Nainoa Thompson Quotes

United States, Navigator
March 11, 1953

Charles Nainoa Thompson (born March 11, 1953 in Oahu, Hawaii) is a Native Hawaiian navigator and the president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. He is best known as the first Hawaiian to practice the ancient Polynesian art of navigation since the 14th century, having navigated two double-hulled canoes from Hawaiʻi to other island nations in Polynesia without the aid of western instruments.

Wealth is also defined by family, connection to our ancestry, and our best vision of the future. All of these find their inner spirit, their constancy, and their strength in the values that shape our thinking and our actions.

Nainoa Thompson
- Thinking
- Family
- Future
When people come together around common vision, they can accomplish great things. We need the instruments that pull our people together, not apart.

Nainoa Thompson
- People
- Great
- Together

That's why we sail. So our children can grow up and be proud of whom they are. We are healing our souls by reconnecting to our ancestors. As we voyage we are creating new stories within the tradition of the old stories, we are literally creating a new culture out of the old.

Nainoa Thompson
- Up
- Children
- Why
As I am from Hawaiʻi, the ocean is part of my culture and who I am. My ancestors were great ocean explorers.

Nainoa Thompson
- Great
- Culture
- Ocean
We can't care for something we don't understand. This is the purpose of why we explore and why we voyage.

Nainoa Thompson
- Why
- Purpose
- Care
Life on our planet is defined by the health of our ocean.

Nainoa Thompson
- Life
- Health
- Ocean
We are a blue planet and an ocean world.

Nainoa Thompson
- World
- Blue
- Ocean
In order to take care of our ocean, we need to be knowledgeable.

Nainoa Thompson
- Care
- Ocean
- Order