Charles Nainoa Thompson (born March 11, 1953 in Oahu, Hawaii) is a Native Hawaiian navigator and the president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. He is best known as the first Hawaiian to practice the ancient Polynesian art of navigation since the 14th century, having navigated two double-hulled canoes (the Hōkūle‘a and the Hawai‘iloa) from Hawaiʻi to other island nations in Polynesia without the aid of western instruments.