Makali‘i voyage brings
By Susan Kreifels
isle woman closer
to ancestors
Star-BulletinThe Makali'i returned to Honolulu yesterday flying four new flags from the Pacific: the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
For Lee Ann Punua, the 6,220-mile voyage through the Western Pacific was a trip back to her own ancestors.
Punua, a 23-year-old graduate of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii, was a crew member on the traditional voyaging canoe during its four-month sail through Micronesian islands that have changed little.
Punua ate turtles with island men still dressed in loincloths and bare-breasted women in sarongs. She stayed in a traditional men's house with other crew members, and experienced subsistence living that was likely similar to the lives of her Hawaiian ancestors.
"It made me better appreciate my own ancestors," said Punua of Kaneohe, who will return to her job at a surf shop at Windward Mall.
The voyage was made in honor of Mau Piailug, the Micronesian star navigator who 25 years ago taught Hawaiians about traditional voyaging: navigating by using the stars and other signs of nature rather than navigational equipment.
Piailug is from Satawal, a tiny atoll of 800 in Chuuk that is virtually untouched by modernization: no electricity, boats the only transportation, survival based on fishing and whatever else nature provides. Satawal was the most important stop on the voyage.
The canoe arrived in Honolulu from Saipan on a container ship to avoid sailing into prevailing winds. Makali'i captain Clay Bertelmann said the canoe would head for the Big Island early this morning, making a stop on Maui and probably arriving at its home port Friday.
Bertelmann said 52 people from around the state served as crew members aboard the vessel. About a third of them are students who have taken part in Makali'i education programs.
Bertelmann said the next voyage for the Makali'i may be sailing to New Zealand in early 2001.
Piailug is headed back to Satawal, Bertelmann said. He expects the grand master navigator back in Hawaii at the end of the summer.
Punua said the voyage has made an "awesome" impact on her life.
"It made me a lot stronger, and more confident," she said. "I know I can do anything."
Hawaii's three traditional voyaging canoes have led a cultural renaissance among Hawaiians.
The Hokule'a is about to embark on a traditional sail to Rapa Nui, or Easter Island. Schoolchildren around the world will mark the canoe's progress via the Internet.
