East-West Center Magazine, Spring/Summer 1976
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EAST-WEST CENTER MAGAZINE SPRING-SUMMER 1976 X EAST-WEST CENTER MAGAZINE SPRING-SUMMER 1976 Page 6 CONTENTS Bicentennial Voyage of Rediscovery 1 The East-West Center Contribution 3 Steering by the Stars 6 "Star of Gladness" 8 Teaching Materials for Culture Training 10 An Exercise in Culture-Relative Intelligence 11 One Son and An Irish Setter 13 Transformation in the People's Republic of China 16 English in Three Acts 18 Inouye and the Jefferson Fellows 20 The American Revolution: Its Meaning to Asians and Americans 21 Published quarterly by Office of Publications and Public Affairs East-West Center 1777 East-West Road Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 Robert B. Hewett, Director Mark E. Zeug, Editor Arnold Kishi, Photojournalist Bob Wernet, Feature Writer Mary Connors, Designer About the Cover: Hawaiian artist Herb Kawainui Kane's vision caught the Hokule'a on the crest of a wave shortly before sunset. The painting was used on a poster of the Polynesian Voyaging Society to bring attention to the voyage. See story on facing page. Launched with careful attention to religious tradition, this re-creation of an ancient Polyne• sian voyaging canoe plies the waters of the South Pacific in an effort to duplicate the supposed route of Hawaii's discoverers more than HUU years ago. Bicentennial Voyage of Rediscovery By Mark Zeug It is more than an adventure, more than an exper• capture the navigational skills and spirit of old iment in seamanship. It is a planned voyage into Hawaii in a dramatic experiment in cultural re• the past in perhaps the most ambitious single trieval. The Society was founded on the belief that event commemorating the United States Bicen• Polynesia began with the canoe more than 3,000 tennial. years ago.* From these canoes we can learn much While events across the country are drawing about those who built and sailed them centuries huge Bicentennial crowds who wish to catch a before European ocean exploration began. glimpse of the heritage that is America, a 60-foot Society President Ben Finney, an anthropologist double-hulled voyaging canoe is plying the soli• and East-West Center research associate (see tary waters of the Pacific, somewhere between "The East-West Center's Contribution", page 3), Hawaii and Tahiti, to document a giant piece of has been dreaming of such a voyage for over 10 that heritage. Without charts, compass or other years. He said the voyage is a planned "experi• navigational instruments, the crew of the Hokule'a mental approach to one of the most intriguing and (or "Star of Gladness," the Hawaiian name for the disputed questions in Polynesian history; how star Arcturus that guided early voyagers to Ha• were the many islands of Polynesia first dis• waii) is attempting to duplicate the supposed covered and settled?" Was it an accident, or was route of Hawaii's discoverers more than 800 years it deliberately planned? ago. At the same time, the Polynesian Voyaging So• 'Archaeological evidence, indicates much of Polynesia was ciety, which designed and built the giant canoe settled before the age of the Vikings around the tenth cen• (see "The Star of Gladness", page 8), hopes to re- tury A.D. SPRING-SUMMER 7976 7 While many people have believed for years that it was the result of planned two-way voyaging, the opposite view received substantial impetus in 1956 from New Zea• land scholar Andrew Sharp. According to Dr. Finney, Sharp maintained that the Polynesians did not have the means to sail out to distant and unknown islands, and then retrace their course home again so that colonizing voyages could be organized. That is, for distances beyond a few hundred miles, Sharp believed any voyaging was the result of straying off course and drifting helplessly to landfall, or of exiled groups intentionally sailing off into the unknown in the hopes that land would be encoun• tered. Once they had encountered land, they could not return to their home, since they did not have the naviga• tional skills, or canoes of sturdy enough design, to make such a return voyage. Finney asserts that Sharp's essentially negative assess• ment of Polynesian voyaging skills, and any other posi• tive or negative judgments, are traceable to a lack of reli• able data on ocean canoe performance, navigational capabilities and relevant human evaluation. Writing on "New Perspectives on Polynesian Voyaging" which ap• peared in Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 56 (1967), Finney notes that "until recently the only sources available on such points have been the sketchy and often ambiguous reports by the first European visi• tors to Polynesia," reports which can be selectively quoted to support either side of the issue, he says. He argues that the only way to get reliable data on ca• noe performance and navigational capabilities was to build a replica canoe and study its behavior. It was with this in mind that he, with the help of three friends, built and tested a 40-foot double-hulled forerunner of the Hokule'o in 1966. From these experiments he concluded Kane Photo by David Hiser (C) National Geographic Society Even before the May voyage began, the Hokule'a had become the inspiration for other voyaging canoes in Polynesia. Maui islanders consecrated the first last fall, the 42-foot Mo'o/e/e, or "Flying Lizard,' and other canoes are being planned on Kauai, Hawaii and Oahu. And the Tahitians may complete a similar canoe in time to return to Hawaii with the Hokule'a in Aligns/. Hokule'a takes to the waters of Kaneohe Bay with a rumble and a rush, beginning a sfory that will eventually he told to national television audiences through a "National Geographic Special." l^lllMHIMfflllMilllP 2 East-West Center Magazine The East-West Center Contribution An authentic voyage into the past is not possible Physician-mariner David Lewis of New Zea• without the expertise of different people from dif• land, author of the University Press of Hawaii ferent places. Getting them together has not been book We, the Navigators, is a Senior Fellow in the easy. Culture Learning Institute. Lewis has spent many However, the East-West Center has taken a ma• years researching the principles of non-instru• jor role in facilitating this important aspect of the ment navigation in the Pacific, and briefed the voyage, using its mechanism of supportive grants crew on its rudiments before the voyage. He also to be involved in one of the largest local cultural worked with master navigator Pius "Mau" Piailug activities of the decade. In addition to the staff of Satawal Atoll in Micronesia on the star courses commitment of two institutes, the Center has pro• of the Hawaii-Tahiti route. Lewis is taking part in vided eight-month fellowships to two of the prin• the voyage both as physician and as navigation cipal resource people, and awarded professional researcher. He will write the National Geographic development grants to three others playing prom• story about the voyage itself, and is completing a inent roles in the voyage. monograph on indigenous navigation systems of Major Center input is organized through the the Pacific for the Center. East-West Technology and Development Institute and its Regional Development in the South Pacific Professional Development Participants project. This project is directed in part by Re• Piailug's participation was made possible search Associate Ben Finney (who also holds a through an eight-month grant from the Culture joint appointment as professor of Anthropology at Learning Institute. He hails from one of the last the University of Hawaii), one of the principal areas of the Pacific where non-instrument navi• organizers of the Polynesian Voyaging Society gation is still practiced as a way of life. As a vet• and its president for the past three years. Further eran seafarer and navigator in the Carolines but a Center input is organized through the Cultural virtual newcomer to Hawaii-Tahiti waters, Piailug Identity subdivision of the East-West Culture worked long hours with Lewis in "mapping" out Learning Institute, and limited staff commitment Hokuie'a's route. He also supervised much of the from Research Associate Gregory Trifonovitch lashing required to rig the canoe for the voyage, and Program Officer Kenzi Mad. and is sharing this lore through the Institute's museum management project. Senior Fellows The Center also provided an eight-month pro• Two people who, with Finney, have made major fessional development internship to Rodo Tuko contributions to the voyage are currently on eight- Williams of Tahiti, a veteran sea captain with month Senior Fellowships at the Center. Herb many years experience piloting schooners and Kawainui Kane, a renowned Hawaiian artist and fishing boats through the treacherous Tuamotu expert on Havvaiiana, is a Senior Fellow in the atolls and reefs that lie across the route. His grant Technology and Development Institute. Kane, was provided through the Technology and Devel• along with naval architect Rudy Choy, designed opment Institute. the Hokule'a and supervised construction. In ad• A similar grant was awarded to Kimo Hugho. dition, he has written several articles on the cul• Honolulu fireman and veteran canoe racer who tural significance of the voyage (the latest ap• assisted with crew training, and will be one of the peared in the April issue of National Geographic leading crew members on the voyage. Before the Magazine), and has made similar presentations to mid-April departure, he lectured extensively local schools and community groups. He will col• about the project and its cultural significance to laborate with Finney in writing a book about the Hawaii school children. He also serves with Fin• journey later this year.