Spirit of the Land: In the Wake of Our Ancestors 1998

Overview

In the Wake of Our Ancestors follows a group of dedicated Hawaiians, who embark on a journey to rediscover their past by building a voyaging canoe out of traditional natural materials. An extensive search fails to produce koa trees large enough for the hulls. The once plentiful forests on the island of Hawai’i have been depleted, and the unique koa ecosystem virtually destroyed. Native Alaskans offer them two enormous Sitka spruce trees. After a dramatic tree felling ceremony in the forests of