Showing posts with label Polynesia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Polynesia. Show all posts

Hawaiian yearning for Polynesia

SUBHEAD: Polynesian subsistence use of the land and sea resources may conflict with "independence". 

By Brittany Lyte on 19 July 2017 for Explore Parts Unknown -
(https://explorepartsunknown.com/hawaii/a-yearning-for-old-polynesia-overshadows-native-independence/)


Image above: Aerial view of the south eastern shore of Molokai showing fishponds and seaside living typical to the area. From original article.

[IB Publisher's note: Yes... many paradoxes exist between what is desired and reality. It is our opinion is that the schemes to "recognize" the "Hawaiian Independence" through Hawaiian State and US Federal designated efforts will only end in the kind of mess native Americans face on "tribal lands" on the mainland. The United States has made only one seemingly genuine effort in the last generation to heal the wounds of the illegal take-over of the Hawaiian nation - The Apology Bill under the 103d Congress Joint Resolution 19 on Nov. 23, 1993 United States Public Law 103-150 "To acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the January 17, 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and to offer an apology to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii."In that resolution were described mechanisms that Hawaiians could recover their nations sovereignty. However, some Hawaiians do not think the limitations of that legislation define the parameters of return of our sovereignty. Eventually the imperial US oppression will recede as the empire fades.]

If you wanted to eat, you had to work. That’s how Kaui Kapuni Manera was raised on the Hawaiian island of Molokai in the 1960s.

As one of seven children brought up by her grandparents, Manera contributed to every meal by scouting for fish, gathering edible seaweed or harvesting from the star fruit, guava, and breadfruit trees that grew in abundance on the family’s two-acre plot edging the sea.

“When momma said ‘go out there and get lunch’ she meant it,” remembers Manera, now 61. “If she told us to go out and pick limu, it was an all-day job. If we walked to the school, we were expected to carry oranges home in our shirts.

Even when we were playing, we were gathering. I used to grumble, ‘How come we can’t have canned Spam like the other kids?’”

It wasn’t until the family dinner started to include those fashionable Spam cans that Manera realized she lived in poverty.

“When my grandfather passed away, there was no one to raise the pigs or harvest the taro patch anymore,” Manera says. “My grandmother was blind, and we were just kids. So we started getting food stamps.

And that’s when we started to go to the market. That’s when we finally got to have Spam. That’s when I really understood that we weren’t going to eat as good anymore. Yes, we were poor, but, in other ways, living off the land had made us really rich.”

Once an object of yearning, Spam became a flag of the shame born of needing U.S. government assistance. Nevertheless, Manera savored the salty meat that replaced her grandfather’s hand-pounded poi and fresh-caught fish.

“I’m grateful that the government kicked in,” says Manera, who is Native Hawaiian. “I was embarrassed at the time, but now I know that’s the only way we survived.”

On Molokai, where more than 60% of the island’s 7,400 residents are of Native Hawaiian descent, a longtime rejection of Americanization and urban development has kept alive a way of life that closely resembles that of traditional Polynesia.

And because Molokai has fewer visitors than any other Hawaiian island, as well as the largest indigenous population in the state, it is one of the only places where the authenticity of Old Hawaii is said to still exist.

Of course, when you reject modernization, you risk limiting economic growth. Today, on this island without traffic lights, the trade-off of a simple, down-home lifestyle that’s still largely intact is that good work is hard to find.

An island-wide job shortage, coupled with the reality that many of the jobs that do exist fail to offer a livable wage, has bred a generation that relies on a combination of government assistance and traditional subsistence living practices to get by.

“A lot of Hawaiians who depend on government assistance are pissed because it doesn’t provide a great life, and a lot of the Hawaiians who don’t are pissed because it’s hard to get on without it,” Manera says.

“Everyone’s so pissed today, and I was angry for so long, and now I just don’t want any part of it. I don’t want that anger in my house, I don’t want that anger in my family. I just want to work hard and nurture and perpetuate what we are as Hawaiians.”

This is the backdrop to which a fiery political debate over Hawaiian sovereignty is erupting. Indeed, the debate has been flaring since the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. government.

What’s different now is that Native Hawaiians are for the first time being presented with a new means of attaining some degree of political autonomy.

In September 2016, Native Hawaiians won access to a new process by which the United States would form a government-to-government relationship with a unified Hawaiian nation.

Previously unavailable to indigenous Hawaiians, this brand of quasi-sovereignty through federal recognition has long been employed by Native Americans and Alaska Natives to bolster the political power of tribal nations.

A shot at federal recognition is something that some Native Hawaiians have been fighting for—and other Native Hawaiians have been fighting against—for a very long time. Whether they’ll seize it, and how it might serve to ameliorate some of the injustices the Native Hawaiian community has endured in the last century, is yet to be seen.

