Written, directed, edited and produced by Floro Quibuyen
[Honolulu] : Oceanic Cable-vision, 1990.
The documentary assesses the cultural significance of the Hokuleʻa Voyage of Rediscovery project initiated by the Polynesian Voyaging Society (one of whose founders, Dr. Ben Finney, was then, ca. late 1980s, my anthropology professor) and its impact on the Hawaiians. Includes coverage of the Hokulea's homecoming in 1987, the summer sail program for primary school students of the Dept. of Education of Hawaii, and interviews with members of the crew and others who were associated with the project. It features the wayfinding and non-instrument navigational-voyaging knowledge and skills of Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson and his revered mentor, Mau Piailug, master navigator from Satawal, Micronesia. I wish to offer this documentary as my tribute to Mau Piailug (whose passing away was deeply mourned by Hawaiians and all Pacific Island peoples whose lives he has touched), and to remind my fellow Filipinos that our ancestors were among the first master navigators who, thousands of years ago, ventured out into the Pacific Ocean, and, thereby, started the settlement of the tiny atolls and islands of Oceania (a process that culminated in the settlement of Hawaii and other islands in Polynesia). Indeed, one of the master navigators in Hawaii today is a native Hawaiian with a Filipino heritage--Chad Babayan (who is also featured in the documentary--as an instructor in the Summer Sail program of Hawaii's Dept of Education).