and, at five years old, he was sailing with his grandfather. and, then, he would never say that as some sense of abuse but only love. he says, yeah, when the wave make the canoe move the canoe make me sick, my grandfather threw me in the ocean so i can go inside the wave. and when i go inside the wave i become the wave. and when i become the wave now i m navigating. at five. so, when i approached him, he just said to me, you re too old. you want someone to know everything, send your son to my island. but he said, i ll teach you enough to find the island you seek. but i can t teach you the magic. anthony: why do you think it was important to do such a difficult thing? nainoa: i mean, it s the same story that you re going to see in anthony: well, everywhere. nainoa: everywhere, in terms of indigenous people. my father s mother nearly pure hawaiian. chooses not to teach her children language or culture or genealogy. where do you come from? who is your family?
Transcripts for CNN Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown 20211226 06:14:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
across thousands of miles of open water. nainoa: nobody could see the canoe here. too beaten, knocked out of you, no dreams, no hope, can t see. anthony: the polynesian voyaging society, with the help of crewmembers like nainoa thompson set out to prove that that was exactly what did happen. nainoa: there were those in the community that, that loved this canoe, prayed for it. and also those who feared this canoe because they sensed change. you have a sixty-two foot, twelve-ton voyaging canoe. i mean, it was powerful, it changed everything. anthony: the hokulea. a double-hulled sailing canoe. a replica of the kind of craft believed to have been used in those times. and using only primitive, contemporaneous navigational tools sailed 5,500 miles to tahiti and back. a trip that helped spark a hawaiian renaissance. a rebirth of pride and interest in traditional hawaiian culture
pretty damn good. anthony: it s not a particularly welcoming or friendly part of the world. contrary to the, sort of, the aloha myth. paul: no, that s right. that s right, but no island is. nantucket isn t, the isle of wight isn t. name an island. they want foreigners in corsica? sicily, they want foreigners there? no way, no way. anthony: right. paul: did anyone ever come to an island, uh, with a good intention? people, people anthony: no, never in the history of the world. paul: no, no. anthony: best case scenario bring syphilis. paul: yeah. anthony: pretty much. paul: yeah, yeah. anthony: i mean, at the very least. paul: and it happened, it happened here. captain cook put his sailors ashore in ni ihau, which is just a little northwest of here. he was the first haole. like magellan. hawaii killed its first tourist and anthony: right. paul: philippines killed their first tourist. but people who live on islands, who were born on islands, view anyone wh
anthony: man, here we go. nainoa: my great fear as a kid was a fear of failing. and that s hawaiian because i was born that way, because that s the expectation. you re hawaiian, you re gonna be less. you re hawaiian you re gonna fail more. and so it s old, it s in you, it s part of your identity. but, when i navigate a voyage. i know when the storm comes it s gonna take you to the bone.