Polynesian navigation

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 34. Chapters: Alingano Maisu, Ama (sailing), Ben Finney, David Henry Lewis, Hawaiiloa, Herb Kawainui Kane, Hokulea, List of Maori waka, Maori migration canoes, Mau Piailug, Nga Toki Matawhaorua, Outrigger canoe, Polynesian Voyaging Society, Pwo, Sennit, Taumako, Va'a, Vaka (sailing), Waka (canoe), Wayfinding. Excerpt: Hokulea is a performance-accurate full-scale replica of a waa kaulua, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Launched on 8 March 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, she is best known for her 1976 Hawaii to Tahiti voyage performed with Polynesian navigation techniques, without modern navigational instruments. The primary goal of the voyage was to further support the anthropological theory of the Asiatic origin of native Oceanic people (Oceania maps:detail, region), of Polynesians and Hawaiians in particular, as the result of purposeful trips through the Pacific, as opposed to passive drifting on currents, or sailing from the Americas. (Scientific results of 2008, from DNA analysis, illuminate this theory of Polynesian settlement.) A secondary goal of the project was to have the canoe and voyage "serve as vehicles for the cultural revitalization of Hawaiians and other Polynesians." (Finney, Voyage of Rediscovery, p. 71) Since the 1976 voyage to Tahiti and back, Hokule'a has completed nine more voyages to destinations in Micronesia, Polynesia, Japan, Canada, and the United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation. Her last completed voyage began 19 January 2007, when Hokule'a left Hawaii with the voyaging canoe Alingano Maisu on a voyage through Micronesia (map) and ports in southern Japan. The voyage was expected to take five months. On 9 June 2007, Hokule'a completed the "One Ocean, One People" voyage to Yokohama, Japan. On April 5, 2009, Hokule'a returned to Honolulu following a roundtrip training sail to Palmyra Atoll, undertaken to develop skills of potential crewmembers for Hokule'a's eventual circumnavigation, currently planned to commence in 2012. When not on a voyage, Hokule'a is moored at the Marine Education Training Center (METC) of Honolulu Community College in Honolulu Harbor. Ancient voyaging canoes were a specialized type of wooden sailing vessel used in ancient Hawaii, whereas Hokule'a is built of plywood, fiberg