Finding our way

 A POLYNESIAN EXPLORER'S 
JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

DR. ELIZABETH KAPU’UWAILANI LINDSEY, the first Polynesian Explorer and female Fellow of the National Geographic Society, speaks with PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about her lifelong journey of cultural exploration and the profound lessons she has learned from Indigenous communities worldwide. Sharing insights from her encounters with Polynesian navigators, sea nomads, and spiritual leaders, Dr. Lindsey emphasizes the importance of heart-centered wisdom, storytelling, and inner exploration in navigating our rapidly changing world. 

Q: You are an anthropologist and National Geographic’s first woman Polynesian explorer. Please tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that sparked your passion for exploration and cultural understanding.

EKL: Purnima, thank you so much for asking me to be a part of this interview. I appreciate it. The most pivotal moment was very early in my life. My parents were both educators at a nearby university and were very careful about the women who cared for my two younger sisters and me. These three old Hawaiian women were incredibly wise and spiritual. That was the beginning of what would become a lifelong journey for me. They were spiritual, and my parents were also the same. My father was a great leader in our community, and immensely humble. So that was the foundation upon which I was raised. Those early years instilled in me a deep love for people.

When I was seven years old, the women who cared for me predicted that I would travel to many parts of the world. They said, “Someday the world will be in trouble, and it will take the wisdom from the far edges of the Earth to return to balance. You always have agency and choice, but we see that your life will involve great travel to keep the voices of these cultures alive because the world will need their wisdom.”

And so began my journey.

I believe that children know the truth. It’s as if they can pierce a veil because they have not yet been acculturated into their societies. And so I learned early on what wisdom meant in terms of being with elders who not only taught me but lived a wise and compassionate life that was harmonious with both nature and the world around them. They did this in the humblest way because none had any social or economic advantages growing up. I grew up in a very simple home, but there was a deep and formative sense of purpose and meaning.

Q: What has been the most surprising lesson you’ve learned from a culture that is vastly different from your own?

EKL: My formative years were grounded in the understanding that we are all much more alike than we are different. My elders also taught me that India is our grandmother-land. And so when I first went to India in 2009 I felt like I had come home in many ways. While I didn’t understand what they were telling me as a child, when I arrived in India I recognized it immediately, especially in the south, where I spent time with farmers in Coimbatore and in Mysore. These farmers were planting the same way my elders did based on the moon cycles. The lunar cycle was sacred to them. My elders always prayed and blessed their land and the plants, and as a result their crops were always very abundant.

That metaphor holds true for us today. If we look at the work we do, whether it’s writing or speaking or anthropology, if it is based on a deep love and compassion for others and for the world, our work will be richer and will better serve humanity. I don’t think I’ve ever really felt a surprise about being with other cultures. I’ve just felt like I belonged to a part of them, in a way that allowed relationships to be formed and connections to go very deep. From each culture I have been gifted with valuable lessons. Travel changes us, and when we return we are never quite the same, which is a beautiful thing. When we feel this way and when we know that we’re citizens of the world in the truest sense of the word, war and conflict seem utterly insane and futile.

Q: You often emphasize the power of storytelling. Can you describe a specific story from your travels that profoundly impacted you?

EKL: Yes, I traveled to a remote island in Micronesia called Sarawak. It was where my mentor lived. Many things happened on that trip. The island is so remote that no one else from National Geographic had ever been there. It’s very difficult to access. I needed to negotiate with the Micronesian government to arrange a cargo ship for my crew and me to travel to Sarawak. While there, I learned that there were a few islanders from Sarawak on this cargo ship who needed to return home. The captain asked me if we could take them, and of course, I agreed. While on the ship, I was badly injured. No bones were broken, but I was in a lot of pain. I knew that the captain and his crew were feeding my crew, but no one else. The 20 islanders on board were not being fed and had to bring their own food.

I happened to see an old man on the ship. I didn't know who he was, but I knew that he had no warm food, so I made a plate of hot rice and fish for him. When I came back he was gone. So I went through the ship to find him and put the plate down on his bedside. To make a very long story short, it turned out that this was the oldest living celestial navigator in the world, 104 years old. He returned my very small gesture of kindness of food manifold. He helped to heal my wound.

The ship’s captain predicted 15-foot swells, which made it seem unlikely we would reach the island. There was a lot of effort and expense to get there; we had purchased 5,000 pounds of provisions, and the trip was a significant financial undertaking for me. Although we could see the island in the distance, the dangerous swells meant there was no safe place to anchor.

Unbeknownst to me, this old man was a mystic and sage, and he chanted the 15-foot swells down to a flat ocean so that we could get across to the island. It was a very powerful lesson, one that I will always remember.

