Sam Low has sailed aboard Hokule’a on three voyages – from Mangareva to Rapa Nui in 1999, Tahiti to Hawaii in 2000 and from Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia to Satawal in 2007. He also accompanied the canoe aboard an escort vessel from Tahiti to the Marquesas and on to Hawaii in 1995. The story of Polynesian voyaging has fascinated him most of his life.
In 1983, after traveling throughout Polynesia, Sam produced his award-winning film, The Navigators – Pathfinders of the Pacific, shown nationally on PBS and internationally on television venues throughout the world. Sam is the author of many articles on Hokule’a and her meaning to Polynesians. He served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific from 1964 to 1966 and earned a Ph.D. degree from Harvard (in anthropology) in 1975. He is one-quarter Hawaiian. Nainoa Thompson is his cousin, a relationship which has provided unparalleled access to the main protagonist of this story.
Published book:
Hawaiki Rising: Hōkūle’a, Nainoa Thompson, and the Hawaiian Renaissance – 2013
Oak Lawn Library Friends 