Reclaiming Celestial Navigation Using a Contemporary Hawaiian Worldview of the Heavens

The immense challenges of successfully navigating the vast Pacific basin without modern instruments are well-known. At the same time, the precise methods used by ancient Polynesian wayfinders are largely undocumented, the strategies being wholly unfamiliar to early European navigators from higher latitudes with formal training in charts and tables. Leading the wave of a Hawaiian-Renaissance, contemporary Hawaiian seafarers are boldly reclaiming their heritage by recreating and sailing double hulled canoes by instrument-free, navigation techniques. Many of these navigational techniques are probably reminiscent of earlier strategies, and are proving to be highly successful. The result is that numerous canoes are now making repeated trips throughout the Polynesian Triangle, and reaching beyond to soon circumnavigate the globe. Not surprisingly, a vital component of any navigational system far from terrestrial landmarks is based on the changing positions and predictable motions of the Sun and stars. Although many of the indigenous star names are lost to history, some of the most important star names for celestial navigation have been painstakingly re-claimed. Other critically important navigational stars are being named by the respected Hawaiian Guild Navigators and their teams of educators who are conducting navigation training for Hawaiian sailing crews. The authors are collecting and documenting these new star names along-with their identifiable asterisms-in the service of educating both the public and the next generation of navigators.