Hawaiʻiloa

HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa (alt. HawaiTemplate:Okinai Loa or Ke Kowa i HawaiTemplate:Okinai) is a mythical Hawaiian fisherman and navigator who is said to have discovered the [[Hawaii (island)|island of HawaiTemplate:Okinai]].

Legend

Template:More citations needed section HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa was an expert fisherman and navigator who was famous for his lengthy fishing expeditions.<ref>Samuel M. Kamakau and Z. Kepelino: Hawai‘iloa and the Discovery of Hawai‘i www2.hawaii.edu, accessed 25 September 2020</ref> While on a prolonged voyage, his principal navigator, MakaliTemplate:Okinai, asked HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa to steer eastward towards Aldebaran (HokuTemplate:Okinaula, meaning "red star") and the Pleiades (near the [[Ke Kā o Makaliʻi|Cluster of MakaliTemplate:Okinai]]). After sailing in this direction, he and his crew stumbled upon the island of HawaiTemplate:Okinai, which was named in HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa's honor. HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa returned to his homeland, Ka Template:Okinaāina kai melemele a Kāne ("the land of the yellow sea of Kāne"), to bring his family back with him to HawaiTemplate:Okinai. He then organized a colonizing expedition with his family and eight other skilled navigators. They settled on what is now the [[Hawaii (island)|Island of HawaiTemplate:Okinai]], named in his honor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Better source needed

The legend contains reference to his children:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Māui (his eldest son), [[Kauai|KauaTemplate:Okinai]] (son), and [[Oahu|OTemplate:Okinaahu]] (daughter) who settled on the islands that bear their names.

Historical accuracy

The HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa legend is popular amongst Hawaiians as a realistic Hawaiian origin story that is consistent with modern anthropological and historical beliefs.Template:Citation needed

However, there is currently little evidence to support its historical accuracy. The story is attested only by 19th-century sources such as Abraham Fornander and Thomas George Thrum, neither of whom provided their sources.Template:Citation needed

HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa is also unmentioned by earlier Hawaiian historians such as David Malo. Malo chronicled many Hawaiian origin stories, migration tales, and legends of indigenous origin.Template:Citation needed Samuel Kamakau tells of an alternate legend that the first man (Kumu-Honua) and woman (Lalo-Honua) were created on OTemplate:Okinaahu.Template:Citation needed

Canoe

HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa, Honolulu Harbor

HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa is also the name of a voyaging canoe, built between 1991 and 1994.<ref name=BuildCanoe>The Building of Hawai‘iloa archive.hokulea.com, accessed 2020-09-22</ref> Named after the legendary navigator, the canoe was built for ocean navigation and has sailed internationally. The canoe HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa is now docked at Honolulu Harbor. It is often sailed on long voyages throughout the Pacific Ocean, studying voyaging techniques used in Ancient Hawaii.

Building

To make the canoe, two Sitka spruce logs were brought to HawaiTemplate:Okinai from Southeast Alaska, donated by the SeAlaska Corporation (owned by the Tlingit, Haida, and Tshimshian tribes). These came from 400-year-old, 200 feet high trees, a size which could not be found in modern HawaiTemplate:Okinai. The hulls of the canoe were designed by Rudy and Barry Choy and Dick Rhodes, and also used numerous woods from more local sources.<ref name=BuildCanoe/> The canoe was made without metal parts, and used three miles of lashing.<ref name=Recoll>Nainoa Thompson: Recollections of the Building of Hawai‘iloa and the 1995 Voyages archive.hokulea.com, accessed 25 September 2020</ref>

HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa is Template:Convert long, with a beam of Template:Convert. She has two sails, each of Template:Convert. She was initially launched in July 1993, and subsequently modified in dry dock before being re-launched a year later.<ref name=BuildCanoe/>

Voyages in 1995

In 1995, HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa sailed her maiden voyage to Tahiti, [[Raiatea|RaTemplate:Okinaiatea]], and Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands<ref>Nainoa Thompson - Biography www.ifa.hawaii.edu, accessed 25 September 2020</ref> in company with [[Hokule'a|HōkūleTemplate:Okinaa]] and a third canoe from HawaiTemplate:Okinai called MakaliTemplate:Okinai together with two canoes from Rarotonga: Te Template:OkinaAu Tonga and Takitumu, and the canoe Te Template:OkinaAurere, from New Zealand. Subsequently that year, HawaiTemplate:Okinailoa was shipped to Seattle and then sailed north to Alaska, visiting twenty native villages on the coastal journey between Vancouver and Juneau.<ref name=Recoll/>

See also

• Hawaiki
• Hawaiian religion
• [[Hōkūleʻa|HōkūleTemplate:Okinaa]]
• Polynesian navigation
• Polynesian Voyaging Society