Bruce Blankenfeld grew up in Hawai'i deeply connected to his culture through the care and oversight of a cherished symbol: the canoe.

This early experience sparked a lifelong passion for voyaging. On Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Leitner Observatory, he and his wife, Lita Blankenfeld, will discuss how this moment shaped their journey of navigating across the globe. Together, they will present narratives on Hawaiian navigation techniques to circumnavigate the globe

"It makes you more human and gives you the opportunity to learn," Blankenfeld said of wayfinding. "It constantly reshapes the lens through which you see life."

Bruce Blankenfeld's passion for Polynesian voyaging was ignited shortly after graduating high school in 1974. In 1977, he found himself overseeing the maintenance of a canoe -- a moment that marked the beginning of a lifelong journey. For decades, voyaging across the world has taken him across the world, introducing him to new cultures and giving him the opportunity to constantly meet interesting people.

According to Blankenfeld, when planning for a voyage, many factors of preparation come into play. On their voyages, a separate group of people handles forward planning, ensuring safety, and building relationships with the many ports that the Blankenfelds visit.

But, Blankenfeld said, preparation extends beyond just logistics: it involves training crew members in seamanship, provisioning food, understanding the weather of particular areas, and extensive research into the Indigenous cultures of their many destinations. He said each voyage lasts about a month.

"Before the voyage, you study the stars and the natural environment. It's about familiarization," Blankenfeld said. Throughout the journey, navigators rely on their observations of the horizon, the colors of the sky, and the movement of celestial bodies. Every 12 hours, they recalibrate, adding up the miles traveled and resetting their course. "It's a constant learning process that demands both preparation and intuition." Blankenfeld said.

For the Blankenfelds, just as much as voyaying is a means of exploration, it is also an important means for keeping Polynesian culture alive. Blankenfled reminisced back to high school, when he first discovered voyaging. He told the News how learning about voyaging started to fill a void in a lot of young Hawaiian people as "there wasn't a lot out there that defined our culture."

For the Blankenfelds, preservation first starts with their canoes, ensuring that they are "healthy, strong, beautiful and cared for."

"Going around to all these islands and ports, the fact that the canoe is constantly being cared for is an inspiration to all young Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders because that's a part of their past," Blankenfeld told the News. "The knowledge and courage it took to navigate was so inspirational that hundreds of navigators wrote songs about it, chants about it, and took time to put it into that format so it could be remembered forever."

Blankenfeld also told the News that efforts are taking place to ensure that the knowledge and opportunity to participate in voyaging is passed down to future generations.

Saturday's event is hosted by the Native American Cultural Center in collaboration with The American Indian Science and Engineering Society, or AISES , The Yale Astronomical and Space Student Society, or YASSS, and the Leitner Observatory.

Last August, Jairus Rhoades '26, president of AISES, and Julia Levy '25, president of YASSS and a staff reporter at the News, collaborated along with Matthew Makomenaw, dean of the Native American Cultural Center, to bring forth an Indigenous knowledge session on stars and the galaxy.

Discussions about the possible event immediately brought memories to Rhoades' childhood. He told the News how much his curriculum invested in teaching its students about seeing culture revived in practice and immediately thought of the Blankenfelds as "key figures."

Levy approached Makomenaw and NACC immediately after founding the group, wanting their astronomy society's diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to include underrepresented interpretations of the night sky. She had long presented Greek constellations as a Leitner Family Observatory & Planetarium Observing Assistant. Levy said that she wanted to know what other stories of the sky existed throughout history and culture.

"In other words, I was tired of reciting how Zeus had toyed with the lives of the characters in Greek myth," Levy told the News. "I wanted to know what other stories were out there."

This upcoming Saturday, they will present a special Sky Map Lecture with him after their open discussion.

The Native American Cultural Center is located at 26 High St.