The mural at the Maunakea VIS is an artistic interpretation of the Hawaiian night sky, as seen about 9:00 at night on November 17, if the wall and all obstructions to the horizon were invisible. It was painted by Hawaiʻi Island artist Leilehua Yuen during the summer of 2018.
Hawaiian Star LinesThe star lines are among those used today by Hawaiian navigators. November 17 was chosen, because it is on that night that we look to Nā Wahine o Makaliʻi, or Makaliʻi, rising just after sunset as a sign that the new year will soon begin. After Makaliʻi rises, we begin to look for the first slim crescent of the new moon rising in the dawn sky.
The lines, themselves, were painted using a traditional decorating technique of dipping a piece of kaula (rope or string) in paint or dye, and pressing it onto the material to be decorated. The “hilo” style of kaula was chosen to make the star lines to honor the great Polynesian navigator, Hilo. It also was chosen to symbolize the continuity, like a long rope, of our culture from the past through the present, and beyond. An aside: The hilo style of rope is associated with the moʻolelo of Paiʻea Kamehameha naming the town of Hilo.
In the lower left of the mural, a voyaging canoe sails through the night, illuminated by the starshine of Iʻa, the Great Fish, (aka Milky Way).
For four generations, Hawaiian people were told that our ancestors had come to the Hawaiian Islands by accident, that they had drifted to Hawaiʻi on rafts which had been lost at sea.
We were told this, even though the histories of our kūpuna, our ancestors, clearly told the stories of how Polynesians had first come here. But our parents and grandparents were told, “No, your stories are imaginary. They could not possibly have happened.”
In the 1960s and 1970s, more and more Hawaiians started hunting for ways to learn if our own histories were true. One way was by testing the voyages our histories said our ancestors had made. In 1976, a group of people in Hawaiʻi set sail on the canoe Hōkūleʻa, and proved that the great voyages that our histories described were, indeed, possible!
To travel such vast distances, the navigators of ancient times used many clues offered by the world around them. They observed the directions the sun, moon, and stars traveled, that the clouds moved, that the ocean swells rolled. They noticed that changing colors of clouds indicated land or open ocean. They knew that birds could only fly so far before needing to rest on the land, and they knew which species of birds flew away from land in the morning and toward land in the evening. They smelled the changing scent of the air as it blew across the land or sea. They felt the movement of the canoes change depending on the type of swell of wave washing against the hull. All these clues and more told them where they were, and how to find where they were going.
Among the methods used by our ancestors to navigate the Pacific Ocean was memorizing the movement of the stars. To help them do this, they created imaginary lines from star to star. These Star Lines helped them remember where and when the different stars would rise and set, and the paths the stars would travel across the sky. The stars were then used as guides to help them travel from place to place.
For more information on this mural, monthly Hawaiian cultural programs, and other Hawaiian cultural projects at the VIS, visit the IFA website VIS programs page. You can also keep up with the programs on Facebook: facebook.com/KiloHokuHawaii.
People already are taking selfies in front of the mural. Add your selfies to the thread!