The Members Newsletter Excerpt
Thinking Hawaiian | by Dr. Maka'ala Yates
(excerpt)
On numerous occasions I have been asked by non-native Hawaiians moving from the Mainland, U.S.A. to Hawaii, “how do I connect with Hawaiians when I get there?” or “what do I do to be accepted by native Hawaiians once I am there?” or “is it true that Hawaiians hate Haoles (Ha–oh– lei)? [Haole means a foreigner or a non-native. Originally, it meant “without breath—a term used when the first white men from England landed in Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island. They were so white that the Hawaiians thought they lived without breath or that they were as white as dead people] ”My usual response to these kinds of questions is, “if you have to ask that question then perhaps you shouldn’t move there!” and “what is your intent with the host culture?” and “why are you going to Hawaii?”
When I sailed on the double hull canoe, “Hokule’a,” in 1976 (Tahiti-Hawaii leg), we had at least a year of training and preparations before the actual voyage began. On one particular training day, the directors of the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) decided to invite a few non-native seasoned Trans-Pac mono-hull racers to give a bit of tutorial tips for the Hawaiian crewmembers. The Trans-Pac race involves mono-hull yachts racing from California to Hawaii that has highly trained sailors of the open ocean with high performance boats. You can imagine how surprised we were when everyone showed up for the day sail. The problem wasn’t that experienced modern day sailors were going to share ideas of sailing and ocean observations such as current and wave patterns with us. The problem was we were never told that this was going to happen and more importantly, we were never asked! It felt like it was shoved down our face because we Hawaiians didn’t know how to sail! . . . .
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