"Hokule‘a, Ohana Wa‘a, Family of The Canoe," by James Kimo Hugho (Self-published, $34.95)
Review by Marion Lyman-Mersereau
Special to the Star-Advertiser
In a colorful coffee-table book, James Kimo Hugho shares a unique history of the Hokule‘a from the view of a Native Hawaiian who was involved with the voyaging canoe from its inception. It is also in many ways a personal and emotional memoir exploring what it meant to Hugho and many of his generation, who came of age during the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s.
As director, producer and star of his cinematic tale, Hugho presents episodic stories about the celebrated canoe and its extended family of founders, advisers, sponsors and crews. From discussions prior to its construction to traditional navigator initiations in Satawal, this epic features a vast cast of colorful characters in a variety of settings spanning about 30 years.
In his preface, which explains his "inspiration to write," Hugho draws parallels to the canoe’s mishaps, most of all its capsizing in the Molokai Channel in 1978, resulting in the loss of crew member Eddie Aikau, who went for help. He compares these accidents to the fatal Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986, citing lack of concern for safety.
Hugho says he was given courage to reveal his stories by the example of the author of the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, himself motivated by Gandhi’s concept of "satyagraha, holding to the truth." This is also Hugho’s motivation: to tell untold truths.
In the opening chapter Hugho describes his mother’s feelings of foreboding when his father goes to work on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hugho maintains he has inherited this same gift of prescience: His premonitions, "early warning signals," and those of his friends, are a recurring theme throughout his book.
The next chapter describes life experiences that precede the author’s involvement with the Hokule‘a. "The Canoe" finally makes an entrance in Chapter 3, yet little mention is made of the Hokule‘a’s objectives: to prove that Polynesians could successfully navigate noninstrumentally across great ocean distances and that they were capable craftsmen who built seaworthy voyaging vessels. These achievements, when the 1976 crew made landfall on the maiden voyage to Tahiti, with Mau Piailug as noninstrumental navigator, are the reason the Hokule‘a has long been considered a proud symbol of the Hawaiian Renaissance.
Hugho re-creates apparent tensions between crew and leadership and alludes to racial conflict during the early years, highlighting the diplomatic role he played in navigating the turbulent waters between the haole and Hawaiian contingents involved in the project. As a rescue firefighter, Hugho consistently criticizes the lack of safety measures taken by the Polynesian Voyaging Society. He also voices strong opinions regarding crew selection decisions made by the leadership.
This book differs from Sam Low’s "Hawaiki Rising, Hokule‘a, Nainoa Thompson, and the Hawaiian Renaissance," a well-researched history published in 2013. Hugho’s is an anecdotal history told as witnessed by an author whose respect for the Hawaiian people and their skills, beliefs and rituals is equally profound but presented in a stream-of-consciousness style that is difficult to follow.
Happily, his stories are supported by exquisite color photographs. He also includes letters, newspaper articles and transcripts from National Geographic’s film about the 1976 voyage.
Complete with scenes of intrigue, "Hokule‘a, Ohana Wa‘a, Family of the Canoe" is a drama about a family that, like many, has skeletons in its closet.
Marion Lyman-Mersereau, author of "Eddie ‘Wen Go: The Story of the Upside Down Canoe," crewed on Hokule‘a when it capsized in 1978 and the 1980 voyage to Tahiti.
