[conch blowing] [drumming] [whispering] We are Lata's children...

I am Lata.

I was born on the island of Taumako.

I was the first voyager.

I sailed to many islands.

On all these islands, I have children who tell my story.

When you hear my story, you too become my children.

Come sail with me, and meet your brothers and sisters!

[whispering] We are Lata's children... We, the Voyagers: Lata's Children We, the Voyagers: Our Vaka Presented by Pacific Traditions Society Hosted by Simon Salopuka, Dixon Holland, Mimi George My name is Simon Salopuka.

I was born on the island of Taumako.

On Taumako, our ancestor is Lata: the first voyager.

I want the young people to know Lata's story.

When I was a child, my elders told me stories about how our ancestor Lata built the first voyaging canoe, and sailed to faraway islands.

Lata named the vessel "TePuke".

I will tell you about TePuke, built by people of Taumako.

If we sail it to another island, we bring fish, pigs, or turtles, and come home with foods of that island to feed our people.

Some people lack food because they lack family support.

They may not have enough to share.

But if you have TePuke, you have food to share.

I loved their stories, but when I was a child TePuke were gone.

It was only in my dreams, but I was sailing with Lata.

Later on I was away from home, and I heard that my cousin brother Dixon had actually joined the crew of a TePuke and made a voyage!

My name is Dixon Holland.

And I am a cameraman from Taumako.

Simon: We call him the bush journalist!

I also grew up on Taumako.

I remember sailing in small dug-out canoes.

I was afraid.

To me, it seemed to be very dangerous.

[chanting "The Navy Hymn"] Yeah, if you drift out for more than two weeks, or three weeks, and you do not have food then you are lucky to be dead.

[chanting] When I was 18 I heard that some of my elders were working on a project to bring back the TePuke.

I wanted to build one and learn how to sail it like Lata.

[upbeat ukulele and singing] My grandfather was the Paramount Chief of Taumako.

When he first asked me to be a cameraman I got a big question in my mind: can I do it?

As a child I left Taumako to go to school, and I studied to become a medical doctor.

I spent 20 years away from home, living in other countries and working at the hospital in the capital city Honiara.

But the city life was difficult, the streets were dangerous the air was dirty, everything cost too much money.

I felt uneasy and kind of lost.

I needed guidance, but who would help me?

I felt like something was missing.

Something deep from my culture.

My elders still know how to build and sail voyaging canoes using only traditional designs, materials, and methods.

I think we are the only Polynesians who have living elders who actually did it and can still teach us how.

I knew I had to go home and learn from them before they all died.

I wanted to learn how to be who I am.

When I arrived at Taumako I saw that it was true.

The old people were teaching how to build and sail Lata's canoe.

Is this tree okay?

It is good.

Yes.

I was surprised to find that a woman from Hawaii was helping.

I am an anthropologist and a sailor.

I love to learn how ancient voyagers explored the oceans and settled remote islands long before Europeans arrived.

I documented voyaging traditions of Papua New Guinea Islanders.

Then I sailed with sea hunters in the far north, and learned about their wayfinding methods.

All that time I wondered if there might still be a living Pacific Islander who had experienced the ancient voyaging life who could still build a traditional vessel and navigate it by traditional means.

I was not really expecting to find that person when I arrived on a small island in the southeast Solomon Islands.

When I met Mimi in 2005, she told me that our word for voyaging canoe "vaka" had the same meaning all around the Pacific.

I wanted to learn more about what outsiders think about my people and compare it with what my people know.

There is evidence that about 5000 years ago, people from Taiwan sailed to distant Pacific islands.

It is clear that the sea around Taumako was an oceanic crossroads.

Ancient sailors passed through here on routes between Southeast Asia and the greater Pacific.

My elders told me that people from Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji used to come to our islands.

There are bones to prove it.

We even have a place called "Tongan's Anchorage."

There are at least 18 long-settled Polynesian islands in the western Pacific.

Today over 1200 Austronesian languages are spoken.

From Taiwan, to Madagascar, to Rapa Nui.

Our ancestor Lata sailed to many islands.

We, Lata's children, still live there.

We speak Lata's language, and we tell Lata's stories.

Lata has different names in different places.

People in Taiwan still give offerings to "Lakaa", spirits who help them in the ocean.

In Samoa, Lata's name is "Rata", and he built a great canoe.

In Tahiti, "Rata" rescued his parents remains from the mouth of a giant clam.

In the Tuamotu Islands, "Rata" defeated the shark that killed his father.

In Hawaii, her name is "Laka", goddess of the forest.

