French Polynesia students, teachers connect with Hokule`a

A group of 73 students and teachers from Ohi Tei Tei School in Taravao, French Polynesia is in Hawaiʻi for a cultural exchange trip inspired by the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s (PVS) Worldwide Voyage. Recently, the group spent the morning with PVS crewmembers at the Marine Education Training Center (METC) at Sand Island, home of PVS and voyaging canoes Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia.

Since the voyage launched in 2013, these students and their teachers have focused on the Mālama Honua voyage and mission. They greeted the Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia crews that sailed into Tahiti on Legs 31 and 31B at Matavai Bay in April 2017, and welcomed them with song, dance and instruments as well as with displays about what they had learned and done over the past four years within the mission of Mālama Honua.

While visiting METC, PVS crew members hosted the visiting teachers and students to canoe tours on Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia, star compass demonstrations, video presentations and discussions about the Worldwide Voyage.