Written by K. Robia

Lahainaluna High School

15 students of varying ages and schools were chosen to attend a 5-day camp sponsored by Hui o Wa’a Kaulua and the Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Center. We learned about water safety, cpr, the evening sky and stars, navigation, and sailing.

This camp was a lot more "hard-core" than the last camp I attended. As soon as we checked in, we were off to the pool to complete a water safety course. I seriously thought that I was covered from the water safety seminar I attended earlier in the year, but boy, was I wrong. The hardest thing for me was treading water for 30 minutes. It may sound easy and it was; until the lifeguards decided to have a little "fun" with us. We were instructed to raise our hands over our heads. I found myself kicking hard and fast, but my head kept going under. Thank goodness, we only did it for 1-minute intervals. The ocean water safety at Flemings beach became a mental test for me as we had to swim to "Shit Falls" from the point and all I could think about were sharks in the dark blue water of Flemings.

The canoe drills included learning how to raise and lower the sails on Mo’olele, a 42-foot traditional Hawaiian sailing canoe, and man overboard drills. During these drills we were assigned different roles and tasks and learned to work together as a team in case of emergencies that could occur on the canoe.

We were taught Hawaiian protocol as we had two international educators attend our camp. The two gentlemen, a superintendent and principal, were from the Thursday and Badua Islands off the coast of Northern Australia. They were in Hawai’i to attend the World Indigenous People’s Conference that was held in Hilo, and visited us to learn about cultural education in the schools. I thought it was interesting and an awesome experience to have shared with people from other countries.

After two days of preparation we were ready to sail. The students, along with all the "uncles and aunties," that helped us out got to sail to Moloka’i. The feeling of the students having to sail a canoe to another island was very, very deep; especially with the adults. Malia Sadang, our student kapena, kept everyone focused and the steersman on course.

You don’t see double-hulled canoes being navigated by young adults in your everyday life and this was a great accomplishment for all of us. It was our elders who passed on their knowledge to us and then to see us, the students, actually pulling it off – sailing across the ocean to another land, really made them proud.

We were hosted on Moloka’i by Ke Kua’aina Hanauna Hou and stayed at their beautiful site on the east end – Puko’o. Two young Hawaiians, Kama Helm and Scott Adams, spoke to us about how they would like to have a political voice in any changes that take place on their island and urged us to get involved in decisions which affect our ‘aina. We also learned about limu farming, the raising of tropical and fresh water food fish, and native Hawaiian plants.

We all felt that this camp was well worth attending. Having to actually sail to another island is the most awesome feeling you can get. We worked hard and worked well together and only as a team could we accomplish something like this. On behalf of the students who attended the camp, I would like to thank all the caring elders who shared their knowledge with us. I would also like to thank Hui o Wa’a Kaulua and QLCC for sponsoring this camp and Captain Roger and the Trilogy for providing the escort vessel. You all gave us the opportunity to "live" our culture. Mahalo!!!