The shrill whine of saws and sanders accompanies the intent activity at a small warehouse at Kawaihae Harbor on Hawai‘i Island as crew members and community helpers work to complete a historic project – the building of the voyaging canoe that will carry Mau Piailug home to Micronesia and remain there as a gift to him and the people of Satawal, his home island. Everyone is absorbed and focused as they carry out their tasks, mindful of the significance of this gesture, a gift to the man who has done nothing less than trigger the reawakening of an entire culture’s identity.
The 1976 voyage of the canoe Hokule‘a from Hawai‘i to Tahiti is widely credited with creating the spark that set off a cultural renaissance throughout the Pasifik. Hawaiians and Tahitians alike saw the successful voyage as tangible proof of the astounding voyaging and navigational prowess of their ancestors. But the legacy of that voyage has grown far beyond its first celebrations of success.
The spectacular arrival of Hokule‘a in Tahiti, where the canoe was greeted by thousands on shore – almost half the population of Tahiti was there – came at a point when difficult and contentious negotiations with French authorities for increased indigenous autonomy were underway. Hokule‘a’s arrival uplifted the spirits and steeled the determination of the Tahitian people, helping them achieve their objectives in the talks. Today, Tahiti is on the track to independence under president Oscar Temaru.
In Hawai‘i and Aotearoa (New Zealand), the surge of cultural pride has swelled into a flourishing revival of the language and practice of traditional culture. Currently, Kanaka Maoli and Maori activists are increasing in numbers and strength and their calls for indigenous rights – political, cultural, land and intellectual property rights – are gaining momentum in the local and international arenas.
In all of the places visited by voyaging canoes in the ensuing 30 years – Hawai‘i, Aotearoa, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands, the Marquesas, Rapa Nui – the remarkable message of these magnificent wa‘a was received. The cultural awareness and pride in the deep ancestral links and shared cultural practices, and the recognition of the ancestors’ heroic accomplishments upon the oceanic pathways of Pasifika, resonate today throughout these islands of the world’s vastest ocean.
The immeasurable gift of one man, soft-spoken Micronesian master navigator Pius “Mau” Piailug, made this possible. The Pasifik’s voyaging family knows him fondly and reverently as “Papa Mau.”
Back in 1973, the members of the Polynesian Voyaging Society who planned to build the Hokule‘a and sail it to Tahiti using only traditional navigation methods had a significant problem: where would they find such a navigator? The ancient art had been lost in Hawai‘i and the rest of Polynesia. Their search eventually connected them with Papa Mau, from the tiny Micronesian island of Satawal, where the traditional skill of non-instrumental celestial wayfinding was still practiced.
The profound debt of gratitude to Papa Mau for his 30-year dedication to sharing his knowledge so that the Hawaiian people – and their cousins throughout Polynesia – could be reconnected to their voyaging traditions has inspired this remarkable gift of a canoe.
Its name is Maisu, a Satawalese word that refers to breadfruit that has been knocked to the ground by a high wind. “When a strong wind come and shake all the breadfruits down, then you can go and collect it, even if it is not your tree,” says Papa Mau.
Likewise, the canoe Maisu will allow anyone to share freely in the learning it has to offer.
“Just as the breadfruit nourished, Maisu will bring nourishment to the people of Micronesia,” says Chadd Paishon, the executive director of Na Kalai Wa’a, the organization that has undertaken the canoe-building project, which was named “Ku Holo Mau” (sail on, sail always, sail forever). “It will nourish their culture, and allow them to continue to practice their culture, help them to survive and to continue along their path to the future. Especially with their sailing, and their traditions. Maisu is a way of continuing all of that.”
Na Kalai Wa’a (the canoe builders) formed in 1993 for the building of the Mauloa , a traditional coastal sailing canoe made of koa logs, hollowed out by adze. The building of this canoe in the old way was a reflection of the group’s name, which also speaks of their commitment to share with future generations the protocols and practices they have learned.
“Mau has always been one that wants to share,” continues Paishon. “He broke the tradition of his people to share with us. Since then, there has always been the dream that this would happen, that one day he would return and go back to his island. This canoe, Maisu, will go with him, to thank him for what he has done.”
