EXCITING NEWS ! October 2, 2007 from Mr. Kane

Voyages by Hokule’a and other voyaging canoes have demonstrated the seaworthiness of Polynesian canoe designs and the adequacy of ancient non-instrument navigation. The argument presented by the Polynesian Voyaging Society has now been validated by hard evidence.

Chickens were believed to have been introduced to the Americas by the Spanish; but in June it was announced that archaeologists have found chicken bones in Chile that predated Columbus by centuries, and DNA from the bones matched that of the Polynesian-Southeast Asian chicken.

And now we have rock-hard evidence that supports Hawaiian legends of return voyages from Hawaii to the South Pacific. A stone adze collected many years ago on a coral atoll in the South Pacific Tuamotu islands has the same “chemical fingerprints” as found in stone on the Hawaiian island of Kaho’olawe.

Hokule’a’s first voyage to the South Pacific made its first landfall at an atoll in the Tuamotu archipelago.

Check this story in Science News http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070929/fob7.asp

I knew how the old canoes had been built, but how they performed was quite another question. The idea emerged to build a full size replica of a canoe incorporating those functional design features most widely distributed throughout Polynesia (and presumably the most ancient). Putting the canoe to an actual test would test as well the accounts of Polynesian navigation. For long years scholars had argued heatedly about Polynesian maritime capabilities. The data an actual sailing could provide might settle this long dispute. More intriguing to me, however, was the thought that recreating the central object of the ancient Polynesian culture and taking it to sea might stimulate the growing interest in a cultural revival.

The idea attracted others. We incorporated as the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and recruited members. I drew a preliminary plan for such a canoe, then made a painting. I found myself flashing the painting around Honolulu, asking for money, and feeling altogether foolish. But hundreds of volunteers contributed time, talent, and substance, and the canoe got built.

We launched it in 1975. When others looked to me with the question: “You got us into this. Now how do we sail this sixty foot vessel with weird-looking sails and no rudder?” I found myself in the role of skipper on a training and shakedown cruise throughout Hawaiian waters. It was a wonderfully satisfying experience; but not without some nerve-wracking moments, sailing with green hands in an unforgiving vessel, when I was rudely reminded of my old mentor's admonition about sailboats.

Navigated without charts or instruments, this replica of an ancient Eastern Polynesian voyaging canoe made two 5,500 mile round trips between Hawai‘i and Tahiti in 1976 and 1980. Another enormously successful voyage in 1985-87 took it from Hawai'i to Tahiti, Mo'orea, Huahine, Ra‘iatea, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, then back to Hawai‘i by way of the Cook Islands and Tahiti-a round trip of 16,000 miles between the northern and southern points of the Polynesian triangle,

We named the canoe Hokule‘a (star of gladness), the Hawaiian name for Arcturus, a star which appears to pass directly overhead on the latitude of Hawai‘i, and was thereby useful as a navigation star. At every port of call Hokule‘a has been warmly received by Polynesians as the symbol of their mutuality, and a reminder of the resourcefulness, inventiveness, and courage of their ancestors.

Presently berthed at the Hawai‘i Maritime Center, the canoe continues to be sailed by the Polynesian Voyaging Society on educational trips.

I was once interviewed by an advisory committee to the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and Arts on my application to do a work of sculpture for the University of Hawai‘i. Most of the committee members were on the University faculty, including a sociologist who posed a formidable question that went something like this:

“Mr. Kane, could you produce a sculpture that would be a comprehensive interpretation of the entire society of Ancient Hawai‘i; one that would express the world view of those people, their premises about the natural universe, their level of technology, their science, their craftsmanship, their sense of space and time, their values, their aspirations, something of their social structure ...” As he droned on, a glance around the table showed Executive Director Alfred Preis beginning to slump. Others were gazing out of the window. When the question ended, I searched my mind unsuccessfully for a polite response. Then, struck by a sudden thought, I replied:

“Sorry, but that's already been done.”

“It has? Where is it?” someone asked. Everyone was now fully attentive.

“At pier 12 in Honolulu Harbor. It's a piece of functional sculpture, actually a mobile, and it is truly interpretive of everything you've asked for. It's title is Hokule‘a.”

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