E HOLO Mau
School Partnership & Maritime Program
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E Holo Mau is Kānehūnāmoku Voyaging Academy’s school partnership program that introduces students to navigation and voyaging through immersive classroom and field-based learning experiences. Working directly with schools, educators, and youth-serving organizations, the program connects academic learning with hands-on experiences rooted in the values, teachings, and knowledge of one of Hawaiʻi’s most enduring and important objects: the waʻa kaulua, or double-hulled sailing canoe.
E Holo Mau was developed to meet growing demand from schools and organizations seeking meaningful ʻāina-based educational experiences rooted in Hawaiian culture, history, and the ocean. By expanding access to sailing education, the program serves students and communities throughout Hawaiʻi while creating opportunities for broader audiences to engage with Hawaiʻi's maritime heritage. |
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Learning through the waʻa
At the center of E Holo Mau is the wa‘a as a living classroom. Here students become crew and are introduced to the foundational concepts of the waʻa: Moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy), Pilina (relationships), Kilo (observations), and Hoʻokele (non-instrument navigation and wayfinding). Lessons integrate science, culture, history, and environmental education into meaningful real-world experiences.
Curriculum developed in this program centers the waʻa as the catalyst and connector for many different content areas and topics, while also providing support for personal growth and leadership development. Through these lessons, students gain both technical understanding and cultural grounding in how Pacific navigators travel across vast ocean distances without instruments in hopes that they might apply what they have learned on the deck of the canoe to their own lives as they navigate into the future.
Curriculum developed in this program centers the waʻa as the catalyst and connector for many different content areas and topics, while also providing support for personal growth and leadership development. Through these lessons, students gain both technical understanding and cultural grounding in how Pacific navigators travel across vast ocean distances without instruments in hopes that they might apply what they have learned on the deck of the canoe to their own lives as they navigate into the future.
Classroom-to-ocean approach
E Holo Mau programming is delivered through a connected two-part learning model: immersive classroom visits that build foundational understanding, and canoe-based field experiences that bring sailing and voyaging concepts to life.
Classroom sessions introduce students to the foundations of traditional Hawaiian navigation, the oral traditions that preserved this knowledge across generations, and the historical and cultural context in which these practices developed. Classroom lessons, taught either by KVA staff or by classroom teachers using KVA created curriculum, provide students with a strong foundation that enhances engagement, retention, and connections to other content areas learned in the classroom.
Canoe visits are exciting and make classroom learning more relevant to real-life. Small-group instruction allows for active participation and individualized attention. Activities include introductions to canoe parts and their functions, basic sailing techniques, traditional navigational methods using the Hawaiian star compass, and the practice of kilo–observing the world with all senses in order to make informed decisions.
At sites such as Kualoa, a wahi pana in Hawaiian voyaging traditions, students participate in small-group activities that include canoe orientation, introductory sailing, and guided exploration of wahi pana and traditional knowledge systems that continue to shape Hawaiʻi today. Participants explore the cultural landscape, learn key historical sites, and engage with traditional canoe-building materials and practices. Together, these experiences introduce the enduring knowledge systems that have guided Pacific navigation for generations.
Classroom sessions introduce students to the foundations of traditional Hawaiian navigation, the oral traditions that preserved this knowledge across generations, and the historical and cultural context in which these practices developed. Classroom lessons, taught either by KVA staff or by classroom teachers using KVA created curriculum, provide students with a strong foundation that enhances engagement, retention, and connections to other content areas learned in the classroom.
Canoe visits are exciting and make classroom learning more relevant to real-life. Small-group instruction allows for active participation and individualized attention. Activities include introductions to canoe parts and their functions, basic sailing techniques, traditional navigational methods using the Hawaiian star compass, and the practice of kilo–observing the world with all senses in order to make informed decisions.
At sites such as Kualoa, a wahi pana in Hawaiian voyaging traditions, students participate in small-group activities that include canoe orientation, introductory sailing, and guided exploration of wahi pana and traditional knowledge systems that continue to shape Hawaiʻi today. Participants explore the cultural landscape, learn key historical sites, and engage with traditional canoe-building materials and practices. Together, these experiences introduce the enduring knowledge systems that have guided Pacific navigation for generations.
Featured School Partnerships
Throughout the academic year, KVA regularly serves four schools—Hālau Kū Māna Public Charter School, Mālama Honua Public Charter School, Waiāhole Elementary School, and Kaʻaʻawa Elementary School—through recurring, sustained visits over multiple years. This long-term partnership model scaffolds student learning over time, building skills, expertise, and relationships through consistent engagement and progression.
Both Mālama Honua Public Charter School 6th grade and Hālau Kū Māna 9th grade students engage in year-long E Holo Mau programming that culminates in a voyage, whether it is around Kawahaokamanō (Kāneʻohe Bay), along the Kona coast with the Makaliʻi ʻohana, or traveling inter island onboard the SS Makani Olu. Through classroom learning and time on the waʻa, students develop voyaging skills, strengthen pilina (relationships) with each other, their kumu (teachers), and the canoe, and build the readiness to sail together on the bay. Along the voyage route, students make stops with community and organizational partners to ground learning in place-based relationships.
Both Mālama Honua Public Charter School 6th grade and Hālau Kū Māna 9th grade students engage in year-long E Holo Mau programming that culminates in a voyage, whether it is around Kawahaokamanō (Kāneʻohe Bay), along the Kona coast with the Makaliʻi ʻohana, or traveling inter island onboard the SS Makani Olu. Through classroom learning and time on the waʻa, students develop voyaging skills, strengthen pilina (relationships) with each other, their kumu (teachers), and the canoe, and build the readiness to sail together on the bay. Along the voyage route, students make stops with community and organizational partners to ground learning in place-based relationships.
