MEDIA RELEASE

Waimea Middle School’s Ike Hawaii program – in partnership with Na Kalai Waa – invites students, families and community friends to the second in a series of workshops to share and connect with the values and cultural and academic “lessons” of voyaging to help prepare to follow and support the four-year worldwide sail of the Hokulea canoe come mid-2013.

This workshop is 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11 in Waimea School Cafeteria. There is no charge but an RSVP is requested because participants will be learning to make lupe (loo-pay – kites) so confirmations will ensure that adequate supplies are available.

The program will begin with a review of voyaging chants that students and faculty at most Waimea schools are learning, followed by a briefing by PWO Navigator Chadd Paishon, who will share his experiences on the recent maiden voyage of the Hikianalia escort canoe from Tahiti to Hawaii.

Hikianalia is a brand new high-tech, “Ferrari-like” double hull canoe outfitted with solar panels to facilitate communications and educational programming when it accompanies the Hokulea on its worldwide voyage.

Throughout the Hikianalia’s maiden voyage, WMS students plotted its progress across the Pacific and read reports from Navigator Paishon on an internet blog.

After Paishon’s briefing, participants will be introduced to lessons that WMS students are studying about kites – including the science and technology of kite making and flying, as well as the cultural connection about how various ancient civilizations used kites.

For example, Polynesian navigators used kites to determine wind direction and speed, and Hawaiians used them to mark the arrival of the Makahiki season.

The Dec. 11 orientation is open to all school families and community friends including families from other schools as part of a community-wide commitment to use the Hokulea’s worldwide voyage to bring to life and connect many aspects of core curriculum to the real world, and to encourage the making and flying of kites at the Jan. 12, 2013 Ka Waimea Makahiki Championship Tournament, and again when the Hokulea sets sail on its worldwide voyage next summer.

The previous orientation event involved Navigator Paishon briefing the audience on preliminary plans for the Hokulea’s worldwide voyage and inviting schools and the community to follow his internet blog and track and ask questions about the voyage of the Hikianalia from Tahiti to Hilo.

To RSVP, call Patti at 937-2833 or email cookshi@aol.com.