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In 1778, when Captain James
Cook discovered that the people of Hawaii were of the same race
as those he had encountered throughout Polynesia, he asked: "How
shall we account for this Nation having spread itself to so many
detached islands?" Some early scholars suggested that South
American Indians could possibly have settled the Polynesian islands
simply by drifting westward on crude rafts, riding the prevailing
currents and winds. But by the late 1960s, mounting scientific evidence
began to point toward a much different source of origin for the
ancient Polynesians. At the time, some scholars continued to maintain
that any such settlement must have occurred purely by chance, perhaps
by fishing canoes that had been accidentally blown to sea.
"Hokele'a came from the
dream of three people," recalls Polynesian Voyaging Society
head navigator Nainoa Thompson. Although the PVS founders wanted
to use traditional materials and tools to construct the canoe they
realized that the process would become too time consuming. The canoe
was named Hokele'a, or "Star of Gladness", after the Hawaiian
name for the star Arcturus, which reaches its zenith directly over
Hawaii and was likely to have been used as a prime navigational
marker by ancient way-finders seeking o locate the island. On March
8th, 1975, Hokele'a was launched. On May 1, 1976, Hokele'a left
Hawaii on her maiden voyage. The voyage has led to a huge cultural
revival in the Pacific. "Thor Heyerdal and others said that
it was impossible to get form western Polynesia to Tahiti because
of the easterly trade winds".... How did they do it? Today,
these canoes have become powerful symbols of Polynesian renewal.
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