The voyaging canoes are a reawakening of the old songlines, knowing without words, heard in the stillness between breaths, the shout and pulse of the wind as it creates an atlas of clouds and dances the water’s surface hinting at the primal powers shifting below. Songlines, which are, “…the equivalent of maps of experience… combine mythology with family and clan history,” are drawing listeners from all Pacific cultures to embark on the journey that follows from the heart, to engage with the wisdom of the ancestors. Hōkūleʽa was a contemporary starting point but her voyages have, in retracing the paths of the ancestors, awakened the songlines for others. “Every day there is at least one canoe on the water in the Pacific,” observes 'Onohi Chadd Paishon, Pwo navigator and canoe captain.
Dennis Chun and maritime students lashing down the training canoe. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
It’s April 2012 and there are a group of maritime students from Japan with their Kauaʽi Community College teachers Dennis Chun and Kyoko Ikeda, getting hands on sailing experience with the Makali`i crew, using smaller training canoes contributed by Hualalai Bertlemann. I’m sitting with Pomai Bertelmann and Kyoko Ikeda as Dennis and the students lash down the waʽa for the day. Located just north of Pelekane Bay, the small dock in front of the YMCA sailing program compound, next to Hale Kukui, Makali'i headquarters. When they’re finished it’s all in the water, including Dennis, who soon joins us.
Maritime students lash down the training canoe. Dennis and 'Onohi center foreground. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
The 2007 Hōkūleʽa voyage to Japan was the songline that connected Japan with the island of Kauaʽi and a traditional voyaging course at Kauaʽi Community College (KCC). But the voyaging connection with Japan goes back further to Tiger Espere. Pomai Bertelmann explains, “Tiger started out on Hōkūleʽa and moved to Waimea and helped with the building of Makaliʽi. He was the one who founded Nā Kalei Waʽa, but after a while, 1998, Tiger moved to Japan. He lived in Japan for a while and in moving to Japan he actually was taken care of by the community of Shichirigahama and Kamakura. And while he was there he was writing for one of the magazines there and really being inspired by the people; he was really inspired at that time to build a vessel. Tiger passed away 4 or 5 years ago. It was right before the voyage in 2007.”
One special connection was made between Tiger and Tora Mosai, a professor at one of the universities. Dennis explains: “They actually hit it off, connected. He teaches, well he used to teach at a university where some of the students that are here attended. He did extensive research on maritime conditions around the world. He was so inspired by Hōkūleʽa. Even before Hōkūleʽa he did research on Polynesian Voyages. Some of his research was in Japan, the early era of the discovery of Japan, ancient names and mythologies and what he’s finding is a lot of connections in Polynesia with Japan in those early years. What he was finding is that there seems to be more contact and more communication, more interchange than modern people believe. We think insular, little spheres, but you know there’s the larger sphere of the whole ocean…they (Tiger and Mosai) inspired the rest of the community about building a vessel.”
One special connection was made between Tiger and Tora Mosai, a professor at one of the universities. Dennis explains: “They actually hit it off, connected. He teaches, well he used to teach at a university where some of the students that are here attended. He did extensive research on maritime conditions around the world. He was so inspired by Hōkūleʽa. Even before Hōkūleʽa he did research on Polynesian Voyages. Some of his research was in Japan, the early era of the discovery of Japan, ancient names and mythologies and what he’s finding is a lot of connections in Polynesia with Japan in those early years. What he was finding is that there seems to be more contact and more communication, more interchange than modern people believe. We think insular, little spheres, but you know there’s the larger sphere of the whole ocean…they (Tiger and Mosai) inspired the rest of the community about building a vessel.”