While she slept, the little people of the forest built her canoe.

Wherever Lata went, he also left children there.

He must have had wives all over the Pacific.

That sounds like my great grand uncle Tevake.

He sailed his TePuke all over Temotu: Vanikoro, Utupua, Tikopia, Anuta, Santa Cruz.

They were the world's greatest voyagers.

But how did they do it?

We know little about their vessels.

In 1606, Spanish explorers saw large seagoing canoes near Taumako.

But they gave very little description of them.

They did say that they saw one at sea that was 20 meters long and had fifty people on board.

19th century European paintings show canoes near Taumako with massive outriggers and crescent-shaped sails.

But the details are few.

[canon firing] When the Spanish first came to Taumako, they met Tumai: our great chief.

He tried to keep the peace, but they kidnapped four men from my island to help them navigate.

We never saw them again.

Great Britain's finest navigator, Captain James Cook, realized that Polynesians navigated using very different methods from his own.

During his first voyage, Cook met a Tahitian navigator named Tupaia, and brought him aboard the ship.

Using no physical instruments, Tupaia indicated the direction of a hundred thirty islands, and how many days it took to sail to many of them.

Cook never learned how Tupaia knew these things.

But Cook did notice that people across the Pacific spoke the same language.

In 1778 he wrote: "how shall we account for this nation spreading itself so far over this vast ocean?"

[chorus of children sings "People of Taumako, we are one"] When I was young, I was happy.

I went fishing with my relatives.

I helped them in the garden.

I listened to their old stories.

We were dancing, feasting, and living our traditions.

What we call "kastam".

Kastam is our identity, it guides our lives.

But sometimes it haunts us.

My grandparents died on the island of Nifiloli, but we never gave them their final feast.

According to my kastam beliefs, if I go to that island, the spirits might take my life.

So I never visited that island.

Taumako is green and full of life.

Our springs overflow with pure fresh water.

Our gardens provide us with taro, sweet potatoes, yams, bananas, and coconuts.

We raise pigs and chickens.

The sea gives us fish and lobsters.

We can feed ourselves, as we have done for thousands of years.

Our traditional diet and our ways of producing it are sustainable.

Dixon sees things differently.

Our island has no electricity, no mobile phone towers, just a radio barely running on solar power.

There is no place for a plane to land, or a ship to anchor.

Transportation and communication with the outside world are a big problem for us.

Trade ships, they are never on time.

Sometimes we have to wait five months.

When a cyclone hit our island in 2015, it destroyed the seawall that protects our houses.

We lost many of our crops and fruit trees.

[engine noise] Sailing around the southeastern Solomon Islands can be dangerous.

The sea is rough.

Some ships trying to reach Taumako end up like this one: wrecked at Santa Cruz Island, still 120 miles away.

When I returned home, many things had changed.

The rising sea level caused many people to leave their village by the water, and move into the jungle.

People were no longer living and sharing together, and tribal groups were separated.

Many of the old people had passed away.

I really missed them.

I was worried that there will be no one left to learn from.

In 1920 there were over 200 voyaging canoes sailing around the southeast Solomon Islands.

The people of these islands relied on voyaging to find marriage partners, foods, and goods not available on their home islands.

But, like many Pacific Islanders, they endured kidnapping by slave traders, oppressive colonial and missionary policies, foreign diseases, and modern warfare.

For the first time, they labored to earn a foreign currency, controlled by outsiders, so that they could buy foreign made trade goods.

The voyaging partnerships between the people of these islands broke down.

My husband and his father built our last TePuke.

Sailing on TePuke, you do not pay a fare.

You can voyage to other islands and return with food.

When vaka come home, people can eat.

Today we buy food.

But with no money, how will you eat?

It is a path to our death.

I want us to go back to the old ways.

The way we live now is unsustainable.

[guitar strumming] ♪ Oh, the white man's money, ♪ It came with Captain Cook.

♪ Now women dive for shells to sell.

♪ Oh, the white man's money.

♪ Cargo ships did carry material goods to some places, but shipping did not replace the old voyaging networks.

Today, young people rely on petroleum-powered engines.

It is difficult for them to imagine that an all wind-powered canoe will be useful for travel to other islands.

Engines are too expensive because of fuel costs.

If you have money, you can buy petrol and go.

People here need boats they can build from local materials, and maintain by themselves.

Sustainable sea transportation.

With TePuke you just hop on.

Raise the sail.

It costs nothing.

You just go.

That is good.

In 1969 to '70, Dr. David Lewis sailed around the Pacific finding people who knew the ancient navigation methods.

