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THE VAKA TAUMAKO PROJECT
August 1998

Vaka Taumako Approaching Nifiloli

Aloha, Friends of the Vaka Taumako Project,     Since our last newsletter in April of this year, much has happened!   In chronological order: 1) On 9 June, Paramont Chief Koloso Kaveia, his spokesaman Mostyn Vane, master weaver Cathy Kuper, and video student Dixon Wia left Solomon Islands with Mimi George and Meph Wyeth for a two week cultural exchange in Hawaii. Thanks to the generosity of Solomon Airlines and especially John Beck. who arranged a 30% discount on the delegate's airfares, Vaka Taumako Project was able to afford four tickets instead of the projected three. Highlights of the exchange included:     -- The Chief's trousers and shoes (and what a surprise it was to see how debonair he looked in them!)     -- The delegate's first air travel.   An especially memorable event was the Cheif's trip to the cockpit of an Air Pacific 747 during the trip from Nadi to Honolulu.   Hearing that there there was a traditional Polynesian navigator aboard, the Fijian flight crew invited him forward.   in short order, Kaveia was steering!   now how many of you can say you have piloted a 747?     -- A weekend visit to Roselle and Jim Bailey on Mauai. This included a trip to Olowalu valley's petroglyphs. One depicts a sailing canoe, which the Duff Islanders immediately recognized as a cousin to the tepuke. "Lata was here; this is his sail," they said excitedly.     --paying respects to Lata at Keahualaka, Kaua'i with Roselle Bailey and her students. All the signs of Lata attended us that afternoon; even the rain came at the right time. Who could doubt that Lata her-/himself had come to greet her/his descendents from far and near?     --completion "The Heirs of Lata", a short video about the project by Dixon Wia, Larry Williamson, and Mimi George. (If you would like to purchase a copy, they cost US$15 for American format and US$20 for PAL format. This price includes postage. You can order them through the Project.) Although this tape has some rough spots, it contains a good sample of the fine footage shot by the Taumako student crew, and we think you will enjoy seeing highlights of the tree-felling, rope and sail manufacture, and canoe launching. You will be able to see the students' potential for more accomplished work, once they have better equipment.     --meeting native speakers of Hawaiian at Punana Leo o Kaua'i and in other places and discovering how easy it was for these Polynesian speakers to communicate once they got over their initial shyness.     --weaving demonstrations by Cathy at Kaua'i museum, Punana Leo, Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center and National Tropical Botanical Garden. The last was especially wonderful because it was altogether spontaneous.     --learning about Hawaiian and other Polynesian voyaging traditions by visiting with members of local canoe clubs, Hui o Wa'a Kaulua on Maui, and the Maritime Museum in Honolulu. These visits inspired the Chief to consider sailing tepuke to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and possibly New Zealand in the next few years. (For more on this, see below)     2) Also in June, the Athanase and Shirley Pasant Family Foundation generously donated once again to the Vaka Taumako Project. Without this gift, we would not have been able to accomplish nearly as much as we have in these few months, nor would we have been able to do what we did so well. Moreover, thanks to the Pasant Foundation, a significant portion of our research costs for 1999 are already paid. Mahalo a nui loa from all of us to these large-hearted people.     3) To us the most exciting event of this year is the one that took place on 8-10 August, the tepuke's voyage from Taumako to Nifiloli in the Reef Islands, approximately 100 sea miles distant. Leaving Duffs late in the afternoon of 8 August, sailing under full moon to the Eastern Reefs, the tepuke arrived in Mohawk Bay the next afternoon, accompanied by an impromptu flotilla of motorized and unmotorized canoes. People who could not find a canoe lined the cliffs of Forrest Passage to wave and cheer as the tepuke passed by.     After resting and awaiting a favorable tide, Kaveia and his crew of five men and two women sailed towards Nifiloli village early the next morning. Once again, motor canoes skittered around, beside and behind the tepuke like chicks trailing a hen. To the cries of shell trumpets, the howls of painted warriors, and the songs of traditonal dancers, the Chief and his wife Cecilia stepped ashore accompanied by the other tepuke sailors, Dr. Mimi George, and a crowd of Vaka Taumako supporters. The people of Nifiloli and the Reefs, most of whom are too young to remember when last a tepuke touched their shores over thirty years ago, did themselves proud for the occasion. It was a day no one will soon forget.     Among those who witnessed the tepuke's voyage were filmmaker Esther Figueroa of Juniroa Productions in Honolulu, Carolyn Larson of the Kaua'i Historical Society, Jan TenBruggencate, environmental writer for the Honolulu Advertiser and a veteran canoe sailor, and marine studies teacher Steve Soltysik of Kaua'i. These four travelled from Hawai'i especially for the event. Among others who made trips to Temotu for the occasion were Aseri Yalangono and Audrey Rusa of the Solomon Islands Ministry of Education (Research Officer Rusa has been with the Project from its inception. She is one of many hardworking and delightful people who have become our friends as a result of this endeavor, and one who deserves special thanks for her efforts on its behalf. These have been far above and beyond the requirements of duty. Mahalo, Audrey!), and Walter Nalangu of S.I.B.C, perhaps the best known radio journalist in Solomon Islands.     