“People come here to see rainbows and jumping whales, but they learn pretty quick that there’s a lot more going on,” says Koa Kakaio, who is 30.

A California-born Native Hawaiian who relocated to Molokai to discover his roots, Kakaio works jobs in construction and graphic design while also operating his own online apparel business. He is smart and enterprising, but despite working three jobs Kakaio still makes a paycheck-to-paycheck living.

All told, 35% of Molokai’s population receives federal food aid, while more than a third of the residents report that they farm, hunt and fish to keep fed.

Complicating matters further is that a century of deleterious colonization has bred a new reality in which far fewer Native Hawaiians own any of the lands on which their ancestors long cultivated an impressive bounty of food.

Simply put, it’s harder than ever to carry out the old Hawaiian way of life on this tiny isle.

Native Hawaiians no longer have access to much of the land that has been bought up by Asian and American businesses, federal and state government and transplants from places ranging from Kansas to the Philippines. Most no longer speak their native language that for a time was outlawed in Hawaii classrooms.

Throw in widespread land degradation—the fallout of a defunct sugar and pineapple plantation industry—and a new and controversial biotech seed business that provides some of the island’s only well-paying jobs, and you’ve got a web of political and cultural complications that not even this sleepy little island can escape.

“Everybody’s selling this place as a paradise and everybody’s trying to sweep the history under the rug,” Kakaio says. “Sometimes it feels like Hawaiians are completely written out of history. That’s why people get so mad. Then you bring us back when you want to make Moana into a Disney princess. People are angry.”

But more than a hundred years after Hawaii’s last monarch was imprisoned in her palace and forced to abdicate the throne, some wonder whether they can trust Washington’s motives in offering to strengthen the political autonomy of Native Hawaiians through federal recognition.

“Why should we do nation-to-nation?” says Ruth Yap, an 80-year-old Native Hawaiian from Molokai. “So that then they’ll turn around and try to put in an oil pipeline that threatens the water we drink? From what I can see that they’re doing over there with the Indians, we don’t need to get ourselves involved in that.”

Proponents of federal recognition say achieving the nation-within-a-nation status under the U.S. government would eradicate at least this one injustice.

Indigenous Hawaiians are the only Native group in the nation that have not been able to rebuild some semblance of political autonomy. Reversing this situation, supporters say, could help to empower the group, who, compared to Hawaii’s other racial groups, are disproportionately afflicted by illiteracy, incarceration, obesity, and homelessness.

“I believe the Hawaiian Kingdom still exists, it was never extinguished,” says Timmy Leong, a champion of total independence who is gentle, bespectacled and bearded. “When you think of Donald Trump and that whole birther movement, saying that Obama was born in Kenya—he got it right. He just got the country wrong. Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., he was born in the Hawaiian Kingdom.”

Apart from federal recognition, there are other roads to sovereignty. Total independence is a goal desired by many Native Hawaiians who argue that it’s still possible to force the U.S. government to retreat from the Hawaiian Islands by the order of an international court. 

Supporters of this more radical route to sovereignty point out the United States has already admitted its faults: In 1993, Congress formally apologized for the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, conceding the nation’s role in seizing land without compensation or consent and expressing remorse for its contributions to “the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of the Native Hawaiian people.”

“Anytime the usurper offers you something on a silver platter, I see it as bait,” says Mike Weeks, an advocate of total independence.

Weeks, a Molokai native, routinely gives away 40 percent of the vegetables he harvests on his one-acre farm because there are plenty of hungry mouths but not enough folks with money to pay for it.

“The thing is, America didn’t steal our home; it stole our minds,” Weeks says. “We’re laying back enjoying welfare when we should be fighting for a better future. Give us one or two more generations, and we’ll get our home back.”

Opponents of total independence insist that it’s naive to entertain the fanciful notion that the U.S. government and its military would actually pack up and leave these strategically located isles. If it did, critics say, the blow of losing American citizenship would leave Native Hawaiians scrambling for basic resources, such as food. Imports account for about 90 percent of what feeds Hawaii’s residents and tourists.

“I’m Hawaiian born and raised, but I wasn’t born under the Hawaiian Kingdom,” says Pilipo Solatorio, a Navy veteran and respected Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner who lives a traditional way of life in the same secluded Molokai valley as his ancient ancestors. “What my grandparents tried to teach me is that you take the good from the Hawaiian way and you blend it with what’s good about America. They believed that we must move forward, not backward.”

“I cannot blame the people of today for what happened in that period. I have no grouch with America. How can you get mad at America when you’re born in America? Yes, I am Hawaiian. And no, America isn’t perfect. But there is no perfect place on this earth.”

In a recent push by Native Hawaiians to rebuild their political autonomy, nearly 90,000 Native Hawaiian voters became certified to participate in a 2015 election aimed at assembling a delegacy to write a constitution for a new sovereign nation. Organizers planned a month-long summit in Honolulu, where Native Hawaiians elected from around the globe would design a legislative structure and a bill of rights. Hawaiians could then move to legitimize their contract of self-governance by seeking recognition from the United States or an international governing body, such as the United Nations or the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.

