Take Me to the Water

Discover the stories of Black sailors, whalers, laborers, explorers, and coastal communities whose lives and experiences helped shape the Pacific from the 16th through the 20th century.

Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific explores the deep and often overlooked relationships between Black communities and the Pacific Ocean. Spanning centuries of maritime movement, labor, exploration, and cultural exchange, the exhibit highlights the lives and contributions of Black mariners whose stories helped shape the Pacific world.

Visitors are invited to discover the experiences of sailors, whalers, fishers, waterfront workers, explorers, soldiers, surfers, swimmers, and scholars whose connections to the ocean expanded far beyond traditional narratives of maritime history.

Through immersive storytelling, historical interpretation, and contemporary scholarship, the exhibit offers a broader and more inclusive understanding of the Pacific—revealing how identity, labor, migration, resilience, and culture moved across oceans and generations.