A Voyage for Oceans,
A Voyage for Earth, 2023 to 2027

Moananuiākea is Hōkūle‘a’s 15th major voyage in her first 50 years. At the core of Hōkūle‘a’s creation was exploration – to uncover, recover, and reclaim. Reclaim our culture, traditions, and our relationship to home and our island earth. Moananuiākea is no different, but we are now guided by what the worldwide voyage told us—that we must deepen our values in the voyage and move from exploration and understanding to mālama, or caring, and kuleana, or taking responsibility. With those values, we must move discovery toward choices and actions that we believe will help build a future good enough for our children. This is our most difficult voyage yet because the destination is not ours. It will be the most difficult island yet to find, because it is the future of island earth.

Overview

A 43,000 nautical miles, 47-month circumnavigation of the Pacific by traditional Polynesian voyaging canoes Hōkūle‘a and Hikianalia and 400 crew to 36 countries and archipelagoes, nearly 100 indigenous territories, and 345 ports.

Purpose

To ignite a movement of 10 million “planetary navigators” who will pursue critical and inspiring “voyages” to ensure a better future for the earth. We do so by developing young leaders and engaging communities around the world while amplifying the vital importance of our oceans, nature, science and indigenous wisdom. PVS and Pacific voyaging leadership are identifying important cultural, educational and environmental sites to visit during the Voyage. Each leg will have a specific purpose and lead to our ultimate goal of connecting Pacific communities for collective action around common challenges and a shared sustainable destiny.

Objectives

Voyaging Tradition: Perpetuating our voyaging heritage to ensure it is never lost again.

Global Navigators: Activating millions of “planetary navigators” who will pursue critical and inspiring “voyages” to ensure a better future for the earth.

Wa‘a Honua: Bringing millions of learners of all ages with us through our third canoe, to create change and move us toward a healthier ocean and planet.

Our Ocean, Our Home: Exploring and sharing the magnificence of the world’s largest ocean, which breathes life into all of earth’s systems, and amplifying the movement to care for it, because life on earth will not be healthy without a healthy ocean.

Make a Pledge to #voyage4earth

Every day at sea, the navigator on a canoe makes thousands of observations, a wave, a bird, a star; hundreds of choices about trim, course, steering; and two decisions, at dawn and dusk, to determine where the canoe is and where it is headed.

As navigators for planet Earth, the island we seek is a healthier planet for all who inhabit it. We can adopt the navigator mindset and ask ourselves: Where are we today? What do we want the planet to look like tomorrow, and the day after? What choices can we make each day to get there?

1. Download the #voyage4earth worksheet
2. Color your worksheet and write in your pledge
3. Take a photo with it
4. Post it to social media with the hashtag #voyage4earth or upload it here

As the Polynesian Voyaging Society sails to communities around the Pacific throughout the Moananuiākea Voyage, we will be sharing everyone’s pledges.