 I think what exciting times we live in, all of us, we may have this issue or that issue, but this past weekend we saw something magnificent happen. We saw the return of the Hokulea after it had circumvented the globe that spent the last, what, three years or so on a voyage and it returned back to Hawaii and I thought that was one of the most exciting things that has happened to our state in recent years. So, we invited as our guest today Clyde Nomore, who is the CEO of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, which is the I guess the umbrella organization for the Hokulea and for the O'Hana apparently, there is a whole group of traveling canoes. Well, welcome Clyde. Thank you. And you must be up to your throat and as we say, alligators or shocks. Either way, they're both vicious. So, before we start, when did the journey around the world start? It started in 2013 and the first leg of the journey was a statewide. That's been about four years ago. The first year we spent sailing around Hawaii because I know at Thompson, who is our pole navigator, wanted to make sure that the community really supported this voyage. He wanted to make sure that every community that we went to, he asked them, we're going to take this canoe around the world because in his mind, the Hokulea really belongs to Hawaii. It doesn't belong to the Polynesian Voyaging Society. So, the response we got was, yeah, we should do this, this very adventurous and somewhat dangerous sail. And so, in May of 2014, we embarked on the international leg of the voyage. And of course, that was down through the Pacific, Tahiti and et cetera. The first stop with it was French Polynesia. That's correct. Tahiti. Yes. And then she started going around the world. And then we started going around the world. And so, it was New Zealand down to Australia and then into the Indian Ocean, which, you know, could be very, very dangerous. We were lucky that we had the U.S. Coast Guard helping. We stopped in Indonesia. We stopped in Mozambique. We stopped in South Africa. How do you get clearances for all of this? I mean, the logistics. I mean, I can see where there is one challenge. The major challenge would be the physical act of actually traveling around the world in a canoe with ancient navigation techniques. I mean, what a phenomenal challenge. But in addition to that, I'm just looking at you and you're sort of the CEO of this umbrella organization. I mean, did you have to go get passports for everybody? Visas? I mean, what's involved? Well, we had a person who devoted full time to just doing logistics. And because we can't keep the crew on board for too long, we have to fly a crew in and fly a crew out. So as we were traveling, we changed crews maybe every 20, 25 days. When we were in the Indian Ocean, the crew changes were longer. And one of the reasons they were longer is that we really needed to use aircraft carriers, airlines, other than Hawaiian Airlines. Hawaiian Airlines is our title sponsor, and they've been flying us all over the world. Yeah, they apparently did a very good job. Outstanding. Shout out to Hawaiian Airlines for their contribution. They really were outstanding, but they fly as far as Australia, but they don't fly into the Indian Ocean. So once we got as far as Australia and we sailed on to Indonesia, we needed to use other commercial carriers to fly us from Australia to places like Indonesia. So we had to fly crews in and out. And that got very, very expensive. So the logistics included all of the customs requirements of the city that we were sailing into. Every crew member, of course, had to have a passport. In some cases, there were medical clearances that were required. And we have a doctor on board the vessel at all times. There's always a doctor on board for any medical emergencies, as well as making sure that everyone has the medical clearances that they need. So it's a huge undertaking. And I don't think that... Can you imagine ancestors did that? And of course, that makes you feel really good, right? I mean, it makes you feel great, because you just to think that Native Hawaiians, without the use of instruments and computers, was able to sail to places where they believed there was land. And so to me, that's really the exciting thing about this whole voyage. It really does, again, confirm that Native Hawaiians didn't just sail and discover things accidentally, that it really was about a very focused intentions of looking for land that they knew was somewhere out there. That they knew they were laying out there. I need to bring this up, because it sounds so commercial. But did you see the movie Moana? I did. I did. And is it sort of... That's it portrayed. I know it's an animation. But didn't portray, I thought it did anyway, that very idea, the idea of intention, the idea that you actually knew that there was something out there and you were heading to it. I think, and of course, and I know always was consultant on the movie, but he wanted to be real sure that he wasn't named as one of the credits, because he simply offered what he thought was just advice that anyone could have done. But I think overall, of course, it's entertainment. That's what the movie's about. But I'd say a lot of it was correct in terms of when Moana sails off, she's going somewhere. She's not