Protect Kaho`olawe `Ohana

Provided for your planning purposes are the dates as submitted by the Protect Kaho`olawe `Ohana to the KIRC. You can find a complete listing by clicking the menu selection on the left: Access Dates 2008.

This article ran in the Star Bulletin about how adze implements from Kaho`olawe made its way across the Pacific.

Here’s the article that appeared in the Maui News. It was picked up by the Associated Press and appeared in the Star Bulletin and on the different TV stations like KHNL and KITV.

(Kealaikahiki, Kaho‘olawe). Ceremonies for the Hōkūle‘a and Alingano Maisu were conducted on Kaho‘olawe early Monday morning, January 15, 2007, by the kahu‘āina, stewards, of the island to open the pathway at Kealaikahiki for the launching of the canoes with ancestral blessings for calm waters and fair winds during the canoes’ voyage to Micronesia and Japan.

Kealaikahiki, or pathway to Kahiki, is the piko (navel) of the main Hawaiian islands and traditional training ground for ocean navigators. It was at Kealaikahiki in October 2004 that Micronesian master navigator Pius Mau Piailug gave the charge to all the canoe families to begin each long distance voyage by paying respect to the kūpuna there.

Members of Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana (‘Ohana) and representatives of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) gathered in anticipation of receiving the canoes and their crews at Kealaikahiki. Noa Emmett Aluli explains, “We’re fulfilling the kuleana given us by Papa Mau to ask our ancestral navigators to guide and protect our voyagers as they launch and until they return home safely.”

“We’re here to send aloha for the voyage,” believes Craig Neff, cultural practitioner with the ‘Ohana.

Just after dawn Monday morning, the kūpuna of Kaho‘olawe, those with whom Mau Piailug so deeply connected in October 2004, were called upon to give blessings to the canoes and the voyagers. ‘Awa was offered to Kanaloa, deity of the open ocean, to open the pathway for the canoes to depart.

“No worries. We’ll take care of Kaho‘olawe for them,” offered Lopaka Aiwohi, Kaho‘olawe practitioner, knowing that Navigator Nainoa Thompson and his crew will meet up in Satawal with Mau Piailug. “As Mau directed, the Hōkūle‘a and Maisu have been ritually launched from Kealaikahiki.”

A small wa‘a, representing the voyaging canoes, was launched into Kealaikahiki Channel bearing gifts for the voyagers: cups of ‘awa, dirt from Pu‘u Moiwi adze quarry, a moi and coral from the shores of Kealaikahiki.

Mau Piailug was represented in the circle at Kealaikahiki by the ‘aha cord he presented to the ‘Ohana in 2004. “The cord has been symbolically sent to sea with the Hōkūle‘a crew,” adds Aluli, “and will pull them back home when the journey is complete.”

Welcome to the newly revised Protect Kaho`olawe `Ohana website. The site is currently being developed with new content added everyday. Please visit often to find out about Kaho`olawe and the activities of the Protect Kaho`olawe `Ohana.