Pacific Voyagers
This spring, two double-hulled canoes, Hōkūle‘a and Hikianalia, will set off for what organizers are calling the Moananuiākea Voyage—a 41,000-mile, 42-month circumnavigation of the Pacific. The boats will visit 46 countries and archipelagos that are home to nearly 100 indigenous territories and 345 ports. The goal of the voyage? Education about oceanic and environmental health and the impact both have on the indigenous people of the region.
“Today we find ourselves facing some of the most challenging threats we’ve ever faced. From this global pandemic to burning forests, emptying oceans, melting glaciers, rising seas, and storms that will change both the Earth and humanity,” says Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, the group in charge of the Hōkūle‘a project, and a Pwo, or master, navigator. “With the Moananuiākea Voyage, we feel the urgency to seek out and connect a new generation of bold, brilliant and caring leaders around the world who can chart a course for a flourishing future for Hawaii, the Pacific and the Earth.”
This will be the first major voyage for since its 2014 circumnavigation. In addition to exhibiting the canoe in ports around the globe, that circumnavigation provided the opportunity to train a group of navigators that will be with the project for
