On a sunny day in Hilo on the east side of the island of Hawaii, Celeste Ha‘o and her eight children sit around a large circular mat depicting the hōkū pānānā — the Hawaiian star compass.
“This is what we use to tell direction,” she explains to her children, who range in age from 3 to 15. She then shows them a miniature model of a Hawaiian canoe called a wa‘a. “In our oceanic cultures, the wa‘a is such an important piece to our entire history,” she says.
Ancient Polynesian wayfinders were the first to voyage to the Hawaiian islands, possibly as early as 300 A.D. They navigated the ocean using the stars, planets and moon. “I guess my kūpuna must have been astronomers,” Ha‘o said. “And if they were, I can be one too.”
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