Belgium

Maudʻs first time on a waʻa kaulua was in 2022 on Hōkūleʻa, off her birthplace of Kualoa/Hakipuʻu. Hōkūleʻa means many things to Maud, including, she says, “connection, as she anchors a tribe I'm honored to serve, whose reach goes beyond blood lines, connecting peoples who care about others, who cross cultural barriers to unify in our responsibility to mālama Mother Earth. She means ʻto learn’ too, she’s a classroom, for sailing and navigation of course but also for values and cultural awareness. I’m looking forward to experience how she teaches us the language of Ocean, how she allows her people to become Ocean. She means ʻguidance’ as she guides people through personal journeys, but also communities through revival, through resilience by helping to remember, to adapt and to go forward.”

Maud seeks to “learn the language of Ocean” and become an apprentice navigator. She says on the Statewide Pae ʻĀina sail she “saw how Hōkūleʻa inspires courage and resilience” and she’s excited to see what Hōkūleʻa “is going to inspire across the Pacific” on the Moananuiākea Voyage. Maud hopes she can subsequently “spread a bit of that inspiration back in Europe, where lots of work needs to be done to go back to sustainable roots and relationships.”

The Moananuiākea Voyage is a bridge if her passions and profession as an environmental guardian. “I’ve been observing and protecting my surrounding environment since I can remember,” she says. She sees it as an honor to be a part of “ensuring that we leave the places we visit better than how we found them,” and “cherry on the cake - I make my Māori elders proud."

This will be Maudʻs first major voyage, but she has a good idea what she’ll miss from her everyday life when out at sea: “My guess…chocolate.” And she has a good guess as to what she’ll miss about being at sea when she’s back on land: “all of it! But a winner is probably the fact of being in very close tune with the rhythms and moods of Ocean and the elements around us.”