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Vaka Taumako Project
Mission Statement – July 2002

Project Organization   The Vaka Taumako Project is directed according to ancient Polynesian protocol by Paramount Chief Kaveia. Aspects of the project involving non-Duff Islanders and research are directed by Dr. George in close collaboration with P.C. Kaveia. Internationally, the project operates under the aegis of the Pacific Traditions Society, a 501[(c)3] non-profit research corporation. Financial support for the Vaka Taumako Project comes from private and corporate donors, research foundations, charitable trusts, historical preservation and botanical and cultural conservation organizations, the Solomon Islands government, other Polynesians, sailors, and friends around the world. A Unique Opportunity       The Taumako people are unique among Polynesians in that their chain of experiential knowledge of traditional ocean voyaging was never broken. In the 1920's there were still 200 tepuke sailing in the Santa Cruz Group (Davenport, 1970). But with the impact of colonial laws banning voyaging, the death of most of the population from European introduced diseases, and the introduction of plantation economy and world wars, the Polynesian ocean voyaging ways were almost lost. In 1963 the last te puke doing traditional voyaging broke up. However, in the Polynesian islands of the Solomons there are still a few very old people knowledgeable, willing, and able to show young people how it was done. Today, the people of Taumako (nga Taumako) have the vision and desire to preserve and perpetuate the traditional ways. Unlike almost anywhere else in Polynesia, Taumako is home to virgin hardwoods forests and all the other natural materials necessary to build authentic and large voyaging canoes, feed the crew, and supply them with desirable cargo. Elsewhere in the Pacific, many voyaging lifeways and the useful plant materials themselves have been destroyed or forgotten. Nga Taumako aim to teach their own young people how to voyage, and they want their example to enrich the revival of seafaring among other Polynesian peoples, and foster awareness of voyaging traditions among all people. Students of Polynesian history and culture, botanists, ornithologists, sailors, and others can learn a great deal from nga Taumako. For example, ecologists can learn how a voyaging culture successfully cared for numerous rare rainforest and reef resources for over 2,500 years, ethnobotanists can learn why and how certain plants are used in building canoes, as crew rations, as cargo, and for medicinal plants, modern mariners can use the knowledge of natural phenomena embodied in Polynesian navigation to help them find their way to landfall and to anticipate foul weather, and naval architects, can learn about very different and very successful principles of aerodynamic and hydrodynamic, construction, and sailing techniques The values and protocols of the traditional voyaging lifestyle include respect for the elderly, full employment for the young, and community self-reliance. Once the ties of family and community service on which traditional Polynesian life depends unravel, no injection of cash or goods can bring them back. The Vaka Taumako Project contributes to cultural and spiritual revival as well as immediate and long-term community development. Unhappy youth, unemployment, and urban drift have become serious problems in Taumako, but there was a dramatic reversal during 1996, the first year of the Vaka Taumako Project. The resumption of voyaging in 1998 also aided regional communication, trade, and cooperation, including traditional intermarriage and adoption practices, and intercultural awareness. If the Vaka Taumako Project meets the goal of creating an ongoing voyaging school and regular voyages, the project could become economically self-supporting by 2005.