A few old wayfinders showed him that they could read the wind, sea, and stars, and find land just as accurately as anyone using European instruments.

David wrote about this in "We, the Navigators," and soon people around the Pacific began to revive the practice of making voyages without modern instruments.

Most of what David learned came from sailing with one Solomon Islander, Simon and Dixon's great granduncle: Basil Tevake.

When Tevake died in 1971, David and many others thought he was the last Polynesian navigator who could teach others, and keep the flame alive.

Tevake trained some of us to sail TePuke, but we did not learn to make voyages.

David and I sailed together for many years.

By 1993 he was losing his vision and hearing.

He wanted to visit the southeast Solomon Islands one last time, to say goodbye to any of Tevake's crew who might still be alive.

When we arrived at Taumako, we met with Tevake's one-time steersman, Koloso Kaveia, who was over 80 years old.

Chief Kaveia remembered David, and he invited us to his home.

What he revealed to us there changed everything we thought we knew about Polynesian voyaging He began by explaining that the navigation system of his ancestor Lata divides the horizon into eight primary, and 32 total, named wind positions.

Lata could make the wind come from any of them.

So could his descendants.

I am Koloso Kaveia, the Paramount Chief and in control of Taumako.

My father is Lata.

I can remember chief Kaveia from when I was a child.

He was our most respected elder, so we called him "Te Matua".

The name Kaveia means "star path".

I remember he was very strict.

Push and turn the steering blade this way, do not push it down.

Like our ancestors, Kaveia spent his life traveling to distant islands.

He was a master navigator, and a very powerful man.

When he spoke, people listened.

When the bow drifts this way, push the blade and turn it.

He knew how to deal with difficulties.

Our chief was generous and wise.

The community counted on him for help.

It was one of Kaveia's main responsibilities as Paramount Chief to control the wind and the seas.

I did 25 voyages either with Kaveia or under his direction.

Anything and everything he told me about the weather, or told me was gonna happen about the weather, no matter how wild or impossible it seemed from the point of view of Western knowledge, every single thing was right.

He never missed once.

People do not usually believe me, but I saw Te Matua stop an advancing storm.

The wind became calm, and the clouds cleared away.

He made a short meditation, as he lashed the sticks to the vaka, and he pointed them towards the storm.

And when he set these various sticks up and said his prayers, and pointed them at clouds, or called the wind to come in from a certain wind position, it worked.

Every time.

I could easily imagine how our ancestors could voyage if they had Kaveia's confidence and knowledge.

I am sure I will go straight to my destination.

Any problems at sea, I will solve.

Kaveia told his crew how to overcome problems, like if the vaka was damaged at sea.

Swim this to the other side.

Okay.

Good.

My father Koloso Kaveia taught me how to sail.

Even if I see no island, I am not hopeless that I will die.

On the open ocean it helps to have guidance from those who have gone before.

Lata is the name not just of the original Lata, but also for any leader of a voyage, any time.

Kaveia was the living Lata.

My grandfather knew that I do not worry at sea.

Even if I drift for one or two weeks, I know good wind will come, because he taught me.

Because he passed that to my father and my father told me.

I heard that our ancestors faced this.

If we want to sail confidently, we need a sea-worthy vessel.

So we asked our grandfather how to build a TePuke.

His answer surprised us.

If you want to build a TePuke, first plant a garden.

When the garden is grown, you can cut your TePuke.

There must be feasts for the workers so the spirit of their adzes will gladly cut the TePuke.

[waterpipe percussion] The people must eat well, so that their tool eat the wood.

[waterpipe band singing "Te Ube" song] Kaveia's grandchildren asked him to tell more about how to build a TePuke.

So he told them the story of Lata.

According to the old story, our ancestor Lata was the first person to build and sail a voyaging canoe.

Lata lost his parents.

So to build his TePuke, he needed help.

Luckily, he came upon a forest bird named "Te Ube".

Te Ube bird was trapped with her leg entangled in a vine.

Some people passed by and Te Ube bird asked them to free her leg.

But each one said, "Oh no, ask the next person!"

Finally, when Lata passed by Te Ube called to him.

Please remove this vine from my leg!

So Lata freed Te Ube's leg.

Te Ube was so thankful to Lata.

Te Ube said, "Come, follow me."

When you see me on a tree flapping my wings you will know this tree is your vaka.

They traveled through the jungle, until Te Ube landed on a tree.

She stood on a branch, flapping her wings and calling.

Lata looked up at the tree and said, "This is my Vaka", and he cut it.

As the Lata of his time, chief Kaveia had a vision for his community to build and sail a new TePuke.

