Pacific Islanders from Micronesia have long practiced their abilities to navigate vast oceans. But one Yapese navigator living on Hawaiʻi Island wants to ensure that Micronesians in the diaspora never forget their roots — by building a Satawal-style canoe.
Thomas Raffipiy is leading that effort.
"I want to bring the culture to the Micronesian kids, and even adults, who have not sailed a canoe before," he said. "They need to know their culture and feel it."
Raffipiy first stepped onto a canoe when he was 2 years old. At the time, he lived on Satawal, a coral atoll with about 500 people, located in Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia.
For Satawalese, voyaging is a way of life and key to the island's survival.
Navigators sail canoes to fish, which is their food staple. They also voyage to stay connected to neighboring islands, traveling as far as Saipan, more than 500 miles from the FSM island.
"It's a matter of survival," Raffipiy said. "Without that (canoe), the people on the island will go extinct."
Building the canoe
The idea to build a Satawal-style canoe came when Raffipiy was helping his friend lash his hale about two years ago.
Micronesian canoe lashing is essential for attaching complex outriggers. Canoe builders typically use coconut fiber to create strong, durable ropes.
He and his friend invited about 30 kids — with some adults — from the outer islands of Yap to participate in canoe lashing.
"I noticed that they were very interested and very happy doing it," Raffipiy said.
He said canoes from Satawal are generally the same as other canoes in Micronesia, such as on Guam and Palau.
"Even if the canoe doesn't look exactly like the canoe in the Marshall Islands, how we sail it, how we operate, how we navigate the canoes, is pretty much the same," he said.
Raffipiy said the single-hull, Satawal-style canoe would be smaller than Hōkūleʻa but bigger than a six-person outrigger racing canoe.
Raffipiy said this isn't the first Micronesian canoe built in Hawaiʻi. His cousin built the first one on Kauaʻi several years ago.
According to Raffipiy, the canoe on Kauaʻi was built with heavy wood, so if an inexperienced navigator sails it, it will sink.
The canoe Raffipiy is trying to build with the Hawaiʻi Island community would only be designed to sail interisland.
On Satawal, canoe builders use ʻulu trees as the primary wood. But Raffipiy said the invasive albizia trees would do just as well for sailing.
"It's light, and it's good enough," he said. "It's solid enough when it's dried up."
He said he's looking for donations of albizia trees to use when he builds the canoe in Hawaiʻi.
To create the sail, Raffipiy plans to use lauhala, or pandanus leaves, from the hala tree.
Raffipiy said women would weave the sail to give to men to sew it onto the canoe.
"We make the sail complete," he said, adding that the kids will be able to participate in the process.
Keeping up the tradition
Building the canoe helps keep the tradition alive, and Raffipiy said it will also pass on the teachings of the late master navigator Mau Piailug of Micronesia. Piailug taught pwo navigator Nainoa Thompson and many others after building Hōkūleʻa, the double-hull Polynesian voyaging canoe.
Satawalese navigators were commemorated days before Hōkūleʻa's birthday. They paid homage to Piailug and his strict teachings of navigation.
Piailug was remembered as the first person to bring a chainsaw to Satawal to have a faster way of cutting down trees, although it spooked some of the elders and children, causing a raucous.
Lino Olopai, one of Piailug's brothers, recalled a particular memory when a brother-in-law brought a GPS to Satawal and gloated about how he could find his way anywhere.
"Mau took that GPS and threw it in the water," Olopai said, and recalled what Piailug said, "'Now tell me where you're going to go? How many times do I have to tell you to listen and put that information in your head? Even when your canoe capsizes, and you come up for air and see your canoe lopsided, you still can tell where you're going.'"
Piailug had a softer side. Raffipiy said when he and other navigators were children, they would construct their canoe to sail. But building a canoe takes skill, and if it's not done right, the vessel will sink.
Piailug would purposefully disassemble their canoes for their safety, Raffipiy recalled.
Pacific Islanders found their way across the Pacific Ocean by using the sun, stars, and other natural cues.
Cecilio Rauikiulipiy, Piailug's younger brother, said Satawalese elders would always call the children to sit with them and look to the stars. The conversation was always about navigation. Children would learn from their clan, their elders, and even women.
"When you start going out sailing, you just listen to what's happening on the canoe," he said. "You observe the whole environment: the water, sunrise, sunset, the moon and the stars."
Rauikiulipiy underscored that navigators must follow several steps when sailing their vessels. These include keeping track of the reef, fish, turtles, and birds. He added that objects floating on water are a cue that indicates whether a navigator is on or off track to their destination.
Bridging connections
Raffipiy said he wants the project to be a collaborative effort in which the community's younger people can learn to build and sail a canoe. He also wants the canoe to be a bridge between Micronesian and local Hawaiʻi kids.
"At least they will know the basics of how the canoe should be set up and how they can sail it," he said. "That's my hope, and that's my dream.
Raffipiy said he's sourcing funding from the community and the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and he hopes to partner with others in the Micronesian community to help construct the vessel.
PVS CEO Nainoa Thompson said helping Raffipiy is a way to give back to Micronesia "for the gift of knowledge and information that we were gifted to by Mau and their school."
"My hope is that the symbolism and the reality of this Micronesian canoe being valued within our communities by our communities, is going to help with that vital importance of self-esteem, pride and dignity."
Raffipiy said he plans to start building the canoe in August and is calling on Hawaiʻi Island residents to participate.
