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Herb Kawainui Kāne: Founding of PVS; Building and Naming Hōkūle‘a
Herb Kawainui Kāne: Ships with Souls (with a Bibliography of Traditional Canoe Building)
Herb Kawainui Kāne: In Search of the Ancient Polynesian Voyaging Canoe (Designing Hōkūle‘a)
Herb Kawainui Kāne: Evolution of the Hawaiian Canoe
Ben Finney: Founding of PVS; Building Hōkūle‘a
Kenneth Emory: Launching Hōkūle‘a March 8, 1975
Sam Low and Herb Kawainui Kāne: Sam Ka'ai and Hōkūle‘a's Ki'i
Hōkūle’a Photo Gallery

Building Hawai‘iloa: 1991-1994
Sam Low: Sacred Forests: The Story of the Logs for the Hulls of Hawai‘iloa

Koakanu: Traditional Hawaiian Canoe-Building (1916-1917)
Edgar Henriques: Hawaiian Canoes (1925)
S.M. Kamakau: The Building of Keawenui'umi's Canoe
Hawaiian Deities of Canoes and Canoe Building
Plants and Tools Used for Building Traditional Canoes
Parts of a Traditional Canoe
Hawaiian Canoe-Building Traditions (1995, online at Ulukau)

Deities of Canoes and Canoe-Building

Hawaiians are traditionally a deeply religious and spiritual people. From ancient times the land and sea upon which they live belonged to their deities--the people are just the caretakers. The building of a canoe was (and is) a religious affair, and there are deities specifically associated with this activity. So too, when voyagers went to sea, they asked for protection from the god of the ocean, Kanaloa, and the god or goddess of the weather and winds, La'amaomao. The gods and goddesses of canoes and canoe-building included the following (the list is from Tommy Holmes' The Hawaiian Canoe, p. 31):

Hina-ke-ka: Goddess of canoe bailers

Hina-ku-wa'a: Another name for Lea

Hina-puku-'ai: "Hina gathering food"; goddess of food plants; sister of Lea; took the form of an 'elepaio

Ka-pu-'a-o-alaka'i: Another name for Ka-pu-o-alaka'i

Ka-pu-o-alaka'i: Forest goddess; presided over the lines (pu) by which new canoes were guided as they were transported from mountains to sea; also "Ka-pu-o-alaka'i'

Kama-i-ka-huli-wa'a-pu: "God who aided in floating, righting and bailing out upset canoes"

Kanealuka: God of canoe builders

Ku'alana-wao: Ku of the upland offering

Ku-holoholo-pali: "Ku who steadies the canoe as it is carried down steep places"

Ku-kalanawao: "Ku who guides through the mountain wilderness"

Ku-kanaloa: (No data; Kanaloa was the god of the Ocean; his ocean form is the he'e, or octopus; his land form is the banana.)

Ku-ka-'ohi'a-laka: "Ku of the sacred 'ohi'a;" also Ku-maha-ali'i: "Ku who journeys in the canoe"

Ku-mauna: "Ku of the mountains"

Ku-moku-hali'i: "Ku who bedecks the island"; canoe builders chief god; husband of Lea; also Mokuhali'i

Ku-ohanawao: (no data; cf. Ku'alana-wao and Ku-kalanawao)

Ku-'ohi'a-Laka: Another name for Laka

Ku-olonawao: "Ku of the deep forest"

Ku-pepeiao-loa: "Ku of the long comb-cleats"; god of the seat braces by which the canoe is carried

Ku-pepeiao-poko: "Ku of the short comb-cleats"; god of the seat braces by which the canoe is carried

Ku-pulapula: "Ku with many offspring"

Ku-pulupulu: "Ku, the chip-maker"; god of the forests

Ku-pulupulu-i-ka-nahele: Another name for Ku-pulupulu

Kulauka: Another name for Ku-pulupulu

Laka: God of canoe builders; also Ku-'ohi'a-laka

Lea: Goddess of canoe builders; wife of Ku-moku-hali'i; sister of Hina-puku-'ai; she takes the form of an 'elepaio (a forest bird); also "Hina-ku-wa'a," "Laea," "Lea-ka-wahine"

Lea-ka-wahine: Another name for Lea

Moku-hali'i: Another name for Ku-moku-hali'i