ʻO Paanaakalā Tanaka koʻu inoa.
ʻO Hawaiʻi koʻu one hānau…
I am Paanaakalā Tanaka
I come from Hawai'i,
a chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,
far from continents in any direction,
the most isolated landmass in the world.
My ancestors voyaged throughout these waters for generations,
finding patterns in the night sky to help them navigate their journeys,
making landfall and also returning home.
When I travel far in the Spring or Summer across this deep ocean
called Moananuiākea,
and see the four stars of Hānaiakamālama rise upright in the South at just
the right distance above the horizon,
I know I am in my home waters.
My father was a Hawaiian Wayfinder who recognized many
such patterns in the night sky,
and he taught me how to see them too.
Like children, we can all connect the dots.
My ancestors gave meaningful names to the stars in the night sky.
Sometimes we use one name,
sometimes another.
And some generations find their own stories in the stars
with names as different as the people who create them.
When I see this tiny group of stars,
I think of Makali‘i,
a Hawaiian Chief.
In this account, he was no hero,
but a greedy leader who took food from his people.
He collected it,
gathered it into one big fishing net,
and placed it in the sky where no one could reach it!
Makaliʻi translates to mean "tiny eyes",
which can also refer to a fishing net with fine tiny mesh.
The small cluster of stars represents the net holding in all that food,
leaving nothing for people to eat.
The hero is a tiny little ʻiole, or rat,
who volunteered to go up into the sky and retrieve the food.
The rat wiggled inside the net and nibbled at the fibers,
and chewed until the net came undone.
All the food fell back to Earth!
You can imagine how thankful the people were,
and what a feast they had to celebrate.
That's why we call this group of stars Makaliʻ,
when Makaliʻ rises in the East,
just as the Sun sets in the West,
the season of heavy rains begins.
This is when we mark the start of a new year with feasts and celebrations.
In addition to telling time,
these patterns form a compass
that guides me and navigators like my father across vast expanses of open ocean.
As ocean wayfinders,
we observe the stars called Kaheiheianākeiki
rising nearly due East and setting nearly due West.
Oceanic travel to the East is always in the direction of Kaheiheianākeiki rising.
Kaheiheianākeiki is a central part of the Oceanic Sidereal Compass,
marking the path of the equator in the nighttime sky.
My ancestors used this enormous compass to explore Moananuiākea,
and I now use it on my journeys throughout the Pacific and beyond!
Over centuries travel and trade routes connected widely dispersed communities.
From Hawaiʻi to Tahiti,
Aotearoa to Rapa Nui,
and the many, many islands in between.
This region is vast and diverse.
But our cultures share the knowledge of the navigators who traverse these waters.
And we share the same night sky that continues to guide our lives
as individuals and as communities.
"When losing the sight of land, you discovered the stars."