With a passion for connecting community and culture, we decided to launch a blog to do exactly that! At DTL, we’d like to think of ourselves as being creative, collaborative, innovative, adaptable, and above all else, rooted. Rooted in Hawai‘i, with our community and with our personal and professional ‘ohana – by far one of the most important values we hold.
To share our core competencies with our DTL ‘ohana, we’ll be highlighting the work we do, the fun opportunities our work presents, the interesting things we learn along the way, and burning topics that keep us up at night.
The people and places make our work unique and we are so grateful to all our clients for trusting us with their work. To kick start our blog this month, we thought it only fitting that we recap our weekend in Kālia celebrating the homecoming of mama Hōkūleʻa after her three yearlong World Wide Voyage.
Hōkūle‘a is a story of revival and renewal that started as a dream to restore the courage and legacy of Polynesians to explore Hawai‘i.
At the forefront of the Hawaiian Renaissance in the 1960’s, a time that led to the near extinction of Hawaiian culture, artist Herb Kane dreamed of rebuilding the Hōkūle‘a’s distinctive double-hulled design that our ancestors once used. The original wa‘a that the first Polynesians used to voyage to Hawai‘i disappeared and was never recovered.
It is through community involvement and dedication to our Hawaiian culture that the Hōkūle‘a was built and launched in the 1970’s.
To this day, Hōkūle‘a symbolizes the distinctive sense of community and culture only present in the Hawai‘i Islands. The Hōkūle‘a continues to connect people from around the world who hold a common desire to protect our values, heritage and promote sustainability. Since her departure in May 2014, the Hōkūle‘a has carried the message of community, culture and sustainability.
On June 17, Hōkūle‘a returned home from a three year voyage around the world after sailing nearly 40,000 nautical miles and reaching upwards of 100,000 people. Greeted by nearly 10,000 hearts, hands and voices at Magic Island and a beautiful ‘ānuenue, Hōkūle‘a and the ‘ohana of wa‘a gave everyone chicken skin. Nearly two million viewers watched the livestreamed event, there was live coverage on all the local TV stations (experiencing poor connection from our hotel room!) and the event even made global headlines. In fact, the BBC coverage called for an increase in demand of cultural competency in Hawai‘i. On the ground, Hōkūle‘a crew member, Duane DeSoto took over our social media feed for the day.
The Homecoming of the Hōkūle‘a was an event that clearly defined who we are as a community and a company. In honor of Hōkūle‘a and the message she spreads, we reflected on this momentous event, the values we strive to uphold at DTL, and how we can do a better job carrying the message of this voyage.
In response, we’ve made a Mālama Honua commitment to sustainability and will conduct a workplace audit so that we can take steps to have a greener, more sustainable office environment. Stay tuned for more on this effort and our pledge!
