Photo Essay: Hōkūleʻa visits Hilo; UH Hilo co-sponsors educational expo
Crew members gave presentations, canoe tours, and shared wayfinding lore and lessons learned from the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage. UH Hilo co-sponsored an educational expo featuring programs that promote “mālama honua” or care for the planet.
Photos by Bob Douglas for UH Hilo Stories.
The iconic Hawaiian double-hulled sailing canoe, Hōkūle’a, was docked in Hilo for a few days last week while on its “Mahalo Hawaiʻi Sail.” The crew gave free tours of the canoe on Saturday, April 21, at Wailoa Pier, where the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo co-sponsored an educational expo for the public.
The Hōkūle’a is on a six-month statewide journey as the crew expresses mahalo to numerous communities for their support of the three-year Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage from 2014 to 2017. Another purpose of the Mahalo Hawai’i Sail is to reach out to thousands of schoolchildren with canoe tours and hands-on educational activities to showcase ocean navigation’s connection to science, math, culture and conservation.
Kālepa Baybayan, an alumnus of UH Hilo who has captained and navigated the Hawaiian deep-sea voyaging canoes Hōkūleʻa, Hawaiʻiloa, and Hōkūalakaʻi, and serves as navigator-in-residence at the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center, was lead person for the Hawai’i Island leg of the Mahalo Hawai’i Sail.
Planning of the Hawaiʻi Island visit was done through the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s support and sponsors ʻImiloa, the County of Hawaiʻi, the Grand Naniloa Hotel, Friends of Hōkūleʻa and Hawaiʻiloa, Hawaiian Airlines, and UH Hilo. At the Hilo event, crew members gave presentations, canoe tours, and shared wayfinding lore and lessons learned from the voyage. In conjunction with the canoe tours, UH Hilo co-sponsored an education expo where exhibitors featured educational opportunities and environmental stewardship programs to “mālama honua,” or care for the planet.
Expo
Photos by Bob Douglas, a local artist, photographer, and sometimes part-time student who volunteers his photography skills to the Office of the Chancellor and UH Hilo Stories.
