The Voyages of Heo and Aroha

Foreword:

In 2025, fifty years after Hōkūleʻa’s historic voyage to Tahiti, master navigator Nainoa Thompson issued a challenge to a new generation: inspire 50,000 young people to become Polynesian navigators and carry forward the knowledge, courage, and wisdom of their voyaging ancestors.

But navigation is more than finding a course across the ocean. Today’s youth must also learn to navigate the powerful systems, institutions, technologies, and social pressures that shape modern life; learning to think critically and  independently, recognize opportunity, overcome barriers, and chart their own course toward freedom, purpose, and fulfillment.

This is the fictitious tale of twenty-six islands of the South Pacific over a thousand years ago and the timeless values their people discovered, practiced, and passed from generation to generation. These values helped them navigate uncertainty, endure hardship, strengthen their communities, and find a deeper kind of freedom. Their wisdom now becomes a compass for a new generation.

Prologue: The Promise

Over a millennia ago, two young people were married on a long white beach in the land of the long white cloud. The  name of the male was Heo, which means to look. The name of the female was Aroha, which means love.

Heo could read the stars the way other people read the faces of their friends. Aroha could read people the way he read the stars. She knew when someone was hungry, or afraid, or hiding a hurt behind a smile. (power of duality of the couple)

Their grandmothers had sung of a great the Hawaiki Island far across the sea, where their people had come from long ago. "Follow the stars of your ancestors, and your ancestors follow your stars," Heo's grandmother told them. On the morning after the wedding, Heo and Aroha made a promise to each other. "We will find the Hawaiki Island," said Heo. "And wherever we go on the ocean, we will leave every place better than we found it," said Aroha.

The whole village helped them load a great double-hulled voyaging canoe. They packed dried fish, coconuts, gourds of fresh water, sweet potato cuttings and seeds wrapped in leaves. 

"Carry the island in your soul, and your soul carries the island," the elders chanted as they worked.

Aroha's grandmother pressed a small greenstone into her hand. "This stone is patient," she said. "It took a thousand years for the river to shape it. Carve the strength of the pounamu, and the pounamu carves your strength.” Be patient like the stone.

The Elder gathers the youth in a traditional tribal circle and shares words of wisdom for the voyage ahead. Before they depart, he presents them with a treasured chant and a book with images containing the knowledge, values, stories, and lessons of their ancestors, a timeless guide to help them navigate not only the ocean, but the challenges of life.

They sailed out with the morning tide, singing the old voyaging song: "Give your heart to the voyage, and the voyage gives its heart to you."

The above is a preview of a 180 page book.