Early crew members of the voyaging canoe Hokulea have gathered in Hawai'i to celebrate the vessel's 50th birthday ...

“It’s a vehicle of exploration. It’s a vehicle of discovery,” Nainoa Thompson, the CEO of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, said in an interview. “It’s also been our vehicle for justice ...

That vessel — a double-hulled sailing canoe called the Hokulea, after the Hawaiian name for the star Arcturus — would even influence the Disney blockbuster “Moana” decades later.