Six Hawaiʻi captains and navigators were recently inducted into the voyaging leadership position of Pwo Navigator. A sacred Pwo induction ceremony was held in Niu Valley, Oʻahu on July 30, 2026, and conducted by Pwo Navigators from Satawal, Micronesia on behalf of the Weriyaeng School of Navigation. Among the six new Pwo, five are Native Hawaiian and four are the first women in Hawaiʻi to earn this sacred title and responsibility.

Pwo is among the highest honors bestowed within Satawal’s Weriyaeng School of Navigation. More than recognition of exceptional navigational skill, it represents a lifelong commitment to leadership, service, teaching, and stewardship. Those selected have demonstrated years, and for most decades, of dedication to traditional navigation, voyaging, mentoring others, and serving their communities. This rite of passage honored the training lineage of the late Master Navigator Mau Piailug, known as Mau, whose teachings revived traditional navigation in Hawaiʻi and throughout Polynesia, and who inducted Hawaiʻi’s first five Pwo Navigators on Satawal in 2007.

According to Mau, the core values of a Pwo navigator are light, love, kindness and compassion.

“This induction of six new Pwo in Hawaiʻi is a statement of the advancement of leadership in voyaging. It’s a graduation of six leaders who will lead voyaging into the next 50 years,” said Nainoa Thompson, Pwo Navigator and CEO of Polynesian Voyaging Society.  “It’s also in keeping our promise to Mau and our teachers, with the blessing of the School of Weriyaeng, that navigation will never go dormant again,” he added.

This recent Pwo Ceremony was the first time that this ritual was conducted in Hawaiʻi.  Satawalese Pwo Navigators Isidore Metewalur, Robert Erailug and Thomas Raffipiy, who represent the family lineage of Mau and Weriyaeng School of Navigation, officiated the event

Found in the central Caroline Islands of Micronesia, the Weriyaeng School of Navigation is an ancient Micronesian tradition and lineage of oceanic navigation in which Mau was trained.

One of the most important figures in the modern revival of traditional Pacific voyaging, Mau not only was Hōkūleʻa’s first navigator, in 1976, he also ensured that the ancient practice of navigating the open ocean without modern instruments would survive by training navigators outside of Micronesia, first in Hawaiʻi and then throughout Polynesia. At the time, traditional navigation had been dormant in Hawaiʻi for more than 600 years.

Mau personally initiated the first generation of Native Hawaiian navigators in Satawal on March 18, 2007.  That first class of Pwo inductees comprised Nainoa Thompson, Milton “Shorty” Bertelmann, Chad Kalepa Baybayan, Bruce Blankenfeld, and Chad ‘Ōnohi Paishon. Since then, Hawaiʻi’s Pwo navigators have gone on to train countless navigators throughout Oceania.

In 2008, Mau graduated six more Pwo including Māori navigators Hector Hekenukumai Nga Iwi Busby, Jack “Jacko” Thatcher, Piripi Evans and Stanley Conrad; and Cook Island navigators Tua Pittman and Peia Patai.

In 2018, Native Hawaiian Keahi Omai was inducted to Pwo Navigator in Palau by the son of Mau, late Grand Master Navigator Sesario Sewralur.

The word Pwo signifies a new beginning to a lifetime of enlightened leadership and the passing of sacred knowledge. The title carries profound responsibility to serve, continue voyaging traditions, guide future generations, strengthen communities, and ensure that this ancestral sacred knowledge remains alive for generations to come.

Meet The Six New Pwo Navigators!

Pōmai Bertelmann

Native Hawaiian educator, voyaging leader, and lifelong member of the voyaging community from Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island. Bertelmann and her family have been a part of Hōkūleʻa’s legacy from her inception. They also led the building of the voyaging canoe Makaliʻi, which has inspired thousands of students and communities to respond to the needs of the sustainability of our people and the earth through cultural education and ocean voyaging. Rising through the ranks of leadership to captain, Bertelmann has sailed thousands of miles on Makaliʻi, Hōkūleʻa and the Alingano Maisu making passages between Hawaiʻi, Tahiti, Majuro, Federated States of Micronesia, Yap State, Samoa, Tonga, Japan and New Zealand. She was Hōkūleʻa’s first female captain to lead a voyage on Kealaikahiki, from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi in 2017. As one of the founding members of the ʻOhana Waʻa, she was part of the design and implementation team for the ʻOhana Waʻa, ʻImi Naʻauao Crew Training experiences that train members of all the voyaging groups both in Hawaiʻi as well as internationally in the traditions of waʻa. Bertelmann is also a middle school instructor at Kanu o Ka ʻĀina Charter School where students are reared through the cultural lens of project based learning while solving real world issues as 21st century stewards.

