Vaka Moana
Posted on September 13, 2007
While perousing the August-September 2007 issue of Hana Hou, the magazine of Hawaiian Airlines, I came across the article about Ben Finney, a story written by Julia Steele and titled “AMONG THE STARS”, The explorations of Ben Finney.
I have always been a great admirer of Ben Finney and always wondered why this fascinating person is not given more credit for being at the very root of what is now commonly called “The Hawaiian Renaissance”. Without Ben Finney, there may never have been a Hokule’a nor any voyages to far away islands in contemporary canoes. But maybe its because , and I quote from the story “Looking back from three decades on, the Hokule’a s voyage is still startling for its audacity and bravery. It had its trials, though, and Finney found himself in the middle of the biggest one, caught on the fault line between cultural pride and historical resentment. In the midst of a Native Hawaiian renaissance, there were those who definitely did not want to see a Haole on the canoe” ……and there are still many who resent haolees to be associated with canoes one form or another, or whatever their contribution to it.
Having said that, Ben Finney contributed three chapters to VAKA MOANA, a thick and thorough tome edited by Kerry Howe and which is said to be the definitive work on Pacific canoes.
That may well be if this tome is more about ancient Oceanic navigational skills, but I can hardly imagine any present or future book to me more comprehensive about Oceanic canoes than those of Hadden & Hornell and the 2 volumes of Jean Neyret.
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