Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 7, 1 Iulai 1990 — NHCAP canoe project gets Alaskan logs [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NHCAP canoe project gets Alaskan logs

By Deborah Lee Ward Editor, Ka Wai Ola O OHA The Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program, headed by executive director Lynette Paglinawan, is planning a Hawaiiancanoe-building project that will bring together Polynesian voyaging tradition and Northwest American Indian tribes.

One of the major projects NHCAP is undertaking during the first five years of its 15-year plan is planning construction, testing and sailing of a new voyaging eanoe built in the ancient way. This eanoe planned by NHCAP will be built using traditional materials and tools and will test more accurately than even Hokule'a, NHCAP hopes, the performance of ancient seafaring vessels. The Hokule'a voyaging eanoe was an accurate replica, made of modern materials, that sailed more than 30,000 nauheal miles between Hawai'i and South Pacific islands during 1975 and 1987. It was navigated entirely by ancient methods.

The talents and skills of masters and scholars in traditionaI fields and in the sciences will be needed for the eanoe project. The goals of NHCAP are to recover lost knowledge and traditions of voyaging; to correct misconceptions of oeean voyaging history and allow Native Hawaiians to express their own history; to revitalize the use of traditional knowledge, values and sailing an ancient migratory route; and to allow the continued practice of traditions relating to voyaging through educational programs.

The initial steps in construction of the eanoe were taken when, in late May, a delegation from Hawai'i went to Alaska to receive a gift of giant Sitka spruce logs to be used for a traditional oceangoing eanoe. The delegation included NHCAP board chairman Thomas K. Kaulukukui, Sr. and NHCAP trustees Abraham Piianaia, Myron Thompson, Agnes Cope and Randy Fong. Also attending were NHCAP director Paglinawan, Noela Napoleon, Hokule'a navigator Nainoa Thompson, kahuna kahea Kelii Taua, eanoe

builder Wright Bowman, and invited guests and spouses including OHA Administrator Richard Paglinawan, Ann Piianaia, Napu Dods Thompson and Laura Thompson. A group of 10 hula performers from Kamehameha Schools, led by Randy Fong also made the trip. A traditional Hawaiian blessing ceremony and presentation of offerings was led by Taua and Paul Marks, a native Alaskan cultural specialist, before the felling of the 100-foot plus Sitka spruce log on Shelikof island (off the Prince of Wales island) in Soda Bay, part of a natural boundary between Tlingit and Haida territories.

A 66-foot section of the 418-year-old log was donated by Sealaska Timber Corp., a subsidiary of Sealaska Corporation, for the NHCAP project. The Sealaska Corporation develops natura' resources in Alaska for the benefit of Native Alaskans. Representatives of the native Alaskan Tlingit and Haida tribes will participate in the eanoe-mak-ing project as consultants, and will visit Hawai'i in July in time to help bless the logs whieh will be ^rriving by then here.

The tree blessing and cutting ceremony was part of the United Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Celebration '90, a week of biennial events in Juneau sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Foundation during the Memorial Day weekend. The Hawai'i delegation from NHCAP was ceremonially greeted by representatives of native Alaskan tribes, and an exchange of traditional dances took plaee between the Alaskans and the Kamehameha Schools dancers. A model double-hulled voyaging canoe,made by

Wright Bowman, Sr. was given to the Sealaska Heritage Foundation. The finely detailed eanoe was made possible by private donations through the Hawai'i Cu!tural Resource Foundation and the Hawai'i Maritime Center. A second 65-foot log, 5 feet in diameter plus six shorter logs will also be sent to Hawai'i this summer. The two large logs will be carved into traditional double-hulled 60-ft. seagoing canoes. The estimated weight of eaeh large log is more than 80,000 lbs.

A documentary film is being made about the entire canoe-building project for the Public Broadcasting System. While tradition has it that Hawaiian canoes were selected from koa logs in Hawaii's forests, cut and taken to the coast to be carved into canoes, the Alaska ceremony also referred to entries in the journals of Capt . George Vancouver and books by Archibald Menzies and Wm. T. Brigham whieh describe the use of drift logs from North America to build Hawaiian canoes.

While in Alaska Kaulukukui, who is also chairman of the OHA Board of Trustees and OHA Administrator Pagiinawan presented a forum in Anchorage to Hawaiians living in Alaska on native Hawaiian issues and concerns whieh was sponsored by Na Keiki O Hawai'i of Anchorage. Kaulukukui spoke on Native Hawaiian entitlements and OHA's programs. Paglinawan presented information on filing for Hawaiian Homes Commission land awards, student scholarships, jobs programs, and OHA's Operation 'Ohana enrollment of Hawaiians. Mrs. Paglinawan discussed ho'oponopono, the Hawaiian conflict-resolution method and spoke on the activities of NHCAP and the log-cutting exchange visit in Ketchikan.

Tlingit dancers and orators in traditional costume greet the NHCAP delegation in their native tongue to reaffirm their desire for a successful relationship between their people and the natlve people of Hawai'i.

Elders of native Alaskan tribes wearing maile leis presented to them, accept the gift of a model Hawailan voyaging eanoe and express their gratitude during the Celebration '90 festivities.

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Kahuna kahea Kelii Taua of Maui (left) and Paul Marks, a cultural specialist with the Sealaska Heritage Foundation stand beside base of spruce tree cut for the NHCAP eanoe project. Both men prayed in their native tongues to ask for blessings upon the tree and those in attendance before the tree was cut.