The other story I’d like to share took place in India. I was on the outskirts of Udaipur some years ago, walking along a dusty road with a translator. Up ahead I saw a woman filling a pothole on the road with cow dung, and she was wearing a beautiful sari. I asked my translator, why would a woman dressed in a sari do this kind of work. He wasn’t sure. As we got close to her, he asked her the question in Hindi. Without hesitation, she put her hand on her heart and looked up to the sky; he translated for me that she was dressed for the Divine. That was another powerful lesson for me because, in the West, I’ve never met a woman who ever considered that we dress first for the Divine. That really changed my thinking.

Q: What challenges have you faced in your fieldwork, and how have they shaped your approach to understanding human experiences?

EKL: When I go into the field, I often first go alone and meet with elders, and in almost every case they take hours, sometimes days, sitting quietly without speaking to me. And I really love the process, because they’re reading me energetically, and I appreciate that, because the wisdom each of them has shared with me is so precious and their greatest treasure. I appreciate the fact that they don’t recklessly share deep wisdom with anyone, and instead spend time first knowing who they are. So my work requires weeks, if not longer, for me to spend time with an elder. For the longest while we sit without speaking. We may sit for three days and never speak. I love it because I know what they are doing. That’s the way for most explorers at National Geographic.

For many people who do research and fieldwork, time is expensive, and they don’t give themselves the luxury. But for me, it is necessary to be with elders and earn their trust so they share with me the extremely important and sadly vanishing knowledge and wisdom.

Q: Wow! Thank you. In your observations, what are some key elements that contribute to the resilience of a culture in the face of modern challenges?

EKL: One key element is that people remember and value who they are and their wisdom and traditions, because that is what the world needs most. The modern world has lost its wisdom compass, and prizes everything that is fast and fast-moving. While there are great strides in technology, science, and medicine, I feel that the world is bloated with information yet starved for wisdom, and oftentimes doesn’t even know that it’s starving for wisdom. It’s more and more chaotic, overwhelming and exhausting. The most resilient cultures are those that still have their traditional practices and wisdom intact.

The most resilient cultures are those that still have 
their traditional practices and wisdom intact.

Q: Heartfulness is all about connecting with our true inner self, whose potential is the highest. Recently we conducted a Global Spirituality Conference where leaders from more than 100 spiritual traditions and thousands of practitioners from diverse cultural and spiritual faiths gathered under one roof and had dialogues about inner peace and how to move forward in unity and peace. How do you think we can nurture connection and vision amongst diverse cultures and continue to unite people?

EKL: My Hawaiian name is Kapu'uwailani, which means the “heart of heaven.” Heart-centered wisdom and heart-based wisdom are most important to me. One of the things I learned from my mentor, who was a great navigator, is that we navigate by the longitude of our minds and the latitude of our hearts, and in that intersection of latitude and longitude, there is a still point. And that still point is the place where we can go in our meditations to always find our way.

Scientific research shows that all the information that comes into our physical bodies comes to our hearts first and then rapidly ascends to our brain. It comes through the heart, and I believe that our heart is our inner sanctum. It’s our holy of holies. It’s our most powerful sanctuary, and our compass is in that still point.

I believe the practice of Heartfulness meditation can nurture connection and vision amongst cultures beyond geography and cultural uniqueness through our humanity. When we understand the deep essential truth that we are all the same, there is no separation between us, then when we meet together in Heartfulness meditation, all of our beautiful and rich uniqueness falls away.

Q: Thank you, again. The world is rapidly changing. How do you envision the preservation of culture and ancient wisdom, and how to keep it relevant for today's humanity and for tomorrow's peoples?

EKL: It’s critical because there’s so much wisdom that’s vanishing as our elders are passing away. If we document the stories within our lives, our families, our communities, and our surroundings, and keep them alive, we make a major contribution to the greater parts of our world. If we take care of ourselves and do our part, we will not rapidly lose the world’s wisdom; and more than ever humanity needs it. We’re incredibly fortunate to have technology and tools and devices that make it easy to record and share this knowledge and wisdom with the world as never before.

Q: Thank you for all your wisdom, Elizabeth. Please share your closing thoughts.

EKL: You have covered the breadth and scope of my work. One last thought is this: When I was growing up, I didn’t know what an anthropologist was. After decades of working in the field, I have borne witness to the world, which is incredibly gorgeous, despite the wars, conflicts, natural disasters, and strife that’s going on. We live in a magnificent world, and can choose to make it heaven on earth if we are conscious and intentional. So I would say that my definition of an anthropologist is this: One who bears witness to the world with a loving and compassionate heart. In that way, we can all be anthropologists.

The greatest exploration we will
ever make is turning inward, and in that
way, we are among the greatest
explorers in the world.

Finally, we are all explorers. I’ve been fortunate that my travels have been rich and I’ve traveled to many places. I’ve gone around the world four times, but the greatest exploration I will ever make is the exploration of my heart and my spirituality. And it is a frontier that is vast and infinite. I will always be a student and will always be on this journey. It’s important that people understand that the exploration doesn’t need to be traveling to faraway places. The greatest exploration we will ever make is turning inward, and in that way, we are among the greatest explorers in the world. 

So thank you very much for this beautiful invitation.

Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL