Hōkūleʻa reaches a milestone birthday this Saturday, celebrating 50 years. To honor Hawaiʻi’s "Star of Gladness," festivities across Oʻahu this week will reflect on the double-hulled canoe's beginnings and profound impact as a precious link to the past through the seafaring people who came first to the islands.
It was on March 8, 1975, that Hōkūleʻa was first launched into the ocean in Hawaiʻi and voyaged successfully to Tahiti in 1976. Since then, Hōkūleʻa has inspired connections throughout Pacific Island communities with the common desire of protecting and preserving the culture's most cherished values.
Before the invention of technologies such as the compass, sextant, clocks, and GPS, Pacific Islanders embarked on voyages using only signs from nature to guide them. Survival was dependent on knowing the paths of stars, observing the sun, and using the rhythms of the ocean for direction.
This traditional and Indigenous form of knowledge is called wayfinding. The knowledge was typically passed down by elders to select future navigators. At one point, this practice was almost lost. But in the 20th century, this method was still practiced in areas of Micronesia.
Master navigator Mau Piailug from Satawal, Micronesia, led the first voyage of Hōkūle‘a to Tahiti in 1976. Under Piailug’s instruction, Nainoa Thompson became one of the first Native Hawaiians in 100 years to learn the skills of celestial navigation and wayfinding.
Thompson has since replicated the 1976 voyage, and navigated Hōkūle‘a from Tahiti back to Hawai’i, which hadn’t been accomplished in 600 years.
Hōkūle‘a continues to sail today, voyaging worldwide to places such as Aotearoa, Rapa Nui, the U.S. West Coast, and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
Hōkūle‘a serves as a reminder that through the struggle of forgetting who we are and where we come from, we can explore past ways to help remember. The Polynesian Voyaging Society invites the public to a series of events to honor Hōkūle‘a's legacy.
Hoʻolauleʻa
Saturday, March 8 — 8 a.m. to 4 p.m
Hōkūleʻa’s 50th Birthday Commemoration at the 16th Annual Kualoa/Hakipuʻu Canoe Festival at Kualoa Regional Park, where the canoe was first launched in 1975. There will also be a livestream for this event.
Monday, March 10 — 3 to 6 p.m.
Hōkūleʻa Dockside Canoe Tours at Hawai‘i Convention Center. The public is invited to step aboard Hōkūleʻa and hear from crew members and navigators who are training to take leadership roles in the next chapters of the Moananuiākea Voyage.
Friday, March 14 — 5 to 9 p.m.
Hōkūleʻa’s 50th Birthday: E Ola Mau at Bishop Museum to pay tribute to the canoe’s origins and legacy with special exhibits and programming dedicated to the history of traditional Polynesian voyaging.
More information about the events can be found here.
To learn more about Moananuiākea, Hōkūle‘a’s 15th major voyage, click here. Hōkūleʻa is expected to re-launch its circumnavigation of the Pacific.
HPR also reported on Hōkūleʻa every week throughout the Moananuiākea Voyage in 2023. Read and hear past coverage here:
