Bishop Museum relaunches classic book on Oceanic canoes

To celebrate its 125th anniversary, Bishop Museum Press has reprinted the three-volume “Canoes of Oceania,” by A.C. Haddon and James Hornell, that helped inspire the Hokule‘a.

The Hawaiian re-creation of a traditional, double-hulled sailing canoe made its maiden voyage to Tahiti in 1976 and completed its three-year Malama Honua global circumnavigation in June. “Canoes” is listed by Herb Kane, designer of the Hokule‘a and a co-founder of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, in the bibliography for his essay on traditional canoe-building.

“The Haddon and Hornell trilogy really is the foundational work upon which our understanding of the great range of variation in the design and technical aspects of traditional oceanic canoes is based,” archaeologist Patrick V. Kirch said in an email.

Based on a decade of fieldwork throughout Polynesia and originally published in 1936 to 1938, “Their great attention to detail in everything from sail design to lashing patterns of the outriggers has never been surpassed,” Kirch said. Included are historic illustrations, detailed structural drawings and photographs from museums worldwide.

“Reading early historical accounts of navigation practices in ‘Canoes of Oceania,’ I learned that Hawaiian navigators used similar techniques to Tahitian navigators, which supports archaeological evidence as well as moolelo (stories) which tell about frequent voyages between these two island groups,” said Mara Mulrooney, Bishop Museum director of cultural resources, who co-authored the book’s preface with Kirch.

Both the new and original editions are displayed in the current exhibition “Holo Moana: Generations of Voyaging,” on view at Bishop Museum until June 24.

“Canoes of Oceania,” available for $49.95 at the museum’s Shop Pacifica and at bishopmuseumpress.org, is the first of several titles to be released as part of a revitalization of Bishop Museum Press, Mulrooney said.

Reprintings of Mary Kawena Pukui’s “‘Olelo No‘eau: Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings” and Isabella Abbott’s “La‘au Hawai‘i: Traditional Use of Hawaiian Plants” are in preparation, and the publisher has also been approached about reprinting “The Hawaiian Canoe” by Polynesian Voyaging Society co-founder Tommy Holmes, who in his preface cited “Canoes of Oceania” as an essential reference work.