simply sailing around aimlessly. Well, that idea of intention, though, that... Well, first of all, I mean, there's so many things that come out of just your discussion. Indian Ocean is not a safe place. I mean, there were all the pirates hanging out and all of that. Any stories along those lines? No, we were real careful. And of course, we had a whole security team that helped us to analyze the risk. And they monitored the situation whenever there was a pirate attack on the ocean. And what we found was that there were very, very few incidents prior to us going into the Indian Ocean. Evidently, the pirates used a different technique. They weren't pirating people along the ocean. They were doing it on land. So we were lucky that we did not have any incidents at all. In fact, over the span of the voyage, we had maybe one incident where somebody fell overboard. But luckily, we had this device. It's called the Man Overboard Suit. And the sailor that fell off the canoe, we were able to rescue him very, very quickly. So it was never an issue. Well, you mentioned him. But you also took women... A lot of women on board, yeah. Okay. Is there a kind of like... I'm sure there's a listing of all these individuals, but in their own way, they're all heroes. They're all heroes for today's age. And is there going to be like a place where pictures and videotapes and photographs of all of this are going to be displayed? Is there a plan for that? If people are interested, Hokulea.org is our website. And all of the crew members are listed on the website. And in most cases, there are pictures of the crew members as well. We did have a few female captains that sailed with us as well. In fact, bringing the canoe home from Tahiti back to Honolulu, Kailani Murphy was our captain. Kailani, yeah, yeah. She was excellent. Wasn't she also a navigation trainer? Yes, yes. And she teaches navigation training at Honolulu Community College. So she did an outstanding job. So there are many women on board as well. We were a little bit skeptical because in the Indian Ocean, the religious practices of people living along the Indian Ocean really have a particular view of women. And so we were a little bit nervous whether we should have women on board the canoe when she sailed through the Indian Ocean. But at the end of the day, we ended up just including women as well. And we did not run into any problems. How many master navigators? Probably less than 10. Oh, the ones that actually sailed. Probably less than five that covered most of it. Yeah, Bruce Blankenfeld. Ninoa. Ninoa did several legs. Bruce Blankenfeld did a number of legs. Kaleppa Babayan sailed so much that his wife was ready to leave him. So there were a few of them that sailed for long distances and long periods as well. Right. But there are about 10 master navigators. Yeah, just about, yeah. It's amazing when you think back to a day when they were none. Yeah, it is amazing. Now, as I understand it, yesterday or Saturday was the big event. That's correct. Saturday was the homecoming. All right? So tell me, describe Saturday, what you hoped it would be and what it turned out. You know, it's really hard as we were going through the planning. We've never experienced anything like this before. So we really didn't have a model to work against. We had to discover things as we went along. And the emphasis was to make sure that everyone was safe. And what we were worried about is that people in their enthusiasm might get themselves into trouble. Okay. So we wanted to be sure that the canoe had a buffer around it to make sure that none of the canoes or surfboards or swimmers got too close. Even they went out in the ocean to greet the canoe as it came in. And that happened in 1976 when she came back to Kualoa. So we were just afraid that that might happen. The Coast Guard did an excellent job of trying to keep people away from the canoe as much as they could. And luckily there were no incidents at all. But an event such as this, where we expected there would be 25,000 people, you know, the parking becomes an issue, security becomes an issue. But the biggest issue really is that everything gets so, so expensive. Renting the video screens for people to be able to see what's going on. I mean a machine like that is $15,000 a day. But you know, you had to do it because we knew that people coming down to Alamoana, I would estimate 25,000 at the height throughout the day, probably more than that. Because once she came in, and we started the formal ceremonies, a lot of people left. But there were more people that came in in the afternoon. So I'd say maybe 30,000 altogether. But at the beginning, probably closer to 25. Yeah, I heard some estimates that went as high as 50. 