Hometown
Yakutat, Alaska
Voyage(s)
Moananuiākea Voyage – Leg 1: Juneau to Yakutat
Bio
Martha is a Tlingit Alaska Native born and raised in Yakutat, Alaska - Hōkūleʻaʻs first stop on the Moananuiākea Heritage Sail. She still lives there with her children and works as Administrative Operations Director for the Yakutat Community Health Center. She is the granddaughter of PVS board member Byron Mallott, who was also born and raised in Yakutat. In the early 1990s Byron had enabled the donation of spruce logs to build the hulls of the voyaging canoe Hawaiʻiloa.
It is through PVSʻ long relationship with the Mallotts that Martha was able to first step foot on Hōkūleʻa during a family visit to Oʻahu in 2013. “To me (Hōkūleʻa) represents our ʻOhana,” she says, “Not just our Alaska ʻOhana, but our Hawaiʻi ʻOhana too. It represents huge family gatherings at Auntie Laura’s and all the love we felt as one whole ʻOhana come together; from Alaska to Hawaiʻi.”
Her voyage from Juneau to Yakutat, though a short 30 hours, was a voyage home, but her desire to sail is layered by a “love (for) how the Voyage’s mission is to bring our peoples back to our home on the ocean,” she says. “I want to be a part of this to learn more about the ocean and how it ties all of us water people together. I would love to see broader global awareness of the health of our oceans and environmental responsibility.”
On this, her first voyage, Martha says she missed her “space and my kiddos.” But she now also, while on land, will miss “the tranquility and wholeness felt and the smell and feel of the ocean.”
It is through PVSʻ long relationship with the Mallotts that Martha was able to first step foot on Hōkūleʻa during a family visit to Oʻahu in 2013. “To me (Hōkūleʻa) represents our ʻOhana,” she says, “Not just our Alaska ʻOhana, but our Hawaiʻi ʻOhana too. It represents huge family gatherings at Auntie Laura’s and all the love we felt as one whole ʻOhana come together; from Alaska to Hawaiʻi.”
Her voyage from Juneau to Yakutat, though a short 30 hours, was a voyage home, but her desire to sail is layered by a “love (for) how the Voyage’s mission is to bring our peoples back to our home on the ocean,” she says. “I want to be a part of this to learn more about the ocean and how it ties all of us water people together. I would love to see broader global awareness of the health of our oceans and environmental responsibility.”
On this, her first voyage, Martha says she missed her “space and my kiddos.” But she now also, while on land, will miss “the tranquility and wholeness felt and the smell and feel of the ocean.”