By Nazario Rodriguez Jr.
Horizon news staff

The Eighth Koror State Legislature has adopted on April 5 a Resolution to acknowledge the contributions of the Polynesian Voyaging Society and the Na Kalai Wa’a Moku o Hawaii for their dedication to the preservation and perpetuation of traditional deep sea voyaging.
Resolution N0, 08-30, which was introduced by Legislators Idesong Sumang and Paulus Ongalibang, is also to acknowledge and commend Master Navigator Mau Pialug and other traditional navigators for their efforts to preserve and promote traditional deep-sea navigational skills.
The Resolution is also to thank them for their contributions to the heritage and culture of the people of Palau.
The Resolution noted that the PVS built and launched a replica of a traditional deep sea voyaging canoe in 1975, named Hokule’a, the first such canoe to be built in Hawaii foe hundreds of years.
The Hokule’a sailed Hawaii to Tahiti in 1976 under the traditional non-instrument navigation of Mau Pialug and it has ventured over the past 30 years throughout the Pacific and to the US west coast and other areas covering 120,00 nautical miles.
The Hokule’a and another canoe, the Alingano Maisu, just visited Palau after stops in several Pacific Islands following its inaugural sail from Hawaii on January 23.
The voyage is now on its way to Japan.
The Resolution said that the PVS and the Na Kalai Wa’a Moku o Hawaii allow the people of the Pacific to continue to grow together and to share interests and cultural values and to foster the continuation of traditional and cultural values despite modernization and changing lifestyles in Pacific communities and their actions are deserving of recognition and acknowledgement.