LUOVA, TEMOTU PROVINCE: For the first time in over thirty years, a Taumako voyaging canoe arrived at Santa Cruz Island’s northwestern tip on Sunday, June 4. Captain Ambrose Miki and his gallant crew, James Mapua, Jonathan Mengo, Willie Lohia, and Harry Vanosi, sailed the tepuke from their home in the Duff Islands to demonstrate their Vaka Valo organization’s achievements and to celebrate Temotu Province’s Second Appointed Day on June 8. Tepuke under sail near Tinakula Island

Come See how Ancient Polynesian Voyaging is still practiced today. Drs. Simon Salopuka and Mimi George of the Vaka Taumako Project of Solomon Islands present from 12 noon to 1PM, Sept 8. Everyone welcome! limited seating, pay parking available on UH campus, sponsored by East-West Center Pacific Islands Development Program & UH Manoa Center for Pacific Island Studies. Contrary to what has been thought for 45 years, there is a little known, unbroken Polynesian way finding trad

In this video, students at the Lata Voyaging School lash the riser box onto a traditional Te Puke voyaging canoe using coconut fiber cordage. Lata Voyaging School includes 54 men, 35 women, over 70 children, including 33 full time students. The students are young people who have no employment options and who are learning good work habits and practical skills. They labored 14,208 hours to complete this Te Puke, which will be named Vaka Causey at the launching, in honor of on

In addition to their vast knowledge of asterisms, wind, waves, and currents, sailors of the Duff and Reef Island groups make use of a unique phenomenon that has barely been documented, let alone witnessed by outside researchers. Te Lapa, literally “the flashing,” was first described as “underwater lightning” by Dr David Lewis in his book We, The Navigators. Chief Kaveia taught his students that these flashes travel on the surface of the ocean, and not underwater. On dar

A Preliminary Report by Dr. Marianne “Mimi” George Prepared for the National Science Foundation 2009 In the eight sections of this report are some detailed outlines of the data with some illustrations and photos provided in sections I, III, and VI. More general descriptions of data are provided for sections II, IV, V, VII, and VIII. In conclusion section IX offers observations as to how the data might prove or disprove our four hypotheses. General Hypotheses: Taumako navigat

III. NAVIGATION AND PILOTING USING TE LAPA – FLASHES OF LIGHT THAT EMANATE FROM LAND Elaborations on previously conveyed and demonstrated data was given by Kaveia several other people who took voyages. A summary list of distinct characteristics of Te Lapa and a complex diagram that has comparative value for Marshallese diagrams is given here. General Characteristics of Te Lapa: Light coming across the surface of the sea – Visible coming straight from land (including reefs) di

II. NAVIGATION USING SWELLS AND WAVES – “HOKOHUA LOA AND HOKOHUA KIKO” Data was elaborated that added to and built upon previously conveyed data (during 27 inter-island voyages in the Santa Cruz Group and between Taumako and New Zealand in small sailboats during 1993 – 2005). The new data includes various drawings and discussions of how one senses the phenomena and how widespread it is, and in three demonstrations at sea (outside the fringing reef) within 5 n.m. of Taumako du

I. NOHOANGA TE MATANGI – POSITIONS OF THE WIND A navigational system correlating a horizonal array of wind positions with other observable phenomena – e.g. swells, sunrise and sunset paths, celestial bodies, seasons, dynamic behavior of winds, solstices and equinoxes, voyaging routes, star paths, etc. – and built upon an awareness and perception of phenomena that are not taught in western navigation or seamanship. Clarification and elaboration of the Nohoanga Te Matangi data

by Mimi George, Ph.D. for Sea History Magazine, Spring 1998 How were stone-age Polynesian craft built and how did they perform at sea? What motivated Polynesians to voyage, and how did they find their way. Until Paramount Chief Kruso Kaveia of Taumako, a Polynesian island in the southeast Solomons, asked me to help his people document the building and sailing of a Te Puke, it seemed that we had missed our chance to answer these questions. Renowned maritime scholars swore