HÅkÅ«leÊ»a (Hawaiian pronunciation: [ËhoËkuËleÊÉ]) is a performance-accurate waÊ»a kaulua, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Launched on 8 March 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, it is best known for its 1976 HawaiÊ»i to Tahiti voyage completed with exclusively traditional navigation techniques. The primary goal of the voyage was to explore the anthropological theory of the Asiatic origin of native Oceanic people (Polynesians and Hawaiians in particular) as the result of purposeful trips through the Pacific Ocean, as opposed to passive drifting on currents or sailing from the Americas. DNA analysis supports this theory. A secondary project goal was to have the canoe and voyage "serve as vehicles for the cultural revitalization of Hawaiians and other Polynesians."
Between the 1976 voyage and 2009, HÅkÅ«leâa completed nine additional voyages to Micronesia, Polynesia, Japan, Canada and the mainland United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation. On 19 January 2007, HÅkÅ«leâa left HawaiÊ»i with the voyaging canoe Alingano Maisu on a voyage through Micronesia (map) and ports in southern Japan. The voyage was expected to take five months. On 9 June 2007, HÅkÅ«leâa completed the "One Ocean, One People" voyage to Yokohama, Japan. On 5 April 2009, HÅkÅ«leâa returned to Honolulu following a roundtrip training sail to Palmyra Atoll, undertaken to develop skills of potential crewmembers for HÅkÅ«leâa's eventual circumnavigation of the Earth.