This award-winning PBS documentary sweeps viewers into a seafaring adventure with a community of Polynesians, as they build traditional sailing canoes, learn how to follow the stars across the open ocean, and embark upon a 2,000 mile voyage in the wake of their ancestors.

Wayfinding is the ancient art of guiding a canoe across large expanses of ocean using only natural signs: the sun, the moon, the stars and ocean swells. Nainoa Thompson became the first Hawaiian in hundreds of years to master celestial navigation. By passing on those skills to a new generation of wayfinders – from Hawaii, New Zealand and the Cook Islands – Nainoa begins the process of recovering connections with Polynesia’s proud seafaring past and preparing for the challenges of the future.

Producer, writer, and director Gail Evenari founded Maiden Voyage Productions in 1994 after her experiences aboard a Polynesian voyaging canoe led her to the production of the acclaimed PBS documentary Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey. The film was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the project website was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Pacific Islanders in Communications. The mission of Maiden Voyage Productions is to create educational materials toward the purpose of enhancing social and cultural awareness through film, print, and electronic media.