Proposed by: The Garden Club of Honolulu, Zone XII

For thousands of years, wayfinding—using knowledge of the stars and subtle cues from the ocean and wind—guided Polynesians across the Pacific Ocean. Fascinated with this history, Native Hawaiian Nainoa Thompson studied astronomy and trained with one of the last Polynesian navigators. In 1980, Nainoa and his volunteer crew sailed to Tahiti in a double-hulled, ocean-going canoe built with materials and tools available to his ancestors. Since then, he and his crews have sailed throughout the Pacific, and on a 16,000-mile worldwide voyage. His voyages celebrate Polynesian ancestry and bring awareness to the importance of the health of the oceans. The volunteer crew members come from across Polynesia, developing a passion for preserving the oceans while learning the skills of wayfinding. In ports around the world, he engages with volunteers, educators, policy makers, and the public, on ways to live more sustainably, spreading the message that planetary health begins with the oceans.