Old Hawaii had clear
view of the stars

Early Hawaiians had a good understanding of astronomy, and their descendants are renewing the native tradition of studying the stars.

The Western tradition of people connecting with the sky is being revived after being lost during the Renaissance, said Robert Joseph, professor and faculty chairman of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.

"People of old Hawaii knew astronomy -- the different objects and their movements," said Paul Coleman, a UH astronomer who also has studied Hawaiian astronomy and navigation. "They could distinguish between planets and stars."

From ancient times in the Western intellectual tradition, there was an understanding of the intimate connection between the structure and order in the heavens and life on Earth, said Joseph.

How Western and Hawaiian cultures lost and then regained their early connection with astronomy was the topic of a discussion yesterday on "recovering the sky" at the Ninth East-West Philosophers' Conference, a two-week East-West Center event that ends tomorrow.

"When I was young, I spent much time indoors and had no particular reason to study the stars," said Carlos Andrade, who teaches traditional navigation and astronomy at the university's Center for Hawaiian Studies. "Nothing provided a connection to the stars."

That changed in the 1980s when he got involved with the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule'a (Star of Gladness) and sailed on one of its voyages. "Even crew members had to learn the stars," Andrade said.

"It was not a story of voyaging, but a story of recovery of the sky," he said.

Chad Baybayan also cited the Hokule'a and its navigator, Nainoa Thompson, for the renewed interest in Hawaiian astronomy. Thompson had learned celestial navigation from a Micronesian master, Mau Piailug.

On a voyage with the canoe to Tahiti, Baybayan began to learn about the stars, and sailed back to Hawaii to understudy Thompson.

"We need to learn the language of the stars," he said.

In the early days of the Hokule'a, which launched its first major voyage in 1976, the leadership structure was along Western lines, Baybayan said.

"But it moved more toward an emphasis on navigation, with the navigator playing the role of a 'wayfinder,'" he said. "It was finding a way to move a community across the ocean."

Native Hawaiians often took their names from stars, which can provide information about them, said Andrade. "The connection to the stars is not just intellectual, but familial," he said.