The Maisu is a beauty – a 56-ft., sleek yellow-and-black double-hull Hawaiian canoe with a single mast. The construction has been a two-year process.
“It’s been a big effort for everybody, and people from around the Pacific have been involved,” explains Paishon. “We even have a few guys here from Aotearoa. Some of the guys from Satawal are here learning, because these canoes are different from theirs.”
Funding the project has been a challenge in Hawai‘i because the canoe will be leaving Hawai‘i for good, a no-strings-attached gift to the people of Micronesia.
“For this canoe, most of the funds were raised by private donations from people because when we first tried to get funding, we found that a lot of organizations didn’t want to help because the canoe wouldn’t be staying in Hawai‘i,” explains Paishon. “That’s been a long process. We’ve been trying to educate everyone and get everyone to understand what the significance of this project is.”
“But,” he says with a smile, “within the last six months, especially the last couple of months, it’s taken off – and the donations are coming in.”
The donations come in many forms. “People are helping in all sorts of ways ... people who can’t give money come down and help out, or bring a case of fish or of corned beef,” says Paishon.
The crews and supporters of voyaging canoes from around the Pasifik have also been helping with the project, including Teaurere in Aotearoa, Teauotonga and Takitumu in the Cook Islands, and A‘akahiki in Tahiti. Support has also come from the Te Toki Voyaging Trust in Hamilton.
Maisu’s 4,000-mile voyage is scheduled to begin in the first part of May, although there is some consternation among some voyagers about the onset of the typhoon season in Micronesia.
But Papa Mau isn’t worried. “They tell me about the typhoon. I don’t care about the typhoon. If the typhoon comes this way, I go that way.”
The crew will consist of 15 members, including the six from Satawal and voyagers from Hawai‘i, Aotearoa and Tahiti. Papa Mau’s son Sesario, who plans to quit his job with the Yap police force to follow in his father’s footsteps, will be on board.
Mau expects to arrive in Micronesia some time in June. “My plan is first land in Majuro, but I look first for the weather and the time,” he says. “Not enough time – we go straight to Kosrae. Then I look the time, if enough, I go inside, if not enough time, then on to Pohnpei. From Pohnpei to my island, in Yap. The canoe is going to stay in Yap.”
Satawal, his home island and final destination, is just a mile long and half a mile wide, with about 300 residents.
Papa Mau describes his life’s work as the re-creation of a bridge linking the islands of the Pasifik together. “I put the stick between Hawai‘i and Polynesia and Micronesia so that we can go back and forth across the sea. The canoe brings us all together.”
“We need to continue to go across those bridges so that we don’t ever forget that we are all connected,” says Paishon. “Some people think that the ocean divides us, but it actually connects us. Wherever that ocean touches each shore, that’s where we’re all connected. It’s not a dividing thing ... it’s our highway. It’s nothing strange to be out on these oceans, for any length, any period of time. It’s only a Western concept that the ocean separates us. It’s what joins us together, makes us who we uniquely are as a people.”
Paishon speaks with emotion of the reverence in which the community of canoe voyagers holds Papa Mau. “He’s the last one. He was born and raised at a time before Western contact came to his island. We tell the kids he’s the closest thing – that we can actually touch – to one of our ancestors, those that we’ve only heard about in legends. He truly is one of those.”
Mau dreamt of helping at least one person from every Pacific island group to master the art of voyaging and navigation, and sees those individuals as the seeds from which this traditional knowledge will spread to others, assuring that it will never again be in danger of being lost. The sharing of the teaching and the ripples of knowledge spreading around the Pasifik is, to him, the heart of his mission.
“When I first came to Hawai‘i, the Hawai‘i people knew that they had lost the knowledge of navigation, because they had followed American ways,” says Mau.
“Now,” he says firmly, “I want everybody to know, because I don’t want it to be lost again.”
Donations can be sent to Na Kalai Wa‘a, P.O. Box 748, Kamuela, Hawai‘i, 96743. For more information call the Na Kalai Wa’a office at (808) 885-9500.