Polynesian Voyaging Society inducts 6 new Pwo navigators

Six Hawaiʻi captains and navigators — including the first 4 women in Hawai’i to earn the sacred title and responsibility — were recently inducted by Polynesian Voyaging Society as Pwo navigators, a title among the highest honors bestowed within the Weriyaeng School of Navigation.

Two of them are from the Big Island.

A sacred Pwo induction ceremony was conducted July 30 in Niu Valley, Oʻahu, by Pwo navigators from Satawal, Micronesia, on behalf of Weriyaeng School of Navigation.

Being inducted as a Pwo represents more than exceptional navigational skills, it is a lifelong commitment to leadership, service, teaching and stewardship. Those selected demonstrated years — and for most decades — of dedication to traditional navigation, voyaging, mentoring others and serving their communities.

This rite of passage honored the training lineage of late Master Navigator Mau Piailug, known as Mau, whose teachings revived traditional navigation in Hawaiʻi and throughout Polynesia, and who inducted Hawaiʻi’s first five Pwo navigators in 2007 on Satawal.

According to Mau, core values of a Pwo navigator are light, love, kindness and compassion.

Six new Hawaiʻi Pwo

Pōmai Bertelmann: From Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island; Native Hawaiian educator, voyaging leader and lifelong member of the voyaging community

• Bertelmann and her family have been a part of Hōkūleʻa’s legacy from her inception. They also led the building of voyaging canoe Makaliʻi, which has inspired thousands of students and communities to respond to the needs of the sustainability of Native Hawaiians and the earth through cultural education and ocean voyaging. Bertelmann rose through the ranks to become a captain, having sailed thousands of miles on Makaliʻi, Hōkūleʻa and the Alingano Maisu, making passages between Hawaiʻi, Tahiti, Majuro, Federated States of Micronesia, Yap State, Samoa, Tonga, Japan and New Zealand. She was Hōkūleʻa’s first female captain to lead a voyage in 2017 on Kealaikahiki, from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi. As one of the founding members of ʻOhana Waʻa, she was part of the design and implementation team for ʻImi Naʻauao crew training experiences at ʻOhana Waʻa, a nonprofit that collectively serves Hawaiʻi’s voyaging canoes and organizations. The program trains members of all voyaging groups in Hawaiʻi as well as internationally in the traditions of waʻa. Bertelmann is a middle school instructor at Kanu o Ka ʻĀina Charter School, where students are reared through the cultural lens of project based learning while solving real world issues as 21st century stewards.

Archie Kalepa: Born and raised on Maui; Native Hawaiian waterman, veteran captain and voyaging leader

• Kalepa has led Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia on numerous voyages since 1992 throughout the Pacific Ocean and around the world, including from the Galapagos Islands to Rapa Nui, as Hōkūleʻa captain during the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage. He also served as watch captain, rescue swimmer and safety officer, plus is a key contributor to Polynesian Voyaging Society safety protocols for the canoes and crews. Kalepa is world-known for his expertise in ocean safety and rescue techniques as former leader of Maui Ocean Rescue and Safety. He also is known for his commitment to Hawaiian culture and leadership in the Maui community, most recently with the relief efforts for his hometown of Lahaina after the devastating 2023 wildfires.

Kaʻiulani Murphy: From Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island; Native Hawaiian navigator and educator

• Murphy has navigated more than 20 years, serving the community and canoe faithfully for decades. She rose quickly through the ranks of deep sea navigator and was the first woman to navigate Hōkūleʻa to Papahānaumokuākea and on many other legs in 2007, including through Micronesia, and on the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage in 2017, becoming the first woman to navigate Hōkūleʻa from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi at the end. She earned her PhD and is a professor in the University of Hawaiʻi system, teaching voyaging and navigation. Murphy is considered a voyaging leader and teacher, who personifies the values of Polynesian Voyaging Society.

