Although separated by thousands of miles of ocean and contrasting climates, ancient Hawaiians and the indigenous people of Alaska were alike in many ways.

Among the similarities: Their use of sea-going vessels.

"The Canoe: An Alaskan and Hawaiian Tradition," an exhibit that explores the canoe voyaging traditions of the two cultures, opens Friday at the Hawai'i Maritime Center. The show debuts in conjunction with Hokule'a's latest voyage — this month through June the canoe is traveling to the western Pacific and the island nations of Micronesia, and Japan.

The exhibit doesn't focus exlusively on canoe building, emphasized Tom Cummings, education and cultural manager with Bishop Museum's education department.

"It is so much bigger than that," Cummings said. "It's about people. It's about the human desire to find new places ... and to meet challenges."

Thousands of years ago, Polynesians from Tahiti and the Marquesas built canoes — later called wa'a by the Hawaiians — to make it possible for them to voyage across the Pacific Ocean, eventually reaching Hawai'i. And for thousands of years, Alaskans have traveled on canoes — or qayaqs — in rivers, along coastal areas and on the rough and freezing Bering Sea.

"I imagine these people saying goodbye to their families, maybe not ever seeing them again," Cummings said.

"The Canoe" offers a realistic look into the lives of these early voyagers.

"The general public, I believe, has a real interest and a desire for knowledge about the indigenous peoples of the places that we inhabit together," said Byron Mallott, an Alaska native and current Hokule'a crew member, on Thursday, just a few hours before the canoe departed Honolulu.

"I think that just the romance, the allure and even the danger of the world's largest ocean attracts and is of interest to just about everybody," he said.

'A CLOSE CONNECTION'

The exhibit compares and contrasts the materials and tools that Hawaiians and Alaskans used to build their canoes.

"We want to say in this exhibit, by bringing the Alaskans in, that they were no different than the Hawaiians," Cummings said. "They depended on dependable sea craft or water craft to get them from one place to the other efficiently, carrying large supplies."

The exhibit "is very valuable," Mallott said. "There is a close connection between Alaska natives and the Polynesian people of Hawai'i and the Pacific."

Oral traditions among both cultures have revealed a possible link between the Native Hawaiians and Alaskans hundreds of years ago, said Mallott, who is also a board member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

Some Hawaiian canoes may have been built from beached logs that possibly came from the Pacific Northwest, and natives from the southern coastal area of Alaska have passed on oral histories of "having voyaged to a far-off place that was very, very warm," possibly Hawai'i, Mallott said.

BUILDING MATERIALS

Canoes were the main means of travel for Polynesians and the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Ocean voyaging vessels were used for fishing, hunting, and to transport people and supplies from one shoreline to the other.

Among the items in the exhibit will be canoe-building materials, such as adzes, ochre dye, birch and cedar barks, kapa and basalt rock.

"The Canoe" demonstrates the similarities and differences in the use of such natural materials among the two cultures.

"For example, one of the things that you have to have in the canoe is ... some kind of tying fiber," Cummings said. "So we will show the different kinds of fibers that the Alaskans used, including an animal sinew."

Hawaiians, on the other hand, mainly used coconut-husk fiber, or 'aha, to hold parts of the canoe together, Cummings said.

"And of course (Alaskans) were using fur and skin to make the hulls of the canoes because they were stiff, waterproof, and they made their canoes mobile and lightweight," Cummings said. " ... We (Hawaiians) adapted by using woods."

Hawaiians also had the advantage of pleasant weather, he said: "We didn't have to worry about the cold, as compared to the Alaskans."

Further differences in canoe making could be found within the various native Alaskan people, added Kathleen Izon, exhibits director at Bishop Museum. In addition to voyaging artifacts, the exhibit will include information about the Athabascan, Yup'ik and Cup'ik, Aleut, Inupiat and Alutiiq peoples, among others.

"Alaska is divided into 12 different 'cultures,' they call it," Izon said. "So all those different cultures, although similar in their environments, also had different tools and materials."

The Gwich'in Athabascan people used birch bark for their canoes, while the Tlingits used yellow cedar; the Sugpiaq and Alutiiq people used caribou sinew for lashing and sewing, while the Gwich'in Athabascans used spruce root, Izon noted.

SIMILAR SKILLS

But all these indigenous cultures, including the Hawaiians, shared the ability to become adept at gathering and processing materials, fashioning handmade tools, and training skilled navigators to sail the canoes.

Navigator priests — experts at wayfinding without the use of modern navigational instruments — were key to sailing the canoe. The sun, moon and stars were their guides, and by observing the wind, waves, cloud movements, flight path of birds, and the presence of marine animals and plants, they ascertained which course to follow.

And a significant common thread among the Native Hawaiians and Alaskans was the sense of pride and ownership involved in canoe building as a community, Izon said.

The Alaskans' "canoes were built around the individuals who owned them and they became one with that canoe or qayaq," she said.

Hawaiians shared a similar philosophy, Cummings said.

"It took hours and hours of preparation, so when it's finally finished, you have a sense that you've invested yourself, your spirit, in it," he said. "You gave it a name, you took care of it like it was a member of the family, and it was."

Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com.