The PVS drawings below inspire new contributions in multiple
intelligences. As we post these wayfinding
images and ideas, we invite interested parties to contribute relevant materials
to this page. Please send your fresh paper plate activities, inventive
designs, trans-era drama, meritorious art, scientific patterns, digital forums--whatever.
Let us cast a wide net...
Rising and Setting Points of the Sun.
To help him orient the canoe to the rising and setting
points of stars, the wayfinder uses a star compass with thirty-two
equidistant directional points around the horizon, each point 11.25 degrees
from the next point (11.25 degrees x 32 points = 360 degrees). Each point is
the midpoint of a house of the same name, and each house is 11.25 degrees wide
(11.25 degrees x 32 houses = 360 degrees).
The four cardinal directions have traditional Hawaiian
names:
East is called Hikina ("Arriving" or
"Coming"), where the sun and stars "arrive" at the
horizon;
West is called Komohana ("Entering"), where the
sun and stars "enter" into the horizon;
North is called 'Akau;
South is called Hema.
The four cardinal directional points divide the circle of
the horizon into four quadrants, which have been given names associated with
wind directions:
Ko'olau is the NE quadrant, named for the windward side of
the islands, the direction from which the NE trades, the most constant of
the Hawaiian winds, blow.
Malanai is the SE quadrant, named for "a gentle
breeze" (PE) associated with Kailua O'ahu (SE part of the island) and
Koloa, Kaua'i (S by E part of the island); on a wind map of Pukapuka, two
"Malangai" winds blow from the SE...
Each quadrant contains seven directional points and houses
with the following names. The names were devised by Nainoa Thompson, the first
Hawaiian in over 500 years to practice long-distance, open-ocean navigation
without instruments:
La: "Sun"; the sun stays in this house for most
of the year as it moves back and forth between its southern limit at the
Tropic of Capricorn (23.5 degrees S) at Winter Solstice to its northern
limit at the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees N) at Summer Solstice.
'Aina: "Land"; This house between 17 degrees and
28 degrees on the horizon from east and west can be remembered because
Hawai'i ('Aina, or Land) is at 21 degrees N latitude and Tahiti ('Aina, or
Land) is at 18 degrees S latitude.
Nalani: Named for the brightest star in this house, Ke
ali'i o kona i ka lewa (Canopus), which rises in Nalani Malanai and sets in
Nalani Kona.
Na Leo: "The Voices," referring to the voices of
the stars speaking to the wayfinder.
Haka: "Empty"; named for the relatively empty
skies around the north and south celestial poles; Kamakau say the names of
these areas are Uliuli ("deep, dark blue") and Lipo ("deep,
dark night").
(Information about the name of these houses is from Will
Kyselka's Ocean in Mind 96-97).
Seven directional houses in each of the four quadrants
combine to give 28 compass directions between the four cardinal points:
La Ko'olau = E by N
'Aina Ko'olau = ENE
Noio Ko'olau = NE by E...
A star that rises in a house on the NE horizon travels
across the sky, and sets in a house of the same name on the NW horizon; A star
that rises in a house on the SE horizon travels across the sky, and sets in a
house of the same name on the SW horizon. Thus, the rising and setting points
of stars are clues to direction. Recognizing a star as it rises or sets and
knowing the house it rises or sets in gives you a directional point by which
you can orient the canoe and head in the direction you want to go. Ocean
swells, also used to hold a course, travel from one house on the horizon to a
house directly opposite on the horizon (180 degrees away), passing under the
canoe, which is always at the center of the compass.
http://www.pvs.hawaii.org/navigate/compass.html
http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/pvs/navigate/Steerstar.gif
http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/pvs/navigate/Steerswells.html
http://www.pvs.hawaii.org/navigate/Sun.gif
