Hawaiian References, Programs and Stories at Windward Community College

I took Marlon over to WCC on Saturday to compete in the Regional Science Olympiad. Walking through the buildings, there were tons of displays and info on Hawaiian sailing, navigation and farming. And they had tons of chickens running around.

Last Ones

Walking around HNL, I saw these things:

The coffee package has a surfing bee on it.

The inlay on the floor is a Hawaiian celestial navigation tool.

If you ever find yourself needing to burn time at Honolulu International - go check this out.

A-LO-HA

Mau Piailug, Micronesian who sailed by navigating sun and stars, dies at 78

I am poaching this one -

Credit to NY Times.

If I could pick another career and start over, it'd be Pacific Island Cultural Celestial Navigator. Earlier in my career, I had the wonderful opportunity to experience the island of Kaho'olawe. I still have a panoramic picture I took from a place near the top of the island where you could see the island chain from Oahu (on a clear day) down to the Big Island. The pre-contact Hawaiians used this place as a navigational training area - you could see the currents move between the islands during the day and more importantly, the stars rise in the night. This is a large portion of what polynesian celestial navigation is about. If you know the ALL the stars in the night sky, then as you see the relative angle the stars are coming up from the horizon, you can tell what your latitude is.

Western celestial nav is based on identifying a known star and calculating position based on tables.

Two distinct ways of using the same resource, but as different as bats are from birds.

Mau - may you be at peace among the stars that you have looked up to for so long and thank you for the gift that you gave to us all!