Meet Nainoa Thompson, the Hawaiian Navigator Who’s Preserving the Ancient Art of Ocean Wayfinding
Nainoa Thompson did not set out to rewrite history. He just wanted to go for an adventure.
But he accomplished both. Decades later, he’s now the most famous person in Hawaii and an icon to seafaring people around the world. Along the way, he learned a few things: Intense preparation surmounts risk. The riskiest action can be none at all. And sometimes, knowledge by itself, no matter how deep, is not sufficient.
But all that came later as he learned what’s known as “The Way of the Canoe.” First, he headed to sea on a Polynesian voyaging canoe adventure.
“All I knew was where I wanted to be—on the ocean,” Thompson said of his young self growing up just outside Waikiki on a dairy farm. His earliest memory is of himself as a 5-year-old milking cows. Then one day, a fishing expedition introduced him to the Pacific, just a mile away. His affinity for the ocean was immediate, and it determined the course of his life. “I didn’t know how I was going to get out on the ocean for good, but I knew it was going to be somehow.”
Rediscovery
As it turned out, Thompson’s first real ocean adv
Nainoa Thompson
The following biography/autobiography is framed by “The Ocean Is My Classroom,” written by Gisela E. Speidel, Editor of The Kamehameha Journal of Education, and Kristina Inn, Associate Editor. “The Ocean Is My Classroom” was published in The Kamehameha Journal of Education (Fall ), Vol. 5, Inserted into the frame are narratives taken from two speeches by Nainoa Thompson: the first speech was for a Polynesian Union conference sponsored by the Queen Emma Foundation in ; the second was to Hui Lama, at Kamehameha Schools, in April, Additional information came from interviews by Sam Low, during the Voyage to Rapanui, Mangareva to Rapanui, and other sources.
Introduction
Nainoa Thompson, navigator for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, has inspired and led a revival of traditional voyaging arts in Hawai'i and Polynesia-arts which have been lost for centuries due to the cessation of such voyaging and the colonization and Westernization of the Polynesian archipelagos.
Voyage Home. Photo by Sam Low
In , Thompson became the first Hawaiian and the first Polynesian to practice the art of wayfinding on long distance ocean voyages since voyaging ended in Polynesia a
Nainoa Thompson
Native Hawaiian Navigator and President, Polynesian Voyaging Society
“They are going to inherit our past; we are not going to save their future. We need to prepare them to do that. So, we work very hard in Hawai’i with the fundamental belief that Hawai’i is going to be the starlight for the Earth. If we learn how to live well on the Islands, we learn to live well on the Earth, because that’s what the Earth is.”
Biography
Trained by the likes of Mau Piailug and Herb Kāne, Charles Nainoa Thompson has since joined his kūpuna (teachers) as one of the most renowned navigators of our time. Hailing from Niu Valley on the island of O’ahu, the Native Hawaiian navigator has had an influential role in revitalizing the ancient Polynesian art of navigation. Helping in the construction and sailing of the double-hulled canoes, the Hōkūle‘a and the Hawai‘iloa, Nainoa was the first Hawaiian since the 14th century to sail from Hawai’i to Tahiti, crossing the Pacific Ocean in without use of any modern navigational tools. Utilizing the stars and waves to chart a course, Nainoa has since gone on to pursue an educational-based approach to revitalizing this lost art o
Finding a Way:
Nainoa Thompson
[Over the last 25 years, Nainoa Thompson, navigator for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, has inspired and led a revival of traditional voyaging arts in Hawai'i and Polynesia-arts which have been lost for centuries due to the cessation of such voyaging and the colonization and Westernization of Polynesia. In , Thompson became the first Hawaiian to practice the art of wayfinding on long distance ocean voyages since voyaging ended between Hawai'i and Tahiti around the 14th century. Thompson has developed a system of wayfinding, or non-instrument navigation, synthesizing traditional principles of ancient Pacific navigation and modern scientific knowledge. This system of wayfinding is being taught in schools and practiced throughout Hawai'i and the Pacific. In addition to being a navigator, Thompson is a leader with a vision, and a charismatic, spell-binding storyteller. The following narrative has been compiled from Thompson's interviews, talks, and notes.1]
Becoming a Crew Member for the First Voyage of Hokule'a
It was the first year I was paddling for the Hui Nalu Canoe Club, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Herb Ka
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