Hawaii’s American colonizers once banned the Hawaiian language in schools. Some Native Hawaiians tried to lighten their skin with lye. Many people believed Polynesian voyagers had si ...

But a canoe launched half a century ago helped turn Hawaiian culture from a source of shame to one of pride, reviving the skill of traveling the seas by decoding the stars, waves and weather.

The Mo‘olele, a coastal canoe, Gilliom said, was built for travels within the Hawaiian archipelago, unlike those made for deep-sea voyages like the Hokule‘a or the Mo‘okiha o Pi‘ilani ...

In 1980, Thompson became the first Hawaiian in six centuries to navigate ... explorers and got the idea to build a double-hulled canoe with tall, triangular sails similar to those his ancestors ...