Tiger Espere at the helm of Hōkūleʽa as she arrives in Kamakura, Japan. http://archive.hokulea.com/holokai/2007/japan_6_yokohama.html
The inter-institutional arrangement of Japanese Maritime Colleges and Kauaʽi Community College, came about through some serendipitous connections between Dennis, Kyoko and Tomoki Oku. Dennis had gotten to know Kyoko through preparations for the 2007 voyage. “When they were planning the sail to Japan she was part of a team of East-West Center grad students, who were charged with developing the educational program for the voyage from Hawai'i, to Satawal on to Okinawa with Alingano Maisu. Kyoko had professional training as a translator. She ended up at the East-West Center; that’s how she got involved with Hōkūleʽa. Kyoko was asked, because she was part of the team that developed the ed materials and because she was from Japan, to help translate.”
Program founders, Dennis Chun and Kyoko Ikeda at Kawaihae. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
Dennis came aboard Hōkūleʽa in Japan on the 2007 voyage, where he also met up with Tomoki Oku and Kazu Nishimura, the pilots the Japanese government provided as a guide to the unfamiliar waters. Tomo, who was on faculty at one of the maritime colleges, was completely astounded by Hōkūleʽa.
“So he came on, it was a job you know, the government was paying him. But then he got on Hōkū and he was like wow, non- instrument. He knew instruments upside down backwards, celestial navigation upside down backwards, but without instruments and then the whole cultural side of it, the background, the basis, the foundation of maritime traditions, it was like wow, heavy yeah. Both of them, Kazu as well as Tomo were just awed by the whole thing, really got involved and it became more than just a job. ‘We’re going to take care of you in Japan and we want to learn from you guys too.’”
At the heart of voyaging is old knowledge that lives in the unconscious mind and allows navigators to connect with the tangible world through intangible means. Tomo got a glimmer of this while on a training sail to Kauaʽi from Oʽahu.
“So he came on and mid-channel we was talking story, it started raining, pouring, no can see the stars and he goes, ‘How can you tell where you going?’ I told him, you got to feel the waves. In the middle of the rain, he kind of threw it out, ‘Hey, what if I bring students? Would you guys be open to do something with maritime students?’ You know, local style, yeah sure come. These guys when they say something, they serious, they going to find a way to do it.”
“So he came on, it was a job you know, the government was paying him. But then he got on Hōkū and he was like wow, non- instrument. He knew instruments upside down backwards, celestial navigation upside down backwards, but without instruments and then the whole cultural side of it, the background, the basis, the foundation of maritime traditions, it was like wow, heavy yeah. Both of them, Kazu as well as Tomo were just awed by the whole thing, really got involved and it became more than just a job. ‘We’re going to take care of you in Japan and we want to learn from you guys too.’”
At the heart of voyaging is old knowledge that lives in the unconscious mind and allows navigators to connect with the tangible world through intangible means. Tomo got a glimmer of this while on a training sail to Kauaʽi from Oʽahu.
“So he came on and mid-channel we was talking story, it started raining, pouring, no can see the stars and he goes, ‘How can you tell where you going?’ I told him, you got to feel the waves. In the middle of the rain, he kind of threw it out, ‘Hey, what if I bring students? Would you guys be open to do something with maritime students?’ You know, local style, yeah sure come. These guys when they say something, they serious, they going to find a way to do it.”
Hōkūleʽa arriving at Yokohama, Japan. http://archive.hokulea.com/holokai/2007/japan_6_yokohama.html
With the realization that Dennis taught college students, Tomo started thinking about an institution to institution arrangement. When they returned to Oʽahu, Tomo flew back to Japan on a separate flight from Dennis who was headed to Kamakura, Japan. “I call ahead and ask Kyoko if she can translate for me when I go to Kamakura to do this talk over there. She’s at the airport waiting for me, Tomo comes in and Tomo’s black cause he was sailing with us, we were all dark. She sees the back of Tomo wearing a Hōkūleʽa shirt and, ‘Oh, that must be Dennis’, so she goes, gets closer and then, ‘Oh, that’s not Dennis. How come he’s got a Hōkūleʽa shirt and he’s carrying a dry bag and the flight just came from Hawaiʽi?’ So she was talking to Tomo and he was saying yeah, I was just sailing to Kauaʽi on Hōkūleʽa. And she says, ‘You know this guy Dennis?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, he was my captain, he’s on the next flight.’ I get off the plane and the two of them’s over there and we kind of re-unite.”
