I have friends and conversations through out the Pacific Ocean, and T. H. Fale is one of them. He wanted me to know his culture so that our conversation over time could continue. So, he gave me a DVD "Talamalu 'o e Fonua" Sacred narratives of Tonga. I met Fale during the building of of the 'Iosepa' double of canoe at Laie. Tui'one Pulotu is my master carver that I too, worked under for many months. The third master of culture practice was Papa Mau, he aske me to see the double hull canoe that I was helping to build at Laie. He over heard my conversation that I was having with women that grew up in Waianae Hawaiian Homestead and had many experiences with building of a voyaging canoe and its nation.
As I am listening to this DVD, I too can relate to our beginning in Koolaupoko for that is where my ancestors lived and continue to live until this moment. 'GOD' is the very pinnacle of my greats...grandfathers which is so highly misinterpreted by modernist theory, from my point of view. This is not about academic, but where the essence of our people run collectively together in their consciousness. No need words to describe, or speak to--one just connect and move through their nature. The supernatural of beings are and have different interpretations, I dare not determine someone else's belief system. In the confusion, one can clearly and aesthetically be clear in its relationship with God and nature through respecting each others nation building, and its responsibility towards it's people and their ancestors land. In this sense I believe all women believed in 'GOD' as they're men do too, no doubt in my mind.
Keep in mind, I am my father's daughter and his name is Kanaka oo 'Niaupio. He gathered Kava for the old folks from the Koolau's and always until this moment kept his inner respect for his parents and their ancestors culture and practices. I am very obedient to that continuity! My father lives at 1845 Maunawili Road and continue his beliefs even more strongly today. My dad lives in the kitchen he was born in!
I asked Papa Mau, if we have to follow and continue 'rituals' one can only imagine what type of look, I would have gotten from my own people. As I sat across Papa Mau and waiting for a return to my question...Papa Mau was one of supreme patience, and gently nodded his head--yes! I also was taught by the elder women of Aotearoa how to revere the 'Iosepa' and the master carver. From this experience, gained insight to my own grandmother 'Lu'ukia. Having said that--my friend Fale pointed to the importance of the southern cross, even to Hawaii in long voyages.
On June 21, 2011, Summer Solistic Day, I took Joshua to the Aquarium in Waikiki so that he is knowledgable about the coral, the sun energy, and the near shores. He must always be cognizant about colonizers and their capitalistic approaches to nature.
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Navigators from Polynesia land their canoes at Kualoa
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jun 26, 2011
The sun broke briefly through the overcast sky over Kualoa Regional Park Saturday morning as the crew members from seven canoes that had journeyed across the Pacific made their way to shore.
The voyagers, who numbered well more than 100 people, came from 14 island nations in the South Pacific, including Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Tonga and New Guinea.
It was a chicken-skin moment for many of the 1,000-plus people who gathered to greet them and understood the symbolism of the arrival. Hokule‘a, the first double-hulled voyaging canoe to make its way across the Pacific through traditional celestial navigation in 600 years, set off for its mission to Tahiti from Kualoa in 1975.
Thirty-five years later, navigators from the nations touched by Hokule‘a had come here, also relying on the stars to find land.
Frank Kawe, who captained the Aotearoa vessel Te Matau A Maui, said, "It's important to complete this aspect of the journey — to bring the newer people who've begun voyaging and sailing from our part of the Pacific up to meet the family that's been here and has been doing this work for 35 years," Kawe said. "These are some of the lifelong friends we've made over the years that have hosted us, that have fed us, that have trained us."
Kailua resident John Myrdal, who paddles recreationally in Lanikai, sat on the beach alone and watched in awe at the seven canoes, constructed in Aotearoa specifically for this journey, sat moored side by side in the bay with the flags of different nations flapping in the wind.
"Any time people from different backgrounds and cultures can get together — it's a good thing to reconcile the differences we may have had in the past in this world. You can't help but be impressed by the camaraderie and people acting as one human race."
Nani Kauka of Kailua canceled all the other activities she had planned for the day so she could attend the "once-in-a-lifetime" event.
Polynesians are "getting back to realizing that we are probably one of the greatest voyaging cultures in the world," Kauka said. "What Hokule‘a did was instill in the rest of the Polynesians a desire to reclaim their cultures."
The mission of the voyage, dubbed "Te Mana o te Moana" or "The Spirit of the Sea," is to promote global awareness of increasing threats to the environment and the world's oceans, the Pacific in particular. It is sponsored by Okeanos — Foundation for the Sea, a nonprofit founded by German native Dieter Paulmann.
The voyage began in Aotearoa in April and arrived in Hilo a week ago. While on Oahu during the next 10 days, representatives from the project will take part in Kava Bowl Ocean Summit 2011 at the Imin International Conference Center. After a stop on Kauai, the contingent will head to California.
Billy Richards, one of Hokule‘a's original crew members, said the voyage has not only brought the peoples of the different island nations closer, but also has helped provide what essentially are classrooms for a new generation of Pacific navigators.
