“The goal is by March the canoes are ready to start sea trials and testing. So this last month is to try and get as many kids and teachers as possible to be a part of the outreach. Today was ʻIolani school, my alma mater. The kindergarteners came today,” said Hōkūleʻa crew member Jenna Ishii.
And similar to how crew members are readying themselves for their Worldwide Voyage, these ʻIolani students prepared for their trip to visit Hōkūleʻa.
Bringing Catherine Fuller into the classroom was a really important process on that. Through her is how we linked up to this excursion,” said Robin Campbell, a kindergarten teacher at ʻIolani School.
Catherine has been a Hōkūleʻa crew member since the early 1990s, and has actively shared her cultural experiences through Hōkūleʻa with the kindergarten teachers at ʻIolani.
I talk to them about Hokulea and what it’s like to be on a canoe. I decided to come with them to kind of reinforce some of the things that we had talked about,” said Catherine Fuller, a Hōkūleʻa crew member and teacher at ʻIolani School.
Where it’s science and ocean animals, and then, the compass and the navigating, and then going under the vessels. I can tell, my kids are, they’re very engaged and very interested, and they have a lot of questions,” said Robin.
“The goal is that our schools can be on the voyage with us. We are creating our third canoe, which is our website. So on April 1st we are going to launch the brand new website, where teachers and community members can plug into what’s happening,” said Jenna.
“The neat thing about it is that they will be able to track in the years ahead, following the Mālama Honua journey all the way through the grade levels and making that a part of our curriculum,” said Robin.
“so we are working with teachers, we are working with schools, and if anyone still wants to get involved, they can email us at pvshawaii@hawaiiantel.net or go on our website, hokulea.org to get more information,” said Jenna.