Attuned to a world of natural signs—the stars, the winds, the curl of ocean swells—Polynesian explorers navigated for thousands of miles without charts or instruments. They sailed against prevailing winds and currents aboard powerful double canoes to settle the vast Pacific Ocean. And they did this when Greek mariners still hugged the coast of an inland sea, and Europe was populated by stone-age farmers. Yet by the turn of the twentieth century, this story had been lost and Polynesians had become an oppressed minority in their own land. Then, in 1975, a replica of an ancient Hawaiian canoe—Hōkūle‘a—was launched to sail the ancient star paths, and help Hawaiians reclaim pride in the accomplishments of their ancestors. Hawaiki Rising tells this story in the words of the men and women who created and sailed aboard Hōkūle‘a. They speak of growing up at a time when their Hawaiian culture was in danger of extinction; of their vision of sailing ancestral sea-routes; and of the heartbreaking loss of Eddie Aikau in a courageous effort to save his crewmates when Hōkūle‘a capsized in a raging storm. We join a young Hawaiian, Nainoa Thompson, as he rediscovers the ancient star signs that guided his ancestors, navigates Hōkūle‘a to Tahiti, and becomes the first Hawaiian to find distant landfall without charts or instruments in a thousand years. Hawaiki Rising is the saga of an astonishing revival of indigenous culture by voyagers who took hold of the old story and sailed deep into their ancestral past.

Includes a foreword by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

An Ocean in Mind poses a number of provocative questions about the ways in which the human mind acquires, utilizes, and transmits different forms of knowledge. Author Will Kyselka has woven an exploration of this theme around the story of the Hōkūleʻa, a re-creation of a traditional Polynesian sailing vessel that completed a successful roundtrip journey between Hawaii and Tahiti in 1980. From this story emerges portraits of two men who played integral roles in that voyage. Nainoa Thompson, a young man of Hawaiian descent, kept the Hōkūleʻa on its 6,000-mile course using only the stars and the sea as his guides. He was inspired by Carolinian navigator Mau Piailug, a gentle, softspoken man with keen instincts and an unlimited understanding of the oceans and heavens derived from his Oceanic cultural past. Thompson also worked with Kyselka to generate a body of information concerning movement of the stars using the Bishop Museum Planetarium as a resource. How Thompson was eventually able to forge these vastly different approaches to knowledge into a cogent wayfinding system uniquely his own, and his rediscovery of an almost forgotten cultural heritage in the process, makes for a thrilling adventure story.

Origins -- voyaging -- Materials -- Tools -- Canoe building -- Accessories -- Paddles -- Design -- Canoeing skills -- Canoe ladders -- surfing -- Fishing -- War -- Racing canoes -- Canoe racing -- Petroglyphs -- Burial canoes.

This biography of legendary Hawaiian surfer Eddie Aikau is “a homespun homage to a modern-day folk hero” (Outside Magazine). In the 1970s, a decade before bumper stickers and T-shirts bearing the phrase Eddie Would Go began popping up all over the Hawaiian islands and throughout the surfing world, Eddie Aikau was proving what it meant to be a “waterman.” As a fearless and gifted surfer, he rode the biggest waves in the world; as the first and most famous Waimea Bay lifeguard on the North Shore, he saved hundreds of lives from its treacherous waters; and as a proud Hawaiian, he sacrificed his life to save the crew aboard the voyaging canoe Hokule’a. From Stuart Holmes Coleman, Eddie Would Go is the “fascinating” story of Eddie Aikau’s life and legacy, a pipeline into the exhilarating world of surfing, and an important chronicle of the Hawaiian Renaissance and the emergence of modern Hawaii (San Francisco Chronicle). “Enlightening . . . an impressive history.” —Surfing Magazine “A meaningful biography of a surfing hero . . . extraordinary.” —San Diego Union-Tribune “Coleman, a surfer himself, does an admirable job of de-mystifying this remarkable man.” —St. Petersburg Times

After fourteen months of field research in 1972-73 and an additional four months of field work with the Anutans in the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara in 1983, Richard Feinberg here provides a thorough study of Anutan seafaring and navigation. In doing so he gives rare insights into the larger picture of how Polynesians have adapted to the sea. This richly illustrated book explores the theory and technique used by Anutans in construction, use, and handling of their craft; the navigational skills still employed in interisland voyaging; and their culturally patterned attitudes toward the ocean and travel on the high seas. Further, the discussion is set within the context of social relations, values, and the Anutan's own symbolic definitions of the world in which they live.