Trained as both an archaeologist and ethnohistorian, Dr. Ross Cordy is a renowned scholar of Pacific Island Hawaiian-Pacific studies at University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu, specializing in reconstructing the history of Hawai‘i as told from multiple data sources. Beginning with his study of the Hawaiian coastal village of Lapakahi in Kohala, his career in Oceania spans fifty+ years–from Huahini, Aotearoa, and Micronesia to the Hawai‘i State Historic Preservation Division where he undertook the challenging task of cultural site protection. In this two-part series, we first look at the voyages and settlement patterns of people across the Pacific to Hawai‘i. Dr. Cordy also addresses what is known and what is not known about long distance voyaging between Hawai‘i and elsewhere.