“We … find our way on canoes as we travel across the ocean where there are no street signs.”

Even in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with no land in sight – and no GPS – Lehua Kamalu knows where she’s going.

double hulled canoe on the ocean — Hōkūle’a was designed to replicate traditional Polynesian voyaging canoes. Photo courtesy of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

I learned about Lehua through an interview on the Overheard at National Geographic podcast. As part of the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS), she has learned to find her way across the waves by employing ancestral knowledge and constant, keen observation of her surroundings.

Lehua Kamalu on a boat — Captain navigator Lehua Kamalu before departing on a voyage from Hawaii to California in August 2018. Photo by Hye Jung Kim / Polynesian Voyaging Society.

“Wayfinding for us really is the idea that with the naked eye, with all of your senses, [you] immerse yourself into the signs of the natural world around you.”

The Polynesian Voyaging Society was founded in the 1970s, part of a Hawaiian cultural renaissance of pre-colonial arts, language, knowledge, and skills. They re-learned how to build the large, ocean-going canoes that had originally brought Polynesians to the Hawaiian islands centuries ago, as well as the navigational methods that guided them.

“Waves create regular, readable patterns in the ocean that are long range and very consistent, particularly in the tropics, particularly here in Polynesia, and are very reliable to find your way.”

The first voyaging canoe PVS built was the 62-foot long Hōkūleʻa, which was launched in 1975 and has since traveled over 140,000 nautical miles! The next canoe, Hikianalia, was built in 2012.

Close-up view of a voyaging canoe on the water with its name, Hokule'a, printed on the side. — Photo courtesy of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

In 2018, after years of honing her navigational skills, Lehua Kamalu became the first woman to captain one of these canoes on an extended voyage.

It was fascinating to hear her describe what it’s like to sail across the Pacific Ocean without present-day navigational equipment.

“The navigator’s job is to spend as little time sleeping as possible. And as much time watching for consistency, watching for patterns in the sky and in the ocean, and also for changes and comparing what’s going on between the two.”

Currently, she’s one of the 400 crew members of two Polynesian voyaging canoes (Hōkūle‘a and Hikianalia) that are circumnavigating the Pacific on the 43,000-nautical-mile “Voyage for the Earth,” Moananuiākea.

You can track their progress on the Polynesian Voyaging Society site and see maps and updates of where they are.

2 canoes — The two Polynesian voyaging canoes built by the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Photo courtesy of the PVS.

PodRec!

A podcast episode recommendation for you…

Overheard at National Geographic
Episode 19 from May 9, 2023
“She Sails the Seas Without Maps or Compasses”

All quotes are by Lehua Kamalu, from her Overheard interview with Eli Chen. All photos courtesy of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

An unusual expedition set sail from San Francisco in 1926.

It was composed entirely of two women with cigarette tins full of art supplies in tow. Their destination was the South Pacific. And their mission was to document cultures in danger of disappearing.

Artist Caroline Mytinger and her partner Margaret Warner did not seem fazed by the western dismissal of Melanesians as ruthless headhunters. In fact, Mytinger often turned the phrase around, referring to the search for faces to paint as her own “headhunt.”

The documentary Headhunt Revisited: With Brush, Canvas and Camera follows another woman-lead expedition with photographer and filmmaker Michele Westmorland retracing their steps 80 years later.

We travel along, not just through the Pacific but through time, as the film superimposes past and present. Its cinematographic shots are interspersed with grainy archival footage of traditional dances, art, and daily life on the islands. Westmorland’s narration dovetails with excerpts of Mytinger’s writings (as voiced by Lauren Hutton).

Elders, artisans, and family of Mytinger’s original portrait subjects share stories that give us a window into their worlds and the lives of their ancestors.

One of the artists we meet is Papua New Guinean painter Jeffry Feeger, who created a series of portraits that parallel Mytinger’s. His subjects come from the same places but are dressed in street clothes, rather than the traditional attire.

Mytinger’s portraits are like a colorful time capsule. The film is an equally vibrant exploration of the people, places, and traditions behind the paintings.

Headhunt Revisited screened recently at the Friday Harbor Film Festival, the Hawaii International Film Festival, and LA Femme Film Festival, where it won Best Foreign Documentary.

Hopefully, it will have a wider release soon. If you have a chance to see it, I recommend taking that journey.

UPDATE: Headhunt Revisited is now available for purchase on DVD or USB!

Images and preview courtesy of Headhunt Revisited: With Brush, Canvas and Camera.

Tag: Pacific Islands

Voyaging Across the Ocean Without a Map

PodRec!

Art Inspires Expeditions in “Headhunt Revisited” Documentary