The voyaging canoes Hokule‘a and Hikianalia docked at Sand Island at 6:45 p.m. Thursday upon their return from their 2,500-mile voyage from Tahiti.
The voyage took the crew along the Kealaikahiki, an ancient 2,500-mile sea road. Throughout the journey, the new generation of voyagers focused on practicing their navigational training and cultural protocol in preparation for the scheduled 2023 “Moananuiakea Voyage,” which will circumnavigate the Pacific.
“Part of me wants to go back out there,” said Kai Hoshijo, one of the navigators on the Hokule‘a. “But I’m so happy to be back with my family.”
Conch shells sounded and people chee-hooed as the canoes approached the dock. Crew members were given lei and embraced by loved ones. The sound of a child bursting into tears cut through the welcoming voices as a voyager stepped off the Hikianalia and embraced her child for the first time since her return.
The journey to Tahiti took 17 days, according to Lehua Kamalu, the voyaging director and navigator for this trip on the Hokule‘a. The crew remained there for
almost three weeks before making the 17-day return trip to Oahu.
Usually, a canoe’s crew would include about 12-14 people, but in order to lighten the canoe’s load, the Hokule‘a was assigned a 10-person crew while the Hikianalia was assigned 11.
“Everyone knows they’ve got to do a little bit more work,” Kamalu said. “It was interesting to see everyone kind of step up to that. … We also had a lot of wahine on this voyage,” she added with a smile.
One of the younger crew members, 24-year-old Kai Hoshijo, also helped to navigate the Hokule‘a. She’s happy to be home with her family and loved ones but feels a pull to go back to “the deep.”
“There’s this wonderful harmony that you feel when you’re out there working hard together and just making sure things happen
correctly,” Hoshijo said. “It makes you want to go back out there.”
The crew’s return comes about a year after the Hokule‘a’s previous voyage, an eight-day sail to an island half the size of Diamond Head, called Papahanaumokuakea, which was also in preparation for “Moananuiakea.”
During their stay in Tahiti, the crew also participated in the Blue Climate Summit, which discussed ocean protection and climate change. While in French Polynesia the crew also took the Hokule‘a and Hikianalia to Taputapuatea in Raiatea, where the two canoes were consecrated in ceremonies by elders in preparation for the “Moananuiakea Voyage.”
That voyage will span 41,000 miles, 345 ports, 46 countries and archipelagos, and 100 Indigenous territories over its five years. The voyage is meant to inspire the younger generation of wayfinders, said Nainoa Thompson, CEO of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.
Both Hoshijo and Kamalu hope to be a part of next year’s “Moananuiakea Voyage,” although nothing is set in stone, Kamalu said.
Until then the two plan to continue training and taking care of the wa‘a (voyaging canoe) so that it may continue to take care of them, and remain optimistic that next year’s voyage won’t see any delays due to COVID-19.
“I think this just brought this all back to life, brought us back to our focus,” Kamalu said. “There’s ways we can still make this work. And I think that in itself kind of brought a lot of energy back in.”
