As the Hokule‘a prepares to sail into Manhattan for this year’s World Oceans Day, students here on Oahu on Thursday shared messages for the crew, the United Nations and the world.
Students and alumni from public, private and charter schools across the island met with members of the state Department of Education and the Pacific Voyaging Society at the Marine Education Training Center to present various gifts centered around the theme “Malama Honua,” which the PVS translates as “to care for our Island Earth.”
Since it departed from Oahu in May 2014, the Hawaiian voyaging canoe has logged about 30,000 miles in the first two years of its ongoing global voyage.
DOE Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi and Hokule‘a crew member Jenna Ishii accepted poems, artwork, project photos and other gifts that they will to take to New York to present to the canoe’s crew during Wednesday’s World Oceans Day festivities.
“This is one of the biggest moments for the Hokule‘a and Hawaii’s legacy,” Ishii said. “New York is a world stage, and it’s amazing to be able to share the messages from the communities we’ve connected with and share the gift that Hawaii can bring to the world: to care for our oceans.”
Ishii says the Hokule‘a has been collecting similar gifts from the communities the crew has visited. “And in a couple days, when we’re in New York, we’ll bring all of your voices and your spirit with us.”
Matayoshi, who plans to meet with other education leaders at the United Nations, said Hawaii can be an inspiration to the rest of the world with the Malama Honua message.
In 2013 Matayoshi signed a memorandum of understanding titled “Promise to Children,” signifying the education community’s support of the voyage and its promise to share the Malama Honua message with Hawaii students through lessons in the classroom and elsewhere.
At Thursday’s event, held at Pacific Voyaging Society headquarters, students from Farrington High School, Kamaile Academy, Kamehameha Schools and Puohala and Lunalilo elementary schools displayed recycling, gardening and other science-related projects.
Elvelyn Fernandez, who graduated from Farrington last month and plans to attend Georgetown University in the fall, said environmental lessons tied to the Hokule‘a led to a collaboration with classmates to create a school garden, a project now nearing completion.
“We wanted to help the culinary community get food from the school garden rather than supermarkets and improve sustainability since Hawaii imports so much of its food,” Fernandez said.
The group of Farrington students also gave Matayoshi photos of water tests, environmental field trips and olena mapping. Also known as turmeric, olena is among the plants brought to Hawaii by Polynesian settlers in voyaging canoes.
“Olena is a possible cure for cancer, so we were mapping locations where it can be found,” said 16-year-old Al Jebrin Antonio.
After the presentation students hopped aboard the Hawai‘iloa, a double-hulled canoe built in the early 1990s.
Brad Cooper, a crew member on the Hawai‘iloa’s first voyage from Oahu to Tahiti, said, “We’re really bringing voyaging back.”
Regarding the worldwide voyage, he said, “The response from the world and people concerned about what’s happening in our oceans has been incredible. We have to address the issues and make changes.”
Ishii said the Hokule‘a plays a compelling role in this year’s World Oceans Day, which features the theme “Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet.”
“It’s the moment we’ve been gearing up for; everything we’ve been doing led to this moment,” she said. “Then we’ll think about what it means to come back to Hawaii and how voyaging can uplift our community here at home.”
