Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors: Reviving Polynesian Voyaging Book

Anthropologist Ben Finney tells the story of how Hawaiians and other Polynesians have struggled to become deep-sea voyagers again, and how their experiences are helping them to face contemporary problems with renewed pride and courage. Full color pictures, maps and diagrams included.

In 1995 Hawaiiloa and five other canoes, reconstructions of ancient Polynesian craft, set sail from the rugged Marquesas archipelago and headed north across the equator to Hawaii. Their Polynesian crews were sailing to commemorate the original discovery of Hawaii and to celebrate the revival of long distance voyaging that had begun during the 1960s. In Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors, anthropologist Ben Finney tells the story of how the Hawaiians and other Polynesians have struggled to become deep-sea voyagers again, and how their experiences are helping them to face contemporary problems with renewed pride and courage.

Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors is the only book produced about the second voyaging canoe Hawaiiloa and the legendary voyage from the Marquesas to Hawaii, and includes an 8 page color insert of the construction and voyage of the Hawaiiloa.