in 2010.
That was a/is a great adventure and I read a book entitled, Malama Honua: Hokule'a a few years ago that was a later part of this voyage.
As a sailor, I tend to follow stories of epic sailing events.
Never met Jessica Watson but would like to.
For my 13th birthday, 73 years ago, my uncle gave me the gift of the book "Kon Tiki", the story of a Norwegian biologist and his 3 months sailing alone around the Pacific in a raft. Here is an image of that raft from the internet:
It was a fascinating story that led to the publishing of that book, and a movie was made from the experience. However, this new voyage of a journey around the Pacific will provide a much more comprehensive story.
Oh yeah, Thor Heyerdahl proved that Polynesia could have been sailed to and settled from South America.
Today, people on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, and four other Polynesian islands carry small amounts of DNA inherited from people who lived in Colombia about 800 years ago.
Heyerdahl showed that it was possible to drift sail from the South American continent to the closest Polynesian islands, but I don't believe that any reputable scholar is of the opinion that Polynesia was settled by migrants from South America. Without getting into too much detail, all cultural evidence shows that Polynesia was settled by voyagers traveling from west to east and not from east to west. However, there is definite evidence of contact between Polynesians and South America. The DNA evidence you mentioned is one such item. There is also linguistic evidence given the similarity in the word for sweet potato, known to the Polynesians as kumala and kumara and known to some native South Americans as cumal or cumar.
I always question reputable scholar and their assumptions, G. Over the years each new discovery dispels an existing theory and scientists are very protective of their theory and will rarely allow a competing theory to gain traction. Much of this comes from a Eurocentric view that in reality feels that discoveries by indigenous peoples cannot have the same validity as those of white Europeans.
Regarding the South American/Polynesian discovery it seems that there was actual contact between the peoples with the DNA, language, and the actual sweet potato the only question is which people moving in what direction made the first contact, and after that, both peoples could have traveled in either direction on a regular basis.
The advancement of science in many fields and especially the lidar radar discoveries in South and Central America have turned the prior theories on their ear.
If you want to read something that will challenge much of this I highly recommend Vine Deloria Jr.'s Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact.
The one lesson that I use is that even today, the common misconception is that NAs did not have a written language, which is false since the Ojibwe have had a written language that dates back a thousand years and proof of that hangs in the Smithsonian. The Birchbark Scrolls of the Midewiwin.
Loved the movie!
In this case, the reputable scholars also includes Polynesian people.
Here are a couple of interesting studies:
With regard to linguistics, this is an interesting quote from the second linked study:
However, as both of us indicated, I don't think there is much, if any, doubt that there was contact between Polynesian people and people on the South American continent.
Apparently, there is some evidence of linguistic similarity between the Polynesian languages and languages of the people of South America other than the word for sweet potato. There is also evidence of contact based on canoe technology.
I will look for the book you mentioned and I will definitely start reading up on the Birchbark Scrolls.
By the way, Prof. Matisoo-Smith, who is the author of two of the studies and mentioned in my links, may not be a Polynesian person.
Both interesting studies, and of course Polynesian people would support that view.
What is also interesting is some of the time frames involved 30,000 years ago in some instances and the relationship to Taiwan and the indigenous people of Taiwan in being explorers in the vast distances of the Pacific.
There was a report recently of modern humans in SE Asia 73,000 years ago.
When I lived in Australia I spent a lot of time in both NZ and the South Pacific and had many discussions with the Maori people in NZ and various cultures and peoples throughout Polynesia and later Micronesia and many of the discussions involved just what we are discussing here. Many of the discussions involved the elders and how their history was passed on and also their view of it vs the Western view. Also many meetings with the Aboriginal people of Australia whose history in Australia is dated to 50,000 (Mud Lake Man) years ago although they say that is not old enough and I tend to believe them more than other resources.
I truly miss those times.
I have studied Polynesian culture extensively, most particularly the ancient religion/mythology, and I spent a lot of time in Hawaii as well as my visits to other parts of Polynesia. On all of my trips to Hawaii and Polynesia I visited archaeological sites and immersed myself in local culture making a lot of local friends, including someone who became one of my best friends and still is to this day almost 40 years after we first met.
You might remember me telling you before about my encounter with a "mythical" turtle, which is part of the legend of the Turtle and the Shark from the island of Tutuila in American Samoa.
She is not Polynesian, she is Estonian and English.
I do remember that and also you life long friend in Hawaii.
Two very interesting subjects in there, first the language connection and the mention of canoes. It was said that most North American Indians used dugout-type canoes. All except the Ojibwe who used birchbark canoes very light, durable, and able to navigate fast-running shallow rivers and large bodies of water EG, Hudson Bay, Great Lakes and all water ways from the east coast of Canada to the central plains of Canada they could be quite large up to 30 plus feet. The Ojibwe were great seafarers and defeated the Mohawk nation using their skills with canoes.
Here is a book that I think you would enjoy:
Forever in Paradise by Apelu Tielu.
This is another but mostly written in Samoan.
Tusi Pese Fatuga Tuai a Samoa
A Songbook of popular old songs, photographs, and proverbs of Samoa.
It was written by Chande Lutu-Drabble. She is a good friend of mine and resides in American Samoa and California (San Diego area)
My friend from Hawaii was with me in Samoa when we had the experience with the local person performing the chant and the turtle appearing rising up from the ocean. All I can say is, immediately after we saw what we saw, we were both stunned and in awe, and we both walked away saying "I believe, I believe!" It was pretty amazing.
It is all very interesting to me.
I will look for both books.
And the title of that painting is ''wheredafugrwe''.
Was that comment meant for me? I don't understand the relevance or connection.
It's a joke, Buzz. The fugawe tribe.
Okay,
Fascinating. Thanks.
You're welcome, Bob.
I thought two things as I read this:
Thank you, Kavika, for posting this. It will be interesting to follow the voyage.
It definitely will be interesting to follow, Thomas.