50. Yeah, I've heard that too. I don't think it was that many, but I think it was definitely a crowd. It was a huge crowd. But why Alamoana instead of one of the reasons that we went to Magic Island, we thought about Kooloa because that is where she was born. And we really thought taking her back to where she was born, that's where she was launched for the very first time. But because Kamehameha Highway is a two-lane highway, we knew that the traffic would be unbearable and people would get very angry because they wouldn't be able to get through. So the reason we selected Magic Island is that we knew that parking could be controlled much better than going back to Kooloa. We are going to be right back in a few minutes to continue this conversation with Clyden Amour from the Polynesian Voyaging Society. He is the CEO. And by the way, if you want to call us, our phone number is 415-871-2474. Welcome back to Talk Story with John Wahee and our special guest today, Clyden Amour from the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Once again, if you want to call us, our number is 415-871-2474. Clyden, it was such an exciting day and so many people. This time, I have to confess, I was lazy. I watched it on television. So there were probably tens of thousands of people like myself. And I guess there was nothing better than being there. But even on television, the whole experience was so moving. And one of the most moving moments was listening to Mynora thank all the people who came before, who made this whole miracle possible. And it just was an amazing day. I can't imagine what it was like being there. Well, I'm not sure. I felt all the excitement. I was more worried about making sure everything went off okay. I was concerned that nobody drowned. Nobody got stampeded on. Nothing bad happened. We did end up having to send somebody to the hospital, but it had nothing to do with the crowd or anything else. Even the talking hits from the various new outlets, they were getting excited. You could see like, wow, this is all happening. But there was an earlier, I distinctly remember, an earlier coming homecoming when my son and I got into a canoe and actually went out there and greeted the people coming in. So I can see where for the people that have the ability, that was fun. I mean, just surrounding this just great amount of people coming in. Yeah. And that happened to a limited extent this time. We had the Coast Guard on jet skis, so trying to keep people away because, you know, I mean, we didn't want anyone to get run over by the canoes. But nonetheless, the enthusiasm, the excitement as she neared the channel, people started to applaud. It really was a chicken skin moment. It was very, very exciting. And to accomplish all of this. Now, where does that all end? I mean, is it over? Is there some way, are we building on that enthusiasm? Are we building on that experience? We had a dinner last night with some of the ocean elders, which is a group that is really committed to protecting the oceans. So let's talk about these ocean elders. These are not people only, these are not just kupuna from Hawaii. No. This is an international group of ocean experts, I guess, in their own fields, who come to have been acknowledged internationally as being masters, in a sense, of being ocean elders. And so who are some of the people there? Jean-Michel Cousteau, who is Jean Cousteau's son, is a member of the ocean elders. Jackson Brown, the musician. So it's a variety of different people. Sylvia Earle, who's an ocean scientist. Now you want to talk? Nainoa is a member as well as Ted Turner. And Sir Richard Branson is also a member of the ocean elders. So it's a it's a mixed group of individuals, but their unifying issue, of course, is the oceans and protecting the oceans. So some of them were here for homecoming on Saturday. Some are here this this morning. We have a panel discussion. Well, first we had a dinner with them last night. We had a dinner last night. And this morning we're having a panel discussion with some of the not only the ocean elders, but other people as well at the convention center. So what's going on at the convention center that's part of your follow-up? Yesterday we had a youth congress that we would have had anyway, even if it weren't part of the homecoming. But it just happens that the timing coincided with the homecoming. So PBS helped organize how lucky for them and how lucky for us. And today starts our youth summit because one of the things that Nainoa wanted to really be sure about is that we brought all of our educational partners together to talk about what the best practices were while Hokulea was sailing around the world. We did a lot of canoe to classroom experiences. Google Hangouts is what they're called, where schoolchildren could listen to what was going on on the canoe as they were sailing in their classrooms and very exciting for the kids. Yeah. So we did a lot of those and again we had people like Punahou School, Kamehameha that were our educational partners. And so this summit- I hope you had a couple of public schools. We did, we did. In fact, some of the charter schools were involved as well. Fantastic. Yeah. But the idea for the summit was to bring all those folks together to share what it is they did for Malama Honua for the World Wide Sale. So these young people that are participating in this conference, are they all from Hawaii or elsewhere as well? The Youth Congress is made up of students from all over the world. Wow. The issue, of course, is the expense of getting them here. So the idea was that there would be 150 delegates to the Congress, but I think they fell short of that number because Hawaii is such a remote location that the cost was prohibitive. So we probably had a hundred people. You brought, you actually also involved students from Hawaii. And that was the good thing about having it here was an