Superb voyagers, Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands migrated to Hawai`i more than 1,600 years ago. Navigating by the sun and stars and reading the winds, currents, and flight of seabirds, Polynesians sailed across 2,400 miles of open ocean in great double-hulled canoes. They brought with them items essential to their survival: pua'a (pigs), `ilio (dogs), and moa (chickens); the roots of kalo (taro) and `uala (sweet potato); the seeds and saplings of niu (coconut), mai`a (banana), ko (sugar cane), and other edible and medicinal plants.
Advanced celestial navigation techniques; knowledge of ocean currents, birds, and sealife; and a strong social bond made the impossible journey across 2,400 miles of open ocean possible. Today, Native Hawaiians keep this traditional knowledge alive.
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- Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park
Mālama Honua
- Type: Article
- Locations: Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park
In May 2016 a double-hulled canoe called Hōkūleʻa, a replica of an ancient Polynesian vessel, sailed down the Potomac River to dock at the Washington Canoe Club at the C&O Canal National Historical Park in Washington, DC. Without modern instruments and guided only by the sun, sea and stars, Captain Kalepa Baybayan of the Polynesian Voyaging Society charted the canoe from Hawaii to DC to participate in BioBlitz 2016, a National Park Service Centennial celebration.
- Type: Article
- Locations: Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
- Offices: Natural Resources Office of Communications
For generations, night skies have inspired those who choose to look up. They helped the original Polynesian wayfinders find their way across the sea. They inspire the visitors that join night sky programs in national parks. They're also important to sensitive species in the wild. In Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, you can appreciate the stars like nowhere else on the planet. And the park is working hard to keep it that way.
- Type: Place
The South Point Complex, is located at the southern tip of the Island of Hawai'i on Ka Lae (the point), 16 miles south of the town of Naalehu. It is the southernmost point in both the Hawaiian Islands and the United States and is made up of a group of sites which are among the oldest in the Islands.
Last updated: August 19, 2019