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Ancient Polynesian Navigation Lives On

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Light skin, medium-brown curly hair, and striking blue eyes might not be what would come to mind when thinking of a Polynesian navigator. Yet Ka'au McKenney, 33, is leading the next generation of canoe navigators.

The past generation brought the revival of Polynesian voyaging. Navigator Nainoa Thompson lead the "voyage of rediscovery" tracing ancient Polynesian voyaging routes between Hawaii and the South Pacific.

Now Thompson has passed on his knowledge to the next generation, and it is their job to continue to educate the upcoming generation.

Having grown up on O`ahu since he was ten years old, McKenney said that he has always been obsessed with ocean activities. Once he started sailing canoes, it quickly became his favorite thing to do. McKenney explains that canoe navigation is important to him because he is constantly being challenged by its vastness. "I could never get bored of sailing canoes, ever," McKenney said. "It's limitless. You can be learning about navigation all your life and never learn it all."

He began his navigation career by first racing six-man sailing canoes for the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association. McKenney recalls how small the association was when he began sailing and said that everyone quickly became friends. He soon became acquainted with Thompson, the prominent navigator of Hawaii.

Thompson saw potential in McKenney and invited him to join the Hokule`a canoe voyage in 1992, which sailed from Tahiti to Raratonga and the Cook Islands. After having graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in Pacific Island Studies, McKenney then trained for a full year to become a crew member of the 1992 Hokule'a voyage. The training was very intense and required longs hours of dedication.

McKenney remembers how amazed and overwhelmed he was when thousands of people crowded the beaches along their stops and greeted the crew with an abundance of leis and gifts. McKenney feels that his biggest accomplishment is when he co-navigated the Hokule'a, with Keahi Omai, from Hawaii to Tahiti in 1995. He said that on that trip he learned that navigation works. "I earned great respect for Nainoa (Thompson) because I found out how tiring and physically demanding it is to navigate and learned what he had been through," McKenney said.

McKenney has worked as a program specialist for the Polynesian Voyaging Society. He had a wide range of responsibilities, including anything from repairing the canoes to education.

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