He asked me for help, and I agreed.

I was honored to join the crew of Lata.

Forest Ancestors, we plead for your help.

We ask your blessing.

We came here to cut this tree for our vaka.

Chief Kaveia asked permission before cutting the tree, because he knew the ancient story of Lata and he did not want to make the same mistake that Lata did.

Lata chopped the tree down.

Then he went home.

When Lata was resting, something surprising happened to his tree.

There was an old forest woman named Hinora.

She felt that her tree was hurt.

So she went to look.

Hinora sat beside the fallen tree, and ordered the leaves and branches to return to their place, and the whole tree stood up again.

When Lata returned to the forest, he saw the tree standing again.

So he chopped it down again, and went back home.

But when Lata came back, he saw the tree standing again!

For the third time, Lata cut it down.

A third time, Hinora told her tree to stand up.

Lata asked, "Who does this to my vaka?"

Hinora told him, "That tree is mine."

So Lata was a criminal at first, but in the end he should become a man.

Why do I say he was criminal?

What he did wrong was he stole Hinora's tree.

But then Hinora pitied Lata and said "Take my tree."

♪ If your legs are not strong, be careful it might roll.

♪ Be careful it might roll, then it will crash onto you.

♪ It will crash on you, oh my Vaka!

♪ Why not go up the steep hill?

Oh my Vaka!

♪ Tree Ancestors!

Please leave this vaka, make it light to pull to the sea.

♪ Oh joy!

Climb the steep hill.

♪ Pull the rope!

♪ So Lata got his vaka tree down to the ocean.

But again, he behaved badly.

When his TePuke was finished and ready to sail out to sea, Lata lied to Hinora again!

Man, this really shocks me!

Lata told her, "Let us exchange our conch shells I give you my very valuable conch shell in this package.

You will keep the best one of both as part payment for my vaka."

Then Lata told her, "I will just sail out a little way."

When I blow my conch, open your package, and blow your conch to answer.

So Lata boarded his TePuke as Hinora stood on the beach, and Lata sailed out the passage to sea.

He sounded his conch, and Hinora opened her package.

She tried to blow her conch, but it had no hole to blow!

When she realized that Lata lied to her, Hinora said, "Why did you do this, Lata?"

Now I will make you stay out at sea in the vaka I gave you!

You can never return.

She cut down a coconut tree and blocked the passage.

And so, because of his criminal ways, Lata could never come home.

We do not know where he ended up.

Lata could not come home, because he had not learned to behave respectfully.

Now he had to grow up at sea.

♪ Ngati, your message ♪ was carried away by the wind.

♪ I will fly out and look for it across the sea.

♪ The wind is blowing from TeNgatae.

♪ The wind is blowing from Tokelau.

♪ It will blow my dream to the seabird's vaka.♪ When chief Kaveia began to teach a new generation how to build and navigate a TePuke, he also wanted his grandchildren to video the work so that others could learn.

Like this, I want you to see what I am doing so I can teach you your voyaging customs.

Hey Dixon, can you video from up on the platform?

Dixon: Me?

Kaveia: Yeah, I am working down here!

Ahh, Dickie!

In 1998 Kaveia and his crew sailed their new TePuke from Taumako to the outer reef islands.

[chorus: "Our Chief's Arrival" song] The people living on these islands are Taumako's closest family and were once our traditional voyaging partners.

When they saw the vaka arrive, they were so amazed they felt a lot of emotion about Lata's return to Nifiloli.

[conch blowing] The people of Nifiloli gave chief Kaveia a roll of red feather money as a traditional sign of respect and welcome.

[chorus sings "Our Chief's Arrival"] The community embraced the crew as family.

[chorus: "Welcome Taumako, we are happy to see our TePuke..."] Women brought ashore baskets of gift foods from Taumako.

People rekindled old connections, and made new ones.

[chanting "We welcome you our brothers and sisters"] Dixon: There I saw a woman I liked very much, and my parents began to make arrangements for our marriage.

I was really eager to make more voyages.

Maybe you could meet some more wives!

[chorus and ancient dance song with drumming] When the people see us working together across the sea, that is how they know that we love them.

[clapping, laughter] I believe that one day, this crew will know how to sail.

The younger generation wanted to learn more from their chief and teacher, but then Kaveia joined the ancestors.

We thought Kaveia was the only person who really knew it all.

Fortunately, some of Kaveia's students were eager to test their knowledge.

They did not have Kaveia's vast experience at sea, and they were very old themselves, but they were willing to teach what they knew.

Jonas Holani became our Lata.

I want our culture to live on.

So I take people sailing.