Dennis was scheduled to give a lecture, “Kamakura was trying to build this canoe; they asked me to come to talk about what are the challenges to building a canoe from a grass roots standpoint. Cause we’re (Kauaʽi) building our canoe and it’s 10 years in the making. I can tell you all the challenges, a long process, so I talk about that. What is the focus? You got to have a good reason. What’s your foundations? You got to have committed people, some financial income, it’s always a struggle.”
Tomo quickly decided to seize this opportunity, “He lives in Toyama, on the whole other side of the island. So he rushes home, drives back to Kamakura and he sits in, listens to the lecture and he stays over night with us and we end up talking story, the three of us (Tomo, Kyoko, Dennis) until 3:00 in the morning and in that time, the three of us develop this concept, this idea, even a curriculum you might say on integrating Polynesian wayfinding into Japanese maritime curriculum on navigation and decide to move forward and try to develop an international agreement. I flew back to my college after that, he goes back, Kyoko’s like the go-between. Kyoko’s kind of like the glue in a sense; she’s the one keeping us grounded. She knows from the English as a second language standpoint, what are some of the pitfalls, what are some of the ways to get these kids to open up, get them to work to increase their own language abilities.”
In record time, this dynamic triumvirate had a formal agreement. “Within 9 months we had an international agreement signed, we have exchanges, we have the president coming over, meeting us, seeing our campus. Real formal people, they coming in a suit and tie and I’m in jeans and a t-shirt. You know I got to wear an aloha shirt, I got to wear shoes, you know, I don’t have nice pants. But it’s cool and they invite us to go there to see their place and that’s within 9 months.
Dennis was scheduled to give a lecture, “Kamakura was trying to build this canoe; they asked me to come to talk about what are the challenges to building a canoe from a grass roots standpoint. Cause we’re (Kauaʽi) building our canoe and it’s 10 years in the making. I can tell you all the challenges, a long process, so I talk about that. What is the focus? You got to have a good reason. What’s your foundations? You got to have committed people, some financial income, it’s always a struggle.”
Tomo quickly decided to seize this opportunity, “He lives in Toyama, on the whole other side of the island. So he rushes home, drives back to Kamakura and he sits in, listens to the lecture and he stays over night with us and we end up talking story, the three of us (Tomo, Kyoko, Dennis) until 3:00 in the morning and in that time, the three of us develop this concept, this idea, even a curriculum you might say on integrating Polynesian wayfinding into Japanese maritime curriculum on navigation and decide to move forward and try to develop an international agreement. I flew back to my college after that, he goes back, Kyoko’s like the go-between. Kyoko’s kind of like the glue in a sense; she’s the one keeping us grounded. She knows from the English as a second language standpoint, what are some of the pitfalls, what are some of the ways to get these kids to open up, get them to work to increase their own language abilities.”
In record time, this dynamic triumvirate had a formal agreement. “Within 9 months we had an international agreement signed, we have exchanges, we have the president coming over, meeting us, seeing our campus. Real formal people, they coming in a suit and tie and I’m in jeans and a t-shirt. You know I got to wear an aloha shirt, I got to wear shoes, you know, I don’t have nice pants. But it’s cool and they invite us to go there to see their place and that’s within 9 months.
Hōkūleʽa is greeted by Kamakura surfers. http://archive.hokulea.com/holokai/2007/japan_6_yokohama.html
In March, we got this program and then the students come over. Then the second year all of a sudden, we’re bringing in all the other 4 maritime colleges. I go back to Japan again, cause I got to go visit all these maritime colleges, promote the program, explain to them. The first year (2009) I tell Pomai and Nohe can these guys come, we no more canoe but I like to take them out. I want a cultural experience for them, but really down home. It’s growing, it’s still growing and it’s only 3 years, but very positive on all sides.”
Japanese maritime students and program staff. https://www.forkauaionline.com/japanese-cadets-aboard-nippon-maru-visit-kauai/
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