Category Archives: Tahiti Paddling

Vaka Taumako Project Awarded Grand Prize

The International Maritime Film Festival in Bucksport Maine recently awarded “We, the Voyagers” Parts 1 and 2 its Grand Prize for feature films.

These 2 films, each about 55 minutes long, were produced by the Pacific Traditions Society, headquartered on Kaua`i, to record the efforts of Taumako people in the Solomon Islands to preserve and teach their ancient voyaging culture.

Nga Taumako may be the only Polynesians who still know how to build and sail canoes like the ones their ancestors used to explore and colonize the Pacific.

Part 1, Our Vaka, documents the construction of these canoes, which, unlike Hokule’a and other modern replicas, incorporate only traditional plant materials.

Part 2, Our Moana, recounts a voyage and includes a section on some of the ancient navigational methods used by Taumako voyagers. Both films are available for viewing online at www.vaka.org . They are also accessible through the Vaka Taumako Facebook site .

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

We the Voyagers: Lata’s Children (Matou Nga MokuPuna o Lata)

Friday, January 31
5:30-8:30pm
Atherton Hālau

We the Voyagers: Lata’s Children (Matou Nga MokuPuna o Lata)
a two part documentary film series.

Details:
This two-part film series features the living crew of Polynesian voyagers of Taumako, Solomon Islands, who share their history, motivations, and skills through storytelling, canoe building, and wayfinding. They use only the designs, materials, and methods of their culture-hero Lata, who built the first voyaging canoe (vaka) and navigated to distant islands. We invite everyone to see this film and reconnect with their ancestors and sustainable lifeways. This is a story of the real Moana. Each film is 57 minutes long and there will be a short intermission between the two screenings. The film is hosted by Dr. Marianne “Mimi” George, anthropologist, sailor, and writer specializing in voyaging cultures.

Online Registration Required:
General: $10
Youth: $7
Members receive 10% off tickets

5:30pm Registration
6:00pm Part 1 Screening
7:00pm Short Intermission
7:15pm Part 2 Screening

Part 1. We, the Voyagers: Our Vaka
We, the Polynesian voyagers of Taumako, Solomon Islands, share our history, motivations, and skills through storytelling, canoe building, and wayfinding. We recall our ancestors, who made the greatest of human migrations. We use only the designs, materials, and methods of our culture-hero Lata, who built the first voyaging canoe (vaka) and navigated to distant islands. When Europeans took over, we became isolated. To regain sustainability, our most experienced navigator, Te Aliki Kaveia, led us in planting gardens, feeding workers, making rope from plants, weaving and sewing sails, protecting our trees, adzing parts for voyaging canoes, and lashing them together. Kaveia enlisted an anthropologist to help us make this film. After he died in 2009, we built a vaka. Te Aliki Holani, our new Lata, prepared us for an open-ocean voyage. From the living story of Lata we learn that everyone is welcome in Lata’s crew, and that we can avoid making key mistakes as we strive to connect with long-lost family and new friends on faraway shores.

Part 2. We, the Voyagers: Our Moana
In our isolated Polynesian community, we live the story of our ancestral culture-hero Lata. To make a voyage, Lata welcomes men, women, and children as crew, including hard workers with skills and applicants of dubious character. Our community blesses the vessel and sailors, and we learn how to sail in Lata’s arms. We find our way in the open ocean by interacting with patterns of winds, waves, stars, and other signs that our ancestors show us when we need them. We arrive at islands and learn what happened to family members since the last voyage some generations earlier. We reconcile, reaffirm our love for each other, and look to our future together.

Marianne “Mimi” George
Dr. Mimi George is an anthropologist, sailor, and writer who specializes in voyaging cultures. Before the Vaka Taumako Project, she documented voyaging traditions of islanders in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, and Siberian Yupik Eskimos on the Alaskan and Russian sides of the Bering Strait. Her research voyages have used ancient polar technology, and the early nineteenth-century European technique of wintering-over in a sailboat frozen in the sea ice of Antarctica. In the Vaka Taumako Project, she studies Polynesians building vessels and making voyages using ancient technology, materials, tools, and navigation methods. Mimi made 25 inter-island voyages in the Santa Cruz Islands, and one voyage from Duffs through Vanuatu, either under the sailing direction of Te Aliki Kaveia or with him on board.

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Va’a Foundation

The Tahitian delegates at the annual IVF Congress (May, July, 2019)- Alfred MATA, Vetea SANFORD- presented the exciting project : VA’A FOUNDATION.

The target focuses upon the worldwide multiple cultural values conveyed over the centuries throughout the vast Pacific Ocean civilizations.

The sports people along with the nations’ leaders will hopefully follow up the surf and attain the shore of the UNESCO for a long expected recognition after the TAPUTAPUATEA MARAE, in the Leward Islands.


Les délégations tahitiens au Congrès annuel de la Fédération Internationale de Va’a (Mai, Juillet 2019)Alfred MATA, Vetea SANFORD- ont présenté la FONDATION du VA’A.

La cible concentre les multiples valeurs culturelles séculaires dispensées au travers des civilisations de l’immense Océan Pacifique.

Les sportifs du va’a avec les dirigeants des nations prendront la vague, espérons-le, pour atteindre les rivages de l’UNESCO, pour une reconnaissance longtemps souhaitée après celle du MARAE de TAPUTAPUATEA aux Iles-sous-le-Ventent.

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com