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Our History
"First, Build the Canoe
Nā Kālai Waʻa means "canoe builders." Our ʻohana and organization started with a dream and Clay Bertelmannʻs vision to build a waʻa so his brother, Shorty Bertelmann, could continue practicing voyaging and wayfinding at home on Moku O Hawaiʻi. Shorty is one of Papa Mau's first students—“a living ancestor” as Uncle Shorty calls him. He sailed with Papa Mau on Hōkūleʻa’s maiden voyage from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti in 1976. Kūpuna of Hawaiʻi moku and Papa Mau instructed Clay and Shorty to first build a canoe using traditional ceremonies, knowledge and methods. The Koa tree for our first born waʻa Mauloa was found and felled in the Keauhou forest of Kaʻū. As Papa Mau would say, "First, build the canoe."
The Hawaiian tradition of storytelling is rich with moʻolelo of wayfinding and migration. These stories tell of legendary navigators who crossed the vast Pacific to reach these moku. Westerners often doubted these moʻolelo. For example, Thor Heyerdahl used his raft, Kon-Tiki, to claim early settlers drifted here. While he proved drifting was possible, his theory ignored the planning, skill, and resources needed to settle entire islands. The canoes that brought the first Hawaiians to these moku were no longer. Herb Kane dreamed of rebuilding a double-hulled sailing canoe similar to the ones that our ancestors sailed. Hōkūleʻa, the first voyaging canoe built in Hawaiʻi since Kamehameha’s time. In 1976, she set sail on her maiden voyage from Honolua, Maui, to Tahiti with her crew and Pwo Navigator, Papa Mau (Pius Mau Piailug). In 2024, during her Pae ʻĀina Statewide Sail, Hōkūleʻa reunited with our voyaging canoe Makaliʻi at Kawaihae on Moku o Hawaiʻi. It was a hō‘ailona of continuing Papa Mau’s vision—sharing ʻike, educating future generations, and sailing many more voyages together.
"Sincere Heart & Good Mind"
Clay Bertelmann first became interested in wayfinding in 1975 when the Polynesian Voyaging Society built Hōkūleʻa to retrace our ancestors' migratory routes. He was part of the Hōkūleʻa crew for many years. Clay also wanted to build a voyaging canoe to educate anyone that came with a "sincere heart and good mind" about voyaging and wayfinding. He understood that to honor and preserve the waʻa way of life, this ʻike (knowledge) had to be shared with the community—connecting past, present, and future generations.
Mauloa
On May 15 of 1993, our single hull coastal sailing canoe Mauloa was completed and entered the bay of Honaunau in front of the canoe hale where she was built. She was named Mauloa, in honor of Mau and all the ancestral knowledge he had passed down to the kalai wa`a.
Makaliʻi
After the birth and completion of Mauloa, Clay and Shorty Bertelmann received the blessing from Hawaiʻi moku kūpuna and Papa Mau to build our first voyaging canoe, Makaliʻi. In just nine months, Makaliʻi came to life in a Quonset hut in Waimea, built with the aloha and dedication of villages and communities of Hawaiʻi moku. She was born on February 4, 1995, and soon after, set sail from Kawaihae on her maiden voyage to the South Pacific, where she reunited with the voyaging ʻohana waʻa from Hawaiʻi, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Rarotonga, and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands.
Alingano Maisu
In 2007, Nā Kālai Waʻa welcomed our second voyaging canoe, Alingano Maisu. She sailed to Micronesia with the crew as a hoʻokupu (gift) for Papa Mau and his people, honoring the return of this ʻike to Hawaiʻi and the importance of "stick together."