But the U.S. Supreme Court ordered election officials not to count the ballots, prompting Native Hawaiian leaders to terminate the vote. The court order was triggered by a lawsuit by two non-Native Hawaiians who weren’t eligible to participate in the election, and four Native Hawaiians who argued that race-restricted voting is illegal.

The lawsuit is still making its way through the courts.

With the election called off, some candidates for delegate seats still chose to convene in Honolulu at an abbreviated convention, during which a document to steer self-determination was drafted. But without a means of conducting a legal vote, there was no way for Native Hawaiians to ratify it.

A retired firefighter and Vietnam veteran, 67-year-old Bobby Alcain says he did not support the ambitions of those who convened to write a new Native Hawaiian constitution because, in his opinion, they fell too short. 

He wonders—unless Native Hawaiians are returned to the land that has been bought up by foreigners, how can a new constitution do anyone any good?

Alcain’s coming-of-age as a Native Hawaiian was set in motion by his experience in the U.S. military. It was only after he suited up in uniform and went overseas that his mind opened to the idea that he was different from most of the other Army men he had fought alongside.

“I thought I was a true blue American,” Alcain says. “But I had no idea who I was. When I came home to Hawaii, I spent a year in the library reading every book I could find about what it means to be a Hawaiian, and I realized that I wasn’t the same as the other guys. 

Eventually, I started to plant things in the ground, because it’s very hard to be Hawaiian if you’re not connected to the earth. To heal the land is to heal yourself.”

Today, at the small farm where he grows copious vegetables and fruit, Alcain welcomes anyone—friend, stranger or tourist—to visit and take freely from his harvest. In keeping with Native Hawaiian tradition, there’s just one rule—no one may take more than he or she alone can eat.

“When you start caring for the earth, you start to care for everything,” says Alcain, who wears his hair down his back in a long, slender braid. “You start caring for the plants, for the bugs, for the animals, for people around you, for strangers. That’s the meaning of aloha; it’s not just a greeting you hear at the airport.”

In Alcain’s view, the most searing injustice of the U.S. takeover of the Hawaiian island chain is that so many Native Hawaiians have been removed from the land on which their entire culture is predicated. To care for the land and sea as ancestors is to fulfill the cornerstone of what it means to be Native Hawaiians, Alcain says.

“Right now, Hawaiians don’t own a piece of dirt,” Alcain says. “The U.S. took all of it away. Now, it’s easy for me, by myself, on this little piece of land that I’m caring for, to live a life of sovereignty. I can say I’m sovereign and no one is going to stop me. But sovereignty isn’t about the me, it’s about the we. How long are we going to wait to get our land back?”

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Restoring the Kingdom of Hawaii 11/23/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Guide to Hawaiian secession 11/6/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Hawaiian sovereignty on the line 10/28/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Hawaiian Independence Day 11/12/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Feds Threaten Hawaiian Sovereignty 2/2/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Hawaiian Sovereignty Issues 9/17/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Case for Hawaiian Sovereignty 12/20/10
Ea O Ka Aina: Hawaiian Sovereignty Panel 9/26/09
Ea O Ka Aina: "Conquest of Hawaii" 7/4/09



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Moana - the Bigger Picture

SUBHEAD: Disney’s latest motion picture is a parable about climate change and indigenous rights.

By Ed Rampell on 2 December 2016 for Earth Island -
(http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/disneys_moana_is_parable_about_climate_change/)


Image above: Gramma Tala speaking to her granddaughter Moana on the beach of their island of Motunui at sunset. From (http://www.twoohsix.com/2016/11/moana-movie-review.html).

Disney’s South Pacific-set animated feature Moana — co-directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, co-creators of The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, with voice characterization by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and music co-written by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda — was number one at US box offices during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

After its world premiere at LA’s AFI Fest on November 14, The Hollywood Reporter noted, “Moana scored… with $81.1 million from 3,875 theaters,” while ABC News reported it “notched the third-largest three-day Thanksgiving opening of all time.”

The optically opulent movie is about Moana (voiced by Hawaiian teenager Auli’i Cravalho), daughter of Motunui island’s Polynesian Chief Tui (New Zealand Maori actor Temuera Morrison, who starred in 1994’s Once Were Warriors).

After the Pacific Islander learns about her voyaging heritage from Gramma Tala (Maori actress Rachel House of 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Moana decides to embark on an Oceanic odyssey to save her endangered isle from environmental devastation.

During her voyage she enlists the aid of the legendary demigod Maui (voiced by Johnson, who is part-Samoan), who reluctantly helps the young, feisty Moana as they cross the Pacific in a sailