For the wayfinders and navigators that practice Polynesian voyaging, the clues of where to go are all around the big blue and beyond. Once you can see them, it’s all about working with–not against–the elements, as Disney’s Moana showed to audiences in 2016.
Polynesian Voyaging Society Program Director and Captain Lehua Kamalu felt right at home when she first climbed aboard Hōkūleʻa. This authentic replica of an ancient Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe was built in the 1970s and has since voyaged thousands of nautical miles.
“I really just fell in love with the place, the people, obviously Hōkūleʻa itself and her legacy is really powerful,” Kamalu tells Popular Science. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t feel hooked almost immediately.”
[Related: ‘Fingerprints’ confirm the seafaring stories of adventurous Polynesian navigators.]
In addition to her work traversing the Pacific Ocean, Kamalu served as an advisor on the original film and its new sequel, Moana 2. While she learned about wayfinding growing up in Hawai’i through the school curriculum, it wasn’t until adulthood that she was first able to board Hōkūleʻa and try it out for herself. In the roughly 15 years since, she’s been a part of the crew that has taken Hōkūleʻa around the same waterways that have been sailed for millennia.
“It’s understanding what was going on and getting out on the water,” says Kamalu. “Understanding the stars and the weather from different places on the island.”
‘This cave has boats! Huge canoes!’
Generally speaking, wayfinding is the act of orienting and traveling from place to place. Both humans and animals are capable of wayfinding, like when a pet returns home after escaping from a yard or animals go back to the same places every year. Wayfinding includes all of the processes that make it possible for humans and animals to orient themselves.
Navigating is a bit more technical. It involves understanding where you are on the water compared to where you want to go and how to get there. Polynesian voyagers use the stars, wind, clouds, marine animals, and more to find their way without using a compass, sextant, or other tools. They have to rely on other things–first and foremost, the canoe herself.
“One of the first things you start to understand is just how a vessel like this is assembled,” explains Kamalu. “Where the stress points on this vessel are, how and why it’s designed the way it is, how the sail moves flexibly over the waves.”
To ensure this respect for the craft, all of the crew members take part in the assembly and the maintenance of the vessel. These canoes are primarily made of wood and tied together with lots of rope. They are a precursor to modern catamarans, but without the fiberglass and fancy gadgets. Grasping the ins and outs of the boat and where its weaker points are while on dry land is crucial for everyone’s safety.
“In Hawaii, we don’t really have lagoons or lakes,” says Kamalu. “Once you’re in the water, you are in the ocean. So it’s a very swift baptism into the high seas.”
Maui’s fish hook
One of the most universally human components of voyaging is using the night sky as a map. The stars help voyagers find their way, since they travel without tools that tell direction. Voyagers study where stars, constellations, and planets should be depending upon which hemisphere they are in and the time of year and how they move across the night sky. Hawai’i is in the Northern Hemisphere where the brilliant North Star is a constant guide.
“It’s really forcing yourself to build a map of how the world works in a very human way,” says Kamalu.
The movie depicts a constellation called Maui’s fish hook. Also known as the fish hook or Scorpius, it represents demigod Maui’s fish hook and has traditionally helped voyagers position themselves in the Pacific. Making Maui’s fish hook look the right way was very important for Kamalu and the other voyaging advisors on the films.
“We really wanted to make sure that was accurate. They are actual stars! It is not on a fantasy planet. You can go outside your house, maybe not immediately, but sometimes you can go out and hopefully see the same stars that we can see around the world,” says Kamalu.
Working with the clouds, wind, waves, and animals
During the daylight hours when the stars are invisible, voyagers rely on other natural signs. The types of clouds gathering on the horizon are a good indicator of what kind of weather is ahead. Voyagers must also understand what changes in the wind and wave patterns could mean. When it comes to finding land, animals tend to be the most crucial.
“The animals have just a natural ability to find home, find land, find their islands. Understanding which animals can guide you closer to an island or away from an island is pretty critical,” says Kamalu. “It’s just, there’s just a whole world of clues out there.”
Spending time understanding the water with the stars, wind, clouds, and marine life teaches voyagers what they each indicate on their own, but also how they work together. Much like how the team must work together.
‘There is nowhere you could go that I won’t be with you’
What makes the voyages undertaken by the fictional Moana and the real-life navigators so special are the people who make it possible. Wayfinding connects our species with a part of the Earth that few will ever experience.
For Kamalu, a moment in the first film that truly captures that essence is when the spirit of Moana’s deceased grandmother appears in the water as a beautiful bioluminescent stingray to guide her.
“I think in wayfinding, we can really focus on those very mechanical parts. But it’s an important question to always check our own sort of internal feelings. There are elements of remembering the teachers that brought you there, and remembering that you are not just alone. There’s a lot of people that are rooting for you that have helped you get there. I think that’s why that scene always also makes me remember that, because every time I’m out there in those moments where I’m struggling, I can think about family and grandma and everyone who’s there with me.”
Moana 2 is now playing in theaters nationwide.
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