Harriet Witt, the author of this material, taught astronomy to the crew of the Hokule'a voyaging canoe in 1999 in preparation for its successful voyage--by native methods--to Rapanui (Easter Island.) Harriet has been teaching astronomy since 1980. She is with the Speakers' Bureau of the national Astronomical League and is an associate member of the century-old national science research society, Sigma Xi. She has been internationally awarded for work looking at native Hawaii's cosmology from the perspective of leading-edge science. Since 1990 she has been presenting regular astronomy-as-entertainment programs at Maui resort hotels. As the astronomer to the outdoor Maui Film Festival, she has presented star-gazing programs to audiences of up to 5000. Her writing has been published in publications ranging from Sky & Telescope to The Maui News.
If you'd like to read the full text of Harriet's article, "The Soft, Warm, Wet Technology of Native Oceania," (originally published in the Fall 1991 issue of Whole Earth Review)
click here...
(An abbreviated version of this article, titled "Wayfinding," was published in the October 1992 issue of Aloha Airlines' in-flight magazine, Spirit of Aloha.)
If you'd like to read the full text of Harriet's article, "What the Spider Knows: A New Look at an Old Astronomy," (awarded in the Griffith Observatory's 1991 international science writing competition, sponsored by Hughes Aircraft)
click here...