As Hōkūleʻa docked in Kaunakakai harbor, crewmembers experienced sustainable life on Molokaʻi as they met with local residents around the island.
“Just everyone that we met, kind of each person had their own mana to share their own stories. They just grab you and hold you and make you listen; make you feel um. We got to stop at all kind of places; visit a lot of good families, strong families from Molokaʻi and then, give little bit hana lima too, to help out.” says Hōkūleʻa crewmember Kawaioli Hoe.
“We met Uncle Leimana Nahi and went to the fishpond, Kaʻapōhaku. The name means the rolling rocks. And you can see that in the characterisitc of the wall. In order to maintain the fishpond, there is a constant need to repair the wall with the fallen rocks.” says Hōkūleʻa crewmember and Molokaʻi resident, Mahina Ross.
“Kind of to me, that’s the one…you always need the entire community; you need all the hands, the hana lima to kind of maintain that food source.” says Kawai.
The shared service experiences between Hōkūleʻa and Molokaʻi residents reflects back to the worldwide voyage mission; to promote sustainable living.
Mahina says that “it’s hard to live off the land today. I think it’s important to have shared the way we live here. We all have hard work to do; whether it’s sailing a canoe, or growing food on land. Which is why it was key to have visited these people. The purpose of this worldwide voyage is to engage in sustainbale living; which is clearly important to all of us. When you take care of the land, the land takes care of you, and there is nothing you can’t do.”
“I think we all got to learn from each other. We’re all ʻohana; we all realize that each, all of our islands, we are all related, we are all a part of the same family….Just to get reconnected to those guys is real important.” says Kawai.