Meet Kala Baybayan Tanaka, a Hawaiian navigator and real-life inspiration behind ‘Moana’
- Kala Baybayan Tanaka connects to her heritage through the ancient Polynesian practice of wayfinding
- Navigators use the elements around them to steer voyaging canoes, like in “Moana.”
- Tanaka perpetuates wayfinding through educating others and the next generation.
When regular people look up at the night sky, they might see the moon, the stars, or maybe even a planet. But Kala Baybayan Tanaka is not a regular person. When she looks up at the night sky, she sees a way – a path forward, both literally and figuratively.
As an apprentice navigator and Native Hawaiian voyager, Maui-born Tanaka taps into her heritage to observe nature – the stars above her, the wind against her skin, the way the water flotsams and jetsams, the birds soaring past – to sail across the ocean in a voyaging canoe, or wa’a, to other Pacific islands. She is also part of the growing number of women who are partaking in the once-male-only tradition.