so show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most at helpfosterchildren.com nainoa: to be hawaiian, to me, means to be some kind of sense of connection to place. and some sense of responsibility for it. it should be about being honest to a place and being honest to what you love and be honest to what you value. it s a road that s constantly trying to be more and more informed. i don t even know, sometimes, how to be fully honest. because i don t know enough. what i love about the ocean is that s my pathway. that i go on the oceans to seek that sense of truth.
and identity. nainoa: the success was monumental. it changed worldview. that our ancestors were powerful, they were extraordinarily intelligent. they were courageous, and they were skilled. and so we come from them. anthony: thompson is a legendary water man. he s continued to sail on hokulea s missions. native hawaiian, his roots in this valley go back 200 years. nainoa: my grandfather was born here. so i grew up milking cows here with my grandfather. anthony: he spent many years learning traditional polynesian navigation techniques from a master. mau piailug, of the small micronesian island of satawan. nainoa: this is a man that was chosen by his grandfather. at one year old he was put into tide pools to be trained, and learning the wind and the water.
what is your link? and that could have been a hundred generations. what the voyage did was a reconnection back to feeling wholesome about who you are. knowing where you come from, and who are your ancestors. so the hokulea, when it got to tahiti, it was their canoe. it wasn t our canoe, it was theirs. and, so, then it started to ignite this flame. again, symbolic, a bumper sticker, a t-shirt, start to emerge. i m proud to be hawaiian. 1987 it becomes the first language. it s mandatory in the schools. hawaiian culture has to be taught in public schools. private schools will not have attendance if you don t teach hawaiian. anthony: right. nainoa: now it s, hawaiian identity is into everything. it has to be recognized in everything. you re going to go to molokai. anthony: yep. nainoa: that community is powerful. anthony: when i mention to people, locals in oahu and maui, other hawaiian residents, that i was going to molokai, the response was almost always surprise.