According to Mimi, who accompanied the tepuke on her yacht Gryphon, it was a most informative sail, one that has furnished material for several articles. She plan to write about such things as how Vaka Taumako performed under sail, how nga Taumako accomplished repairs at sea, and about how she handled the demanding job of serving as a shooting platform and escort, to name a few.     This brings us to the subject of future plans. To be blunt, these depend entirely on funding and funding depends entirely on you. As of now, all available monies have been committed to the production of the next video, which we hope will be in the works by the time you receive this. If the video and other publication efforts succeed in raising enough money, Vaka Taumako Project hopes to do the following:     1) Return Mimi and Meph to the Solomons later this year, perhaps in December, so that they can sail aboard and observe the tepuke when it returns from Nifiloli to Duffs. Chief Kaveia hopes to follow the traditional pattern of voyaging back to Taumako with the change of wind that accompanies the onset of cyclone season.     2) Sponsor a second cultural exchange to Hawai'i. One goal of this exchange would be to get cataract surgery for the Chief so that he can see voyaging stars as clearly as he must to teach navigation. We have received donation of a surgeon's services, but the Project needs funding for his airfare and hospital costs.     3) Sponsor an exchange of four video students from Duffs so that they can receive training in editing techniques. We would also like to sponsor an exchange of Hawaiian students to Duffs.     4) Farther down the road, Chief Kaveia hopes to sail the tepuke abroad, possibly to Vanuatu for the next Melanesian Culture Festival in 2001, to New Caledonia for for the Pacific Arts Festival in 2000, and perhaps to New Zealand. He has also proposed a high-powered colloquium on traditional seafaring in Temotu, possibly for the year 2001.     5) Publication of at least one book on the Vaka Taumako Project. Ideally this should be a book by the Duff Islanders. Taumako is full of talented writers, musicians, artists; they are fully capable of producing enough material to make a most interesting volume. We are attempting to secure funding from UNESCO for this project.     6) Transport of a 4 fathom (7.5 meter) long te alo lili (a smaller type of voyaging canoe) to Hawai'i for use as a device to teach traditional Polynesian canoe building and seafaring. Prices quoted to us by shipping companies were far more than we can afford, and far more than the construction costs of the canoe itself. We shall try to get help from people in the cargo transport industry.     At the time of this writing, Mimi is at Luesalo anchorage in Graciosa Bay, Santa Cruz Island preparing Gryphon for a sail to New Zealand. She hopes to leave the Solomons early in September in time to escape the cyclone season, and to arrive in Whangarei or Great Barrier by mid-October. After she secures the boat in New Zealand, she plans to return to Kaua'i and write until she either returns to the Solomons or to Gryphon. She will be happy to hear from any of you either by FAX, e.mail or post. You can contact her by using the addresses on this letter head. She will probably be incommunicada until October, but friends will hold mail or FAXes for her till then.     Anyone wishing to make donations to the Project should make checks payable to: The Vaka Taumako Project of the Pacific Traditions Society, and send them to Mimi. Once again, we thank all of you for continuing to support this project's long-term goals. Chief Kaveia once remarked that the building of a tepuke first of all requires the planting of a garden. We have compared the entire project to a garden. At this time that garden is starting to grow. This is both exciting and sobering; exciting to see the growth, sobering to know how much more work we must do to keep the garden growing. With your help we can do it. Finally, we would like to share with you the message Kaveia sent the people of Temotu Province after the tepuke arrived in Nifiloli: "I am very proud and happy to see the tepuke sailing again. When we arrived at Nifiloli and I saw how happy everyone was to see the tepuke again, I could see that we will succeed in our goals for the Vaka Taumako Project. The young people really do want to sail again.     "Before I began the work of building and sailing this canoe, some people were frightened and tried to discourage me. 'The tepuke cannot come back,' they said, 'The old days and their customs are gone forever. It is dangerous to go to sea in this canoe.' But I did not believe them. Even if we die in the sea, I thought, we are people of the sea, and it would not be a bad thing for us to die out there.     "We did not die out there. We brought the tepuke safely to Nifiloli just as our ancestors did in the old days. Our culture did not die when the last tepuke broke up; it just lay asleep like seeds in a garden. Now the seeds are sprouting and the garden will grow again. Our culture and our customs will feed us and our children as they always have. They will also feed our friends who come from far away to learn from us."