Te Puna Marama Voyaging Foundation crew joined thousands of people over the weekend to mark the 50th anniversary celebration of Hōkūleʻa’s voyaging history at Kualoa Regional Park, Oahu, in Hawaiʻi, where the double-hulled canoe was first launched.

Hōkūleʻa is Hawaiʻi’s legendary voyaging canoe, first launched on March 8, 1975, in a push for the revitalisation of Hawaiian culture and language.

In the decades since, the Polynesian Voyaging Society has sailed Hōkūleʻa, which means “Star of Gladness”, around the Pacific and the world.

Te Puna Marama’s Vaka Paikea Pwo master navigator Peia Patai and crew Zeb Revake, Oliver Oolders, Steven Daniels, Vavia Puapii and Ngatama Tuakanangaro were proud and pleased to attend the milestone event.

“That seed from that fruit is growing again, and is going to grow, because it’s our responsibility today to make sure that it will never die,” said Patai.

In 1985, Hōkūleʻa called in to Rarotonga. This maiden visit sparked the theme for the 1992 Festival of Pacific Arts by the prime minister at the time, Sir Geoffrey Henry. 

Patai has a long and learned history with Hōkūleʻa. In 1991, Patai, the founder and chairman of Te Puna Marama, was selected to begin his journey in becoming a traditional voyager with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Nainoa Thompson, and Papa Mau Piailug, who was a Micronesian navigator from the Carolinian island of Satawal, best known as a teacher of traditional, non-instrument wayfinding methods for open-ocean voyaging. Patai had already trained as a navigator in the Australian Navy.

In 1992, Patai navigated the Vaka Maire Nui from Mauke to Rarotonga for the Festival of Pacific Arts.

In July 2011 in Kualoa, at the birthplace of Hōkūleʻa, Patai was invested with the Pwo title by Hawaii’s Pwo navigator Nainoa Thompson.

Patai was bestowed the title of grand master in 2019, alongside Sesario Sewralur, son of the late grand master navigator Papa Mau.

Thompson, the chief executive of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, said in an interview with Hawaiian media that Hōkūleʻa is a vehicle of exploration and discovery.

“It’s also been our vehicle for justice as Native Hawaiians, as Pacific Islanders, as a very unique, special culture of the Earth,” Thompson said.

In 1980, Thompson became the first Hawaiian in six centuries to navigate to Tahiti without a compass or other modern instruments — a span of about 2700 miles (4300 kilometers).

Cook Islands looks forward to hosting Hōkūle‘a later this year when the traditional canoe calls in during its Moananuiākea voyage, Hōkūle‘a’s 15th major voyage.