Iosepa voyagers rediscover identity and the meaning of community at sea
Water is more than a place to cross, it is where a community is built through trust and genuine connections, said two BYU-Hawaii students who sailed with Iosepa during their month-long voyage beginning May 22. According to the UNESCO website, water plays an important role across faith-based traditions worldwide. Water symbolizes elements as diverse as life, purity, renewal and reconciliation, but also chaos and destruction, says the site.
Iliana Lopez, a junior majoring in elementary education from California, said the ocean cannot be controlled, and one can only adapt. “On the canoe we had to use what we had to sail. You can only work with what is going on. And it’s the same with life,” she explained.
Trust in the captain
As one of the few women on the Iosepa crew, Lopez said she felt safe voyaging because of the trust she had for her captain and her crew. Mark Ellis, Iosepa’s captain, was featured on the Aloha State Daily website and said he grew up in the water and on the water. “When he was seven years old, he saw Hōkūleʻa coming home from a voyage to Tahiti and told his parents he wanted to sail on that vessel,” the site says. According to the article “At the helm of the Iosepa” by Karl Aldre Marquez, aside from Ellis’ fascination with Hōkūleʻa, he said he was curious about his ancestors who sailed the world without modern equipment.
Ellis said completing graduate school and receiving job offers from tech companies and consulting firms, he longed to voyage the ocean. Marquez writes, Ellis was able to transfer jobs and brought himself closer to the voyaging world. Eventually, Ellis became a voyaging educator and taught at Kamehameha School, writes Marquez.
Ellis said he was also part of the Moanananuiakea voyage crew and worked as a project manager helping the community for Hawaiian voyages before he became director of voyaging experiences at the Polynesian Cultural Center, writes Marquez. Today, Ellis helps train the next generation of navigators for voyages around the Hawaiian Islands, says the Aloha State Daily website.
A connection to our ancestors
Wade Utai, a sophomore double majoring in intercultural peace building and anthropology from Utah, described overcoming seasickness and fear on the canoe. “Last year, I got seasick and was out for hours. This time around I was sick again but got over it quickly,” he shared. Utai compared the state of a person to a grain of sand when one is out in the ocean. “Out at sea, you see the vastness of the ocean, and you realize how small you are,” he continued. Although not Hawaiian, Utai said he felt more in tune with his ancestors.
“Growing up in Utah, far from the ocean, I have been called names saying I wasn’t Polynesian enough. Voyaging made me feel I was, and no one can take that away from me,” he explained. Utai said other people might think of voyaging as an insignificant activity. “It’s not. It’s [important] to the Hawaiian community and that is enough to change people’s view and bring in more people to the voyaging world,” Utai said.
Utai said the ocean shifted his perspective on what matters in life. He said he realized temporal things like a comfortable bed to sleep on matters less.
On the canoe, nothing else matters but each other.
Utai said being part of a crew changed his individualist mindset to a more collectivist mindset. “I trusted my crew and knew that God would take care of us. In sailing, one person cannot do it alone,” he explained. Lopez said the greatest lesson she learned from voyaging is the importance of feeling that she belong. “I am a 5’7 girl among men [who are] stronger than me, but everyone has something they’re good at. Belonging means you’ll always have people to come back to,” she explained.
A moment Lopez loved during the voyage was chanting Aue Ua Hiti E whenever the canoe arrived safely, she said. “It reminded me how safe I was with my crew. The ocean makes you feel small, but it shows how big everything is and how much connection matters,” Lopez said.