Crewmembers aboard the Hōkūleʻa, including University of Hawaiʻi President David Lassner, continued their community outreach through the New York Education and Environment Summit on June 6. The crew was joined by educators and community members from Hawaiʻi and New York.
UH News video: Polynesian Voyaging Society
and UH celebrate partnership in nation’s capital,
May 27, 2016
The summit was held on Governors Island, where the delegation was received by the Trust for Governors Island, the National Park Service, New York Harbor School and the Billion Oyster Project. The Hawaiʻi delegation included Lassner, Kanu o Ka ʻĀina and Ka Waihona o Ka Naʻauao charter schools’ administrators and students and representatives and students from Kamehameha Schools. Honolulu City and County Mayor Kirk Caldwell was also present for the discussions that centered on sustainability and protection of the environment.
Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, spoke on the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage and its connections with the Billion Oyster Project—a STEM-based initiative aimed at restoring one billion live oysters in the New York Harbor. After the morning’s presentations and discussions, the New York Harbor School conducted tours of the facilities.
The outreach continued June 7 with a presentation by master navigator Kalepa Baybayan on behalf of the UH Hilo ʻImiloa Astronomy Center at Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.
Babayan is one of many educators taking the science of navigation around the world and returning to Hawaiʻi with a wealth of new experiences. He told ʻŌiwi TV, “It’s about building the depth of experience so that I can continue to tell the great stories and inspire all people, not just the generations to come, but to inspire all people.”
- Learn more about Babayan: ʻImiloa: The Science of Navigating by ʻŌiwi TV
—From a Polynesian Voyaging Society news release