Shantell De Silva: From Kapālama, Oʻahu; Native Hawaiian navigator and educator

• De Silva has more than three decades of voyaging experience with Hōkūleʻa and Hawaiʻiloa to places such as Tahiti, Alaska, Mangareva and Rapa Nui. She rose through the ranks of navigator and connected lessons and experiences on the canoe to education through Kamehameha Schools and the larger community. She fosters a deep commitment for traditional navigation as an educating force among young people of Hawaiʻi. De Silva’s gift also has been to become the bridge from the Polynesian Voyaging Society to voyaging families and communities throughout the South Pacific, nurturing and fostering the strong ocean family relationships rekindled between Hawaiʻi and Polynesia through Hōkūleʻa’s five decades of voyages. She is the Tamalpais grant program director for ʻOhana Waʻa.

Russell Amimoto: Born in Wainiha, Kauaʻi, raised in Kalama Valley on Oʻahu

• Amimoto’s classroom were the ocean and shores of East Oʻahu. His mentor Pwo navigator Bruce Blankenfeld brought him into the Hōkūleʻa ‘ohana through dry dock work, beginning a relationship with the canoe when he was 16 years old that has spanned more than three decades. He has been involved with the lashing, fiberglass and woodwork on the iconic vessel and risen up to the ranks of deep sea captain on some of the longest Hōkūleʻa voyages. His work on land followed the same commitment to ocean and community, including 10 years of marine management with The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi and his current service with Honolulu Fire Department’s Rescue 2 Company.

Lehua Kamalu: Born in New York, raised primarily in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu; Native Hawaiian navigator, captain and leader with Polynesian Voyaging Society

• Kamalu has sailed since 2009 on Hōkūleʻa and is the first woman to serve in a dual role as lead captain and lead navigator on a deep sea voyage. She led a team of student navigators aboard the Tahitian canoe Faʻafaite in 2017 from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi. Kamalu led Hikianalia’s voyage to San Francisco in 2018 and then Hōkūleʻa from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti in 2022, having the most miles of deep sea voyaging in her dual role. She has a degree in mechanical engineering, allowing her to bring technical knowledge and traditional wayfinding skills to her work at sea. Her experience on canoes, and in leadership, is exceptional especially in vital areas of safety and operations of the canoes. She is involved with training the next generation of apprentice navigators and played an integral role in planning the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage and now the Moananuiākea Voyage.

“This induction of six new Pwo in Hawaiʻi is a statement of the advancement of leadership in voyaging” said Pwo navigator and Polynesian Voyaging Society Chief Executive Officer Nainoa Thompson in a society release. “It’s a graduation of six leaders who will lead voyaging into the next 50 years. It’s also in keeping our promise to Mau and our teachers, with the blessing of the School of Weriyaeng, that navigation will never go dormant again.”

The recent Pwo ceremony was the first conducted in Hawaiʻi. Satawalese Pwo navigators Isidore Metewalur, Robert Erailug and Thomas Raffipiy, who represent the family lineage of Mau and Weriyaeng School of Navigation, officiated the event.

Weriyaeng School of Navigation is an ancient Micronesian tradition and lineage of oceanic navigation found in the central Caroline Islands of Micronesia and where Mau was trained.

Mau is one of the most important figures in the modern revival of traditional Pacific voyaging. He was Hōkūleʻa’s first navigator in 1976, and he also ensured the ancient practice of navigating the open ocean without modern instruments would survive by training navigators outside Micronesia — first in Hawaiʻi and then throughout Polynesia.

At the time, Traditional navigation had been dormant for more than 600 years by that time in Hawaiʻi.

Mau personally initiated the first generation of Native Hawaiian navigators March 18, 2007, in Satawal, including Thompson, Milton “Shorty” Bertelmann, Chad Kalepa Baybayan, Bruce Blankenfeld and Chad ‘Ōnohi Paishon.

Hawaiʻi’s Pwo navigators have gone on since then to train countless navigators throughout Oceania.