opportunity for our students to participate as well. You know, we were just discussing this whole weekend with my family, my son, my wife and I, and we were talking about what a unifying event it was. Yes. And obviously for Native Hawaiians, it's a symbol of pride and so forth. But for all of Hawaii, you know, in fact, if you looked at the people that were attending and the people walking around, right today, you can go into a shopping center and see people walking around with welcome home Hokulea t-shirts and stuff. A lot of them, I mean, not even be from Hawaii. So it had this unifying effect. Congratulations on that. We had the Boston Globe that flew in a team to help cover this. Boston Globe. Boston Globe, CNN. We had the CBS Nightly News come down to do a piece. So we've had media outlets from across the world that came in. So yeah, when you say that the excitement is not limited just to Hawaii, that's correct. It's really the phenomenon has gone around the world. And it's just this excitement that this little canoe sailed around the world and got back safely. And I mean, the intelligence of the people that have to navigate this stuff in terms of knowing and feeling. I mean, it's a kind of navigation system that's based on all your senses. It's not just here. It's touch, smell. It's just knowing where you are, wherever you are. It's amazing. And we're not always, you know, when they were coming home from Tahiti, there was a time where Hikan Aliyah was not right next to Hokulea because that's the sister canoe to Hokulea. And, you know, because navigators will use different techniques, they weren't always exactly next to each other. But nonetheless, they made it back together. But relying on those techniques, such as the stars and the waves and et cetera, brought both canoes home safely. But it is amazing. It is amazing. And it does give, I think, especially Hawaiians, a real sense of pride. One of the reasons that I agreed to help PBS as I left different careers is because in 1976, when Hokulea sailed and came back, I think it really started the Hawaiian Renaissance, and it was so exciting a time. Well, it boosted, too. It did boost it. And I think, though, having worked at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for 10 years, what I realized is that that enthusiasm that we felt back in the 1970s and early 1980s had started to wane and that our younger generation didn't experience what we did when Hokulea sailed, because it reminded Hawaiians that ours is a proud heritage and ours is a heritage of vast intelligence. And so, you know, I really wanted to help to try to recapture that. But the message, I mean, and you did, I mean, you saw that at the homecoming, okay? But the message of Malama Honua, taking care of where you are. I mean, that was the message that spread around the world, the idea of sustainability and creating a better planet for everybody. So, as I understand it, not only did this idea of having a canoe that represented Hawaii, but they're now voyaging canoes all over the Pacific. Maybe even other oceans as well, I'm not sure. And so, this organization called Ohanaba or Family of the Canoes. Tell us a little bit about that aspect of what has been done. Yeah, we had, of course, you know, sailing is a very expensive proposition. So, when we were organizing homecoming, some of the communities in the South Pacific just didn't have the resources. They may have canoes, but to fund a crew, to sail to Hawaii was very expensive. But we did have at least three canoes coming up from the South Pacific. And this is a new phenomenon that, of course, started with a sail of Hokulea. So, there are probably way more than that. And in our own community, Kaua'i just launched their canoe, I think it was last year. Do you have the Big Island, the Bertelman, the Kaua'i Bertelman's canoe? Yes, yes. So, there's one on Maui, one on the Big Island, one on Kaua'i now. And Hawaii Loa is, of course, here in Honolulu. So, they were all part of the flotilla on Saturday too. And so, this idea of traveling is not restricted to just one canoe. People are starting to pick it up. So, at least all of the Polynesia, you begin to see this. And probably beyond that. Last night, the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska was joined us for dinner, and Byron Malott and his son, who's part of the Sea Alaska Corporation. And they talked about the sailing history of the Native people of Alaska. Fantastic. And how they're going to try to bring that back as well. Well, you're having a fundraiser tonight. We are. And we've got over 100 tables sold. Yes. I know that you probably sold out, but if people want to sneak a ticket in, you know, they can call us, or they can email us, you know, I don't even have. But if they go on the website, you know, there's a way of emailing us, www.hocomad.org. And that's the one way people can support. That's right. And I'm sure there'll be others. That's correct. And we can, even if you can't sail, you can lend your support to all of this by helping the, well, going to the website, the Polynesian Voyaging Society. And we'll have t-shirts for sale on the website as well. Well, thank you very much. You're welcome, Governor. And, you know, fantastic weekend. And thank you for all your good work. Thank you. Thank you very much.