13 August 2019

Pathfinding the Pacific: Short History on Polynesian Navigation

“Hawaiʻi is a man, a child of Tahiti.” 



    In 1976, the Hōkūleʻa set out, with Mau Piailug as the navigator to sail the legendary sailing route to Tahiti.  Mau is a rare gem in Polynesian navigation for the fact that he is one of the last keepers of our old ways. Mau felt the need to reconnect Kanaka Maoli with our ancestral capabilities.  Micronesians are among the first Polynesian navigators and more specifically, the island nation of Satawa contains those who still practice these ancient ways of navigation.

    2000 miles west of Hawaiʻi, Mauʻs home waters surround Micronesia and he felt this trip from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti was very necessary.  Mau wanted to assure that Kanaka Maoli were able to re-align ourselves with our skillset identities, that was shared with Mau, through his father and grandfather.  

    Mau showed his crew how to become , which is well beyond the limited scope of palu.  Palu are those who only know how to sail.  Mau wanted to reconnect us with our ancestral ways of pō - complete navigational mastery.   

   People have tossed aside the old spirits to pray to the Christian God, which took away some of the magic that was held in the ancient systems of navigation and Mau warns us to maintain as much of our origins as we can, that it not be lost forever.  This evolution in methodology of prayer and ancestral connection is concerning. It is the circumcision of our complete identity and the soul contained within.
  

     Evidence and carbon dating of Lapita pottery was used to confirm that Lapita voyaging began with the Bismarck Archipelago and ended with the Chatham Islands.   Pottery and other obsidian artifacts make old voyaging habits much easier to confirm or trace. Canoes were studied to confirm how steering and controlling primitive vessels was able to be mastered in the way it was.



Kahala Lei
copyright August 2019

Tautai



Wayfinding:  is a term related to navigation and how our people used celestial bodies and the natural environment around them to determine which way to go in their voyages.

As an example:  from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti ~

As you cross the Equator, the constellation known as the Southern Cross is used along with Meridian pairs known as: Mirzam and Canis Major, Canopis and Carina - which there becomes an imaginary line that runs perpendicular with the ocean to create a point of destination.  Through this line, an imaginary line is cut through the center of the deck which maintains the course for heading to Tahiti.

During daylight hours, look at the clouds.  When the clouds change to a brownish hue, this indicates land in which the clouds are reflecting.  Migratory birds can also be observed heading toward the island.

The Polynesian Voyaging Society was founded in 1973 to prove that ancient Polynesians truly meant to settle the islands in which they have settled.  They set out to prove that the Polynesian Wayfinding truly works without modern navigation tools.

Since 1975 the Hokulea has been around the world without navigational technology.

Today, they are discovering that Polynesians had gone even further than the Pacific, of Polynesian Triangle and the one pristine wildlife area off the coast of California is surfacing evidence in an underground site, of Polynesian seafaring.

Channel Islands show evidence of an ancient seafaring culture which resemble Polynesian artifacts.  This also coincides with seafarers of South America.

Researchers find that the exodus across the Bering Strait was not the first wave of migration into the continent of North America about 10,000 years ago, but that evidence shows that Polynesians had already settled the land some 2000 years prior to that.  If this is found to be true, it would imply that Polynesians were indeed the worldʻs greatest mariners of all time, with no equal in human history.




Kahala Lei
copyright, August 2019



12 August 2019

Post-Traumatic Effects of Imperialism in Hawai'i

How one defines paradise or success is a matter of opinion.
This is because that definition is subject to differ from one person to the next.  



Many eras of humanity ago,  Pacific voyagers discovered islands distant to any other seafaring nation and inhabited each island, as a season of migration.  These voyagers,  known as Lapita people, spanned throughout southern Asia and across the Pacific long before Captain Cook expanded European maps to include new trade routes.

Bringing with them what is known as canoe plants, on their sailing expeditions, the Lapita people were quickly able to sustain in adaptability to the islands they built nations upon.  Periods lacking migration brought uniqueness to each island nation.