The voyage's message of environmental awareness was also repeated throughout Saturday's celebration.
"The Earth's in trouble," said Hokule‘a master navigator Nainoa Thompson, chief executive of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. "And the one piece that needs to be saved first — because otherwise nothing else will make it — is the oceans. And I would argue that the largest, the most magnificent and the most powerful ocean of them all is the Pacific. And if we lose the Pacific, ecologically, it's over."
Thanks for letting us know about the multiples of PIRATES interested in OUR HOME, OUR Hawaiian archipelago...............
and let your friends know that the Hawaiian Kingdom is here..............aloha.
How much is the Ocean worth to you?
Honolulu, Hawai'i
June 30 - July 4, 2011
Picture the North Star and the Southern Cross. Both are navigational tools that Pacific wayfarers use to guide them across the Pacific Ocean. Okeanos - Foundation for the Sea - also follows a celestial constellation. This constellation imparts an ancestral wisdom and profound spiritual insight on the inseparable connection between any life on earth and the sea. Okeanos uses this constellation as a guide on their quest to restore health to our oceans around the world, and to the Pacific Ocean in particular.
The Okeanos constellation consists of five stars. The first of these stars refers to the effects that man-made threats have on marine life and, subsequently, on all life on earth. The second star is the founding of a fleet of Pacific Voyaging canoes, or vaka. As metaphors for a sustainable life, these vaka unite Pacific islanders through the revival and sharing of ancient knowledge, reminding islanders from whence they came, how deeply they are connected to their mother ocean, and how their future actions should continue to honor her. The constellation’s third star is the commissioning of a research report forecasting the economic impacts of a changing ocean if we continue business as usual. Film documentaries, the fourth star, bring the Pacific Ocean's current ecologic glories and tragedies into personal focus.
The fifth star on Okeanos’ quest to protect and heal the oceans is the Kava Bowl Ocean Summit. The Summit will bring together a variety of people from across the globe with different experiences and expertise. These include people directly affected by the changes in the ocean. People studying the processes occurring in the sea. People trying to influence environmental legislation. And people following their ancestor’s wisdom in daily life. This seminal gathering will give all attendees the opportunity to contribute and to learn at the same time. To emphasize this fact, Summit discussions will be held in the Pacific tradition, where people sit around a kava bowl, meeting at eye-level and exchanging thoughts and ideas freely. The focus will be on the threats lurking beneath the surface of our waters: warming waters, growing acidification and decreasing oxygen levels brought on by climate change and pollution, from plastics to chemicals. Such problems we humans cannot yet see. Or smell. Or hear. But marine organisms all over the world are experiencing a change to their aquatic environment at rates not experienced for thousands of years or event longer. These changes could be a serious risk to sea creatures and because we depend on marine food webs and ecosystems for food, for coastal protection and for livelihoods, these changes, if left to continue, could impact humans as well.
Okeanos in cooperation with Center for Ocean Solutions, Stockholm Environment Institute, Foundation for Design & Sustainable Enterprise, the East-West Center, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature will provide a venue in Honolulu in late June where Summit fellows and staff from a great variety of professional, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds will gather. Spiritual leaders. Marine, social and neuro-scientists. Futurists. Environmentalists. Corporate, legal, philanthropic and policy leaders. They come because they share a common belief: that the ocean is essential to our survival. They also share a common goal: that together, we can find solutions to safeguard this valuable resource and thus, our future.
The aim of our conference "How Much is the Ocean Worth to You?", to be held June 30 - July 4, 2011 in Honolulu, Hawai'i, is to have a discussion among a wide variety of people of different background, expertise, and experience, about the economic costs of inaction in the face of climate change in the ocean.
We have invited spiritual leaders, political decision makers, marine biologists, neuroscientists, sociologists, legal experts, people who are directly affected by ocean climate change, futurists, and environmental and cultural educators. Also included in this group is the crew of our vaka, the Polynesian fleet, which is currently crossing the Pacific to raise awareness about the poor health of the Pacific. Some of the crew work for NGOs, some live their lives according to the wisdom of their ancestors, others have studied environmental science or pedagogy. What they all have in common, though, is their connection with the sea. In addition, they will be able to report first-hand on the state of the Pacific after having sailed across it for the last few months.
Through this conference, where we will introduce the study and report of the same title, we would like to convey this important topic from the ivory tower of the scientific and academic worlds out to the public. The discussions will take place in small groups, following the Pacific tradition of Kava Bowl talks. Here, people sit around a Kava bowl, exchanging thoughts and ideas at eye-level to remove barriers between different expertise, experiences and cultural backgrounds.
Along with the scientific outcomes, we hope to provide concrete guidance for policy and decision makers, as well as accessible information that is easily understandable to the world's citizens.. For in the end, the results from the Pacific are applicable to all oceans, affecting all of humanity..