Hometown
Hayama/Yokosuka, Japan
Voyage(s)
Moananuiākea Voyage – Leg 16 | Hōkūleʻa : Aotearoa to Fiji
Bio
It has been about 20 years since Saki first sailed on a waʻa kaulua. That was on Hōkūleʻa in her native Japan in 2007. She sailed from Misaki to Yokohama with a stop in Kamakura. Saki sailed many times since, having moved to Hawaiʻi for school, and studying to be a navigator. Among the legs she voyaged was from Hilo to Tahiti as an apprentice navigator on Hikianalia, the first leg of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage.
To Saki, Hōkūleʻa is “Mama, home.” And she hopes voyaging helps “people to remember we are all connected by the Moana” and to “see the new generation coming into wa’a culture with new dreams.”
Saki wants to be a part of the Moananuiākea Voyage because she says she “always believes the waʻa has the key to our island Earth, to be a better place for children. So I want to be part of it for the keiki. I think my role is so the younger ones realize that anyone can dream and make it happen. But it all happens because of our teachers and their teachers, and, for me, my wa’a sisters and brothers. Just to be one of many but to pass on what we were given from our teachers to the next generations. To keep the stories and knowledge alive.”
Saki is the mother of two young children, who she deeply misses whenever she’s out at sea. When she is in her everyday life on land, she says she misses life on the waʻa, being with her waʻa ʻohana, “and nature’s magical moments only the waʻa comes across.”
To Saki, Hōkūleʻa is “Mama, home.” And she hopes voyaging helps “people to remember we are all connected by the Moana” and to “see the new generation coming into wa’a culture with new dreams.”
Saki wants to be a part of the Moananuiākea Voyage because she says she “always believes the waʻa has the key to our island Earth, to be a better place for children. So I want to be part of it for the keiki. I think my role is so the younger ones realize that anyone can dream and make it happen. But it all happens because of our teachers and their teachers, and, for me, my wa’a sisters and brothers. Just to be one of many but to pass on what we were given from our teachers to the next generations. To keep the stories and knowledge alive.”
Saki is the mother of two young children, who she deeply misses whenever she’s out at sea. When she is in her everyday life on land, she says she misses life on the waʻa, being with her waʻa ʻohana, “and nature’s magical moments only the waʻa comes across.”