Life was simple.  If one wanted what the other had, they either traded or gifted the item in question.    Order accompanied law.  People were content.  There weren't any major diseases until foreigners arrived.  

When Europeans and Americans discovered Hawai'i for the first time, they saw what they felt was a perfect opportunity.  It was a perfect opportunity to spread the good word and a perfect place to make unprecedented fortunes.   It wasn't long before rumors of coup d'etat began to murmur about.  

These foreigners wanted to repeat the plight of what they had historically done to American Indians, adding in as much slavery as they could however the Kanaka Maoli - actual Hawaiian people were resilient, learning fast.  Too many hands in the pot of conquest also played many a political defeat to that of their own imperialistic cause.  Divisions were eminent but the one factor of American unity was the use of American military presence in the islands.  Unable to fuel their boats to make it all the way across the Pacific,  Honolulu proved to be convenient, especially during the Spanish-American War and the conquest to control the Philippines.

America like this arrangement as well as other fringe benefits of their presence in Hawai'i.  Unfortunately their presence in Hawai'i meant high death tolls for Kanaka Maoli.  From the loss of land and water rights,  to diseases and murder,  numbers of the original Hawaiian people shrunk from about a million to just about 40,000.

The mixed work force helped provide a constituent base that outnumbered the imperialists who sought total control over Hawai'i.  By the year of 1900,  the Home Rule Party was able to maintain some control for local populations.  Time, the events of Pearl Harbor and imperialism would soon gain a grip upon the islands that proved detrimental for local interests.

On August 21, 1959
Hawai'i was illegally entered into
the state of the union of the
United States of America


From the period of 1893 until roughly the 1970s,  the Hawaiian language, known as ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi was banned in most places including in general public.  Strict American laws prevented most of the culture from thriving,  while depression stemming from the amounts of oppression, suppression and suffering began to seep in.  This combination spurred post-traumatic reactions from the masses of people.  It didnʻt only affect Kanaka Maoli. These repercussions effected almost the entire population, sans the rich, powerful imperialists who still frown upon the local population.

Generations ago, this imperialist mentality drove many into such a lack of coping that whatever strains of culture remained, were celebrated alongside new, detrimental habits such as beating children and addiction.  Over the same course of time, suicide became a popular way out, still prevalent today in Hawaiʻi.

While still feeling the pangs of a century of oppression,  the culture of Hawaiʻi is continually purging forward with the key element of Kapu Aloha at the helm of the waʻa - canoe that everybody paddles together.  Today,  the language and culture are thriving in ways that a hundred years have not seen.  May the healing continue to vibrate across the Pacific and around the world.




Kahala Lei
copyright August 2019



Opinion on Mankind

In the beginning,  there just was.

There was no explanation,  just existence.

One cannot argue as to what one was not here to know.

Debates on such topics are relentlessly bred to cause division among people.

No people that already existed on Earth believed the Adam & Eve story because other peoples already existed here on Earth.

The story of Adam & Eve only describes what happened to those people and how they were delivered to Earth.

It is outlined in Genesis,  right after Cain killed Abel and spoke to God.  It says that God marked Cainʻs forehead,  and Cain proceeded to move east to a land known as Nod - and married a woman from that country.   This is evidence that other countries existed on Earth.

The images sold to us were to convince us that we are savages in need of redemption.  That redemption comes in the form of giving everything we have while agreeing to slavery.  The redemption is our own consent to becoming a slave.  That faith is simply Adamʻs genealogy.  We have our own genealogy.  Whether or not it goes back to his,  is another question.  However it is only logical to follow the matrilineal genetic trail,  since nobody can truly verify any father of any child,  until modern day DNA tests which only depict the type of blood one has.

Whether or not a person agrees with this view is purely opinionated - just like the views I express on this blog.  Main thing that the reader remembers that this blog is not for educational use, but rather for my own personal use. 





Kahala Lei
copyright August 2019