Archie Kalepa

Born and raised on Maui, Kalepa is a Native Hawaiian waterman, veteran captain and voyaging leader. Since 1992, Kalepa has led Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia on numerous voyages throughout the Pacific and around the world including from the Galapagos Islands to Rapa Nui as Hōkūleʻa captain during the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage. He has also served as Watch Captain, Rescue Swimmer and Safety Officer and has been a key contributor to PVS safety protocols for the canoes and crew. As the former head of Maui Ocean Rescue and Safety, Kalepa is recognized globally for his expertise in ocean safety and rescue techniques. He is also known for his commitment to Hawaiian culture and his leadership in the Maui community, most recently with the relief efforts for his hometown of Lahaina after the devastating fires in 2023.

Kaʻiulani Murphy

Native Hawaiian navigator and educator from Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island. Murphy has been navigating for more than 20 years and has served the community and the canoe faithfully for decades. She rose quickly through the ranks of deep sea navigator and was the first woman to navigate Hōkūleʻa to Papahānaumokuākea and on many other legs through Micronesia in 2007 and on the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage. She was the first woman to navigate Hōkūleʻa from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi in 2017, at the end of the Worldwide Voyage. She earned her PhD and is a professor in the University of Hawaiʻi system teaching voyaging and navigation. She is considered a voyaging leader and teacher who personifies the values of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

Shantell De Silva

Native Hawaiian navigator and educator from Kapālama, Oʻahu. De Silva has more than three decades of voyaging experience with Hōkūleʻa and Hawaiʻiloa to places such as Tahiti, Alaska, Mangareva, and Rapa Nui. She rose through the ranks of navigator and connected lessons and experiences on the canoe to education through Kamehameha Schools and the larger community. She has fostered a deep commitment for traditional navigation as an educating force amongst the young people of Hawaiʻi. Her gift has also been to become the bridge from the Polynesian Voyaging Society to voyaging families and communities throughout the South Pacific, nurturing and fostering the strong ocean family relationships that have been rekindled between Hawaiʻi and Polynesia through Hōkūleʻa’s five decades of voyages. She currently is the Tamalpais Grant Program Director for ʻOhana Waʻa, a non-profit that collectively serves Hawaiʻi’s voyaging canoes and organizations.

Russell Amimoto

Born in Wainiha, Kauaʻi, Amimoto was raised in Kalama Valley, where the ocean and shores of East Oʻahu became his classroom. At sixteen, his mentor, Pwo Navigator Bruce Blankenfeld, brought him into the Hōkūleʻa ‘ohana through dry dock work, beginning a relationship with the canoe that spanned more than three decades. He has been involved with the lashing, fiberglass and woodwork on the iconic vessel and has risen up to the ranks of deep sea captain on some of the longest voyages of Hōkūleʻa. His work on land has followed the same commitment to ocean and community, including ten years of marine management with The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi and his current service with the Honolulu Fire Department’s Rescue 2 Company.

Lehua Kamalu

Native Hawaiian navigator, captain and leader with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Kamalu was born in New York and raised primarily in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu. She has been sailing on Hōkūleʻa since 2009 and is the first female to serve in a dual role as lead captain and lead navigator on a deep sea voyage. In 2017, she led a team of student navigators aboard the Tahitian canoe Faʻafaite from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi. Holding the most miles of deep sea voyaging in the dual role as captain and navigator, Kamalu led Hikianalia’s voyage to San Francisco in 2018 and then Hōkūleʻa from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti in 2022. With a degree in mechanical engineering, Kamalu brings both technical knowledge and traditional wayfinding skills to her work at sea. Her experience on canoes, and in leadership is exceptional especially in vital areas of safety and operations of the canoes. She is involved with training the next generation of apprentice navigators and has played an integral role in planning the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage and now the Moananuiākea Voyage.