An ocean-going Hawaiian canoe has made it to Port Hardy on its four-year voyage around the Pacific Ocean.
The vessel Hōkūleʻa (ho-KOO-lay-ah) is moored in Port Hardy this weekend after visiting several First Nations on its way south from Alaska. Current captain Moani Heimuli says they are rediscovering ancient connections between coastal people that are thousands of years old.
“We’re making these connections between the Indigenous people and our own (Hawaiian) people,” he says. “The Haida people, we found that they were going to Hawai’i and Hawaiians were coming up to those parts of the world long ago.”
The canoe and its crew of about a dozen were greeted with stories, songs, and dancing in Klemtu and Bella Bella. On Saturday they sailed through open water to Port Hardy.
Weather-permitting, they plan to sail to Alert Bay tomorrow, and are planning to stop in Browns Bay, Campbell River, and Nanaimo before heading to Vancouver and Puget Sound.
The canoe, built in 1975, is on a voyage to circumnavigate the Pacific Ocean. It will take four years, and there is a pool of 300 people who will serve in groups of up to a dozen at a time, switching out throughout the trip. It was built by the Polynesian Voyaging Society to share knowledge and culture around the Pacific Rim, and to draw attention to the state of the ocean and the need for conservation.
Visit their website to track the voyage.
