KOHANAIKI — There’s a new form of guidance at Kohanaiki Beach Park — a star compass made of concrete and cut lava.
KOHANAIKI — There’s a new form of guidance at Kohanaiki Beach Park — a star compass made of concrete and cut lava.
It’s a solidification, a foundational part of hookele, the Pacific islander system of navigation relying on the observation of stars, wind and ocean swells, said Kalepa Baybayan, a pwo navigator, who served as both navigator and captain of the Hokualakai, a 58-foot canoe that has made numerous trips throughout the Pacific.
“It was a Pacific Island computer,” explained Angel Pilago, a former Hawaii County Councilman who represented the area and provided manao during a blessing held Monday.
That navigation starts with the star compass, a mental framework for the natural world based on the 32 houses of the sky, which allows a navigator to place the canoe in the world, Baybayan said.
Each of those houses on the structure, along with the cardinal directions, is named by carved lava in a concrete circle, along with a glyph.
Hookele is an indigenous knowledge, developed through generations of observation and numerous voyages, Babayan said, allowing a pwo navigator to guide a canoe from Hawaii Island to Tahiti, a 5,400-mile round trip.
It was a way humans 5,000 years ago answered the question, “How the hell are we gonna get out there,” Baybayan said.
Adding the star compass to the beach park, also known as Pine Trees, strengthens the cultural education of the area, said Hawaii County Councilwoman Karen Eoff, who represents North Kona. It joins a halau, or canoe house, ahu and a growing garden. Future plans include adding plants related to canoeing and medicine.
The compass is a large ring of concrete around a small compass rose, surrounded by an eight-pointed star made of lava stone and pieces of coral. It is located near Kahalewaa Halau at the end of the beach access road.
For Melewai Hai-Kelly, a Ke Kula o Ehunuikaimalino student who attended the blessing and helped provide an oli, or chant, the most memorable of the houses on the compass is aina, represented by a palm tree on a beach.
Imiloa Heaukalani, another student who took part in the chant, said the design of the star compass was different from the ones they’d studied, but he recognized its purpose and the names.
The star compass aids in navigation across the ocean, which Pilago told the students can be symbolically connected to human life. People need to avoid conflict and anger in order to succeed, he said, comparing the travels of people on Earth with the interconnected nature of traveling in a canoe.
“We must find a way for peace,” Pilago said.