I show them what I am doing.

Our heirs will see that Te Matua and I tried to teach them.

The new crew will include Kaveia's son, Fox Boda.

Jonas' son, Ambrose Miki.

Harry Vanosi, and Reginald Diosi.

I did not have as much sailing experience as the others so I was so surprised when they invited me to join them.

Lata takes all kinds.

Lata accepts everyone.

Jonas asked me do you want to come with us?

And I say: yes!

Some people wondered if these new voyaging leaders knew enough to face the dangers they could meet in the open ocean.

We are trying to find out when this old man died did the young generation learn something from him?

Can we sail without him?

When I left home to work at logging, I was 17 years old.

Now, I am 21 or 20, something like that.

Logging was a very dangerous job.

They made us cut trees that were too young.

We really ruined the forest.

So I thought a lot about those trees and I felt sorry.

They were too small, but we had to cut them anyway.

When I worked at logging, I wondered what my future would be if I forgot my customs and culture.

So that is why I returned home to work on our vaka.

Under the direction of chief Jonas, the community is building a new vaka.

The new vaka is smaller than a traditional TePuke, but this training vessel will allow a small crew to make a voyage to the far outer reef islands, about 80 nautical miles from Taumako.

When Jonas asked me to join the crew I was very happy, but also a little worried.

Our destination, Nifiloli, is where my grandparents died.

Would it be safe for me to go?

Or would their spirits come for me?

It takes a lot of work to mend broken relationships, and to build voyaging vessels.

It can take as long as two years to build one.

We would need the help of everyone in the community working together: men, women, and children.

All the lashings and building, a lot of work.

But if you know how to build one and you do it, you will have your vaka to sail.

When Lata sailed out on his TePuke, he was alone.

But he needed a full crew.

He will have to learn to work with others.

But again, he behaved badly.

In the story, Lata lied to other people.

He wanted his TePuke to be the best one.

So he told them to tie their vaka with the wrong kind of rope.

So when they tested their vaka at sea, it broke down.

The young people had to learn how to construct their vaka properly.

In the lagoon at Taumako, we have a man-made island named Tahua.

Here my great uncle, an old voyager, made a small model to show us how the many parts of the vaka fit together.

I made this TePuke to teach people how to build a real one.

Voyaging is our most important custom.

If we do not continue making vaka, this will be lost.

Kastam is our identity.

Voyaging holds the culture together, just as lashings hold the vaka together.

[waterpipe band] ♪ Te Ube, Te Ube, today, ♪ this is your day, your day Te Ube.

♪ We gather coconuts, then we husk them and bury them in the sand.

Their fibers and those of other plants are then twisted to become cords, ropes, and lashings.

[waterpipes and chorus] The community uses these lashings to secure the crossbeams, the outrigger, the deck, and the other parts of the vaka.

The lashings allow flexing between parts of the vaka, so the parts themselves do not break in heavy seas.

The vaka embodies Lata.

Sitting on each end of the vaka, supporting the sail, is Te Ube bird: Lata's guide and helper.

The sail represents Lata with his arms stretched over his head to catch the wind.

It is the canoe's engine.

This means that Lata is always with us, moving his children forward across the sea.

From pandanus, a plant that grows throughout the Pacific, Taumako women harvest leaves, trim them, and cut them into strips for weaving into sails.

Women weave the sail panels, and men sew them together.

The women and the men cooperate so the vaka will sail well.

Everybody helps to tie the sail to the two booms that support it.

Should I hold this arm?

Yes, hold it.

Put it down like this?

Yes.

Does it go this way?

No, it goes here.

That is it.

Tie that rope on.

Pull on that.

On the sail?

That is it, pull that side.

Tie that cord, Olo.

This one is not tied yet.

Olo, you pull!

Children who come after us must see this too.

If we die before teaching them, then this is finished.

In Taumako, the old people they do not read and write.

They do not stand in the classroom and teach.

To learn how to build a vaka, you must see how they do it and you do it yourself.

This is how we learn.

The new vaka is completed.

Now, our Lata has to choose the rest of the crew, and we still have to know what to do to make a voyage.

If we can sail it, we can become Lata's crew.

I want to learn how Lata navigated.

I want to find out what happened to my family on Nifiloli.

I want to share the navigation system that chief Kaveia showed me.

In the second part of our story, we will learn our jobs at sea.

We will begin to navigate the open ocean in our Vaka o Lata.

Now that you have heard part one of the story, you are a member of Lata's crew too.

Let us go sailing!

[guitar strumming and singing] [whispering] We are Lata's children... [conch blowing]