Koa'e Kea

White-Tailed Tropicbird or Koa'e Kea

Phil beautiful "Koa'e Kea" piece today at One Gallery in Hilo.  It was inspired by the navigational star chart used by the Polynesian Navigational Society.

He had this beautiful piece of Koa wood in his wood shop and knew there was a bird shape in it, but it took several weeks to bring the whole piece into being.  It is mounted on Mahogany.  This is his interpretation of the star chart that features 32 points associated with stars.

It is really quite interesting that Phil's mother, Margaret at age 96, left on her Final Voyage on the same day that the Wa'a (traditional Polynesian sailing vessels) Hōkūle‘a and Hikianalia left from Hilo on their three year round the world voyage.  This week, they arrived In Tahiti...10 days early.

The Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage will visit 85 ports and 26 countries, including 12 of UNESCO’s Marine World Heritage sites, through June 2017. The first stop for Hōkūle‘a and Hikianallia is Tahiti, where Hōkūleʻa made her first voyage in 1976. The voyage is made possible by many community sponsors and partners, including Hawaiian Airlines, the University of Hawai‘i, Kamehameha Schools, the James and Abigail Campbell Family Foundation, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and many more.

To read more about this amazing journey, please go to this link:
Polynesian Voyaging Society

With Prayers

Today the two wa'a (voyaging canoes) Holuke'a and the Hikianalia, set sail on their Malama Honua Worldwide Voyage, a 47,000 mile open-ocean journey.  (see May 18th blog for more story.)  Although we had thought we would drive into town to see them off, something gently said "no."   And so, we decided that with our prayers we would honor this significant voyage by planting two ohia trees and making leis.

We had assembled flowers and shells to place between the two trees symbolizing our connection with these intrepid voyagers and were in the process of planting when the phone rang....

Phil's mom, Margaret died this morning, so all of a sudden, the meaning of our staying home, planting trees, and assembling offering as tributes changed somewhat to include another "voyager" -- Margaret.



While we were digging and filling the holes with our compost, of course we had supervision from two excellent diggers -- Dexter and Poko.





We bid all departing souls sweet journeys --
ALOHA and Mahalo Nui Loa