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Camakau

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Timeline

December 12, 1850
Missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrive in the Sandwich Islands

September 27, 1854
Joseph F. Smith, the 15-year-old nephew of Joseph Smith Jr., who founded the LDS Church in 1830, begins to serve his first of three missions in The Sandwich Islands. He is given the Hawaiian name Iosepa, [Joseph] and for the remainder of his life speaks fluent Hawaiian.

January 26,1865
The LDS Church purchases 6,000-plus acres in La'ie.

June 1, 1915
As president of the LDS Church, Joseph F. Smith [Iosepa] dedicates the site of the Hawaii Temple in La'ie ? the first to be built outside the continental United States.

February 7, 1921
David O. McKay visits La'ie and envisions a school of higher education will be established to serve the children of many races in the islands.

January 31, 1948
Members of the La'ie Ward [local parish] stage a Polynesian cultural program at Hukilau Beach as a tourist activity to help raise building funds to replace a chapel which burned down. The Hukilau activity continues for over 20 years, spawns The Hukilau Song: *where the Hukilau nets are swishing down in old La'ie Bay, and eventually provides feasibility impetus for the establishment of the Polynesian Cultural Center.

February 12, 1955
David O. McKay breaks ground in a L*'ie sugar cane field for The Church College of Hawai'i (CCH). He predicts the university will eventually "*influence millions of people who will come seeking to know what this town and its significance are."

September 26, 1955
CCH begins its first classes in temporary facilities. Over the following six years, volunteer labor missionaries will build the core facilities of the permanent campus.

October 12, 1963
The LDS Church opens the Polynesian Cultural Center to help provide jobs for CCH students. In the 38 years since then, PCC has hosted 28 million visitors and contributed over $160 million in direct and indirect financial assistance to the students and adjacent university.

July 1, 1974
Church College of Hawai'i officially becomes Brigham Young University-Hawai'i.

May 27, 1985
The Polynesian Cultural Center and the Institute for Polynesian Studies at BYU Hawai'i commission a group of Naikeleyaga craftsmen on Kabara in the Lau Island district of Fiji to build a camakau [the letter "c" in Fijian is pronounced "th"] or traditional Fijian sailing canoe.

January 10, 1986
The late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, then Prime Minister of Fiji and also paramount chief of the Lau islands, delivers the camakau to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Fall 1996
BYUH President Eric B. Shumway announces the university will establish a Hawaiian Studies program, to be funded by private donations.

September 23, 1997
Alexander & Baldwin Foundation gives the developing BYUH Hawaiian Studies program a $25,000 grant.

Fall 1997
The Michigan-based W.K. Kellogg Foundation ?dedicated to improving the quality of life for Native Americans and other indigenous people ? gives BYU Hawai'i a $619,000 grant to develop plans and curriculum for the Hawaiian Studies program

February 12, 1998
BYU Hawai'i officially launches the Center for Hawaiian Language and Cultural Studies program, with William Kauaiwi'ulaokalani Wallace III, J.D., as director.

June 1999
Lario Ka'iloa Ursua becomes the first BYUH student to graduate with a Hawaiian Studies degree.

August 6, 1999
The Hawaiian Studies program launches its Malama 'Aina ['care for the land'] project by planting a new taro patch adjacent to the site of the Nioi heiau mauka of La'ie. Instructor Kamoa'e Walk explains the program will also include a Malama Kai ['care for the sea'] component that might incorporate a traditional Hawaiian sailing canoe. He adds he has already talked with master carver Tuione Pulotu who, at the time, is in Tonga creating a 105-foot traditional kalia-style [in which one hull is smaller and acts as an outrigger] sailing canoe. Pulotu, who is originally from Ha'apai, Tonga, came to La'ie almost 40 years earlier as a volunteer labor missionary to help build the Polynesian Cultural Center, and soon distinguished himself as an expert carver in multiple Polynesian motifs.

December 10, 1999
The Hawaiian Studies program commits to building a sailing canoe as part of its Malama Kai component and in compliance with the W.K. Kellogg grant.

January 2000
Wallace commissions Pulotu, who is still in Tonga working on the 105-foot canoe, to help create the BYUH Hawaiian sailing canoe.

May 2000
Pulotu hand selects seven large tropical hardwood logs for the BYUH Hawaiian Studies canoe project from near Suva, Fiji, because no suitably sized logs can be secured in Hawaii. Six of the logs each weigh at least 6,000 pounds. Changes in Fiji's government delay their exportation.

Winter Semester 2000
BYUH changes the name of the program to the Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian Language and Cultural Studies. Napela, a Hawaiian ali'i and judge, joined the LDS Church on Maui on January 5, 1852, and became an important missionary and leader. He also helped translate The Book of Mormon into Hawaiian.

February 8, 2001
Wallace announces the start of the Hawaiian Studies program's Malama Kai component with the arrival of the seven large logs from Fiji. He also announces Hawaiian master carver Kawika Eskaran, a BYU Hawai'i graduate and former PCC artisan, will soon join the program fulltime. Pulotu, Eskaran, program students and community volunteers soon begin to craft the logs into a 50-foot-plus wa'a kaulua ? a traditional twin-hulled Hawaiian sailing canoe.

March 6, 2001
Surrounded by BYUH Hawaiian Studies faculty and students, Pulotu makes the first cut in the creation of the sailing canoe. Over the next several weeks, Pulotu, Eskaran, the students and community volunteers quickly rough shape the hulls. The carvers also begin to refurbish the Polynesian Cultural Center's camakau sailing canoe.

Early May 2001
The canoe begins to assume its traditional shape as carvers loosely fix the various hull segments together.

September 7, 2001
Master carvers Pulotu and Eskaran set the first two of eight 'iako or booms, physically tying the twin hulls of the canoe together. In a simple ceremony rich in Hawaiian heritage, Kamoa'e Walk chants before he, Wallace, representing the male hull, and Walk's wife, Ka'umealani Walk, representing the female hull, tie together a long maile leaf lei draped over the two hulls, symbolically "marrying" the two main components of the sailing canoe.

October 4-6, 2001
Wallace, Walk and several others travel to Kawaihae, Hawaii, to train with the crew of the Hawaiian sailing canoe Makali'i. Pulotu, Eskaran, program students and community volunteers start to lash the deck, hulls and railings on both the Hawaiian and Fijian canoes.

October 27, 2001
Using house-moving techniques and a low-boy flatbed trailer, a volunteer crew from nearby Hau'ula moves the sailing canoe to Hukilau Beach to practice launching in preparation for the dedication ceremony.

November 3, 2001
Elder M. Russell Ballard, a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and a grandson of Joseph F. Smith, dedicates the canoe and the site where it will stay at Hukilau Beach (the halau wa'a). He officially names the canoe Iosepa, the named selected by Wallace in honor of Joseph F. Smith. The program includes a significant amount of Polynesian protocol, including the PCC's camakau sailing canoe and a luau for all who attend. Following the ceremonies, the canoe will return to its building site on Naniloa Loop in La'ie until the halau wa'a is completed at Hukilau Beach.

Early 2002
Hawaiian Studies students and other Iosepa crew members will undergo further training and begin short sea trials, possibly including sails to nearby Kahana and Kualoa.

Spring 2002
BYU Hawai'i will complete the halau wa'a at Hukilau Beach. Wallace says the canoe may then sail to Moloka'i and other neighbor islands.

Maintained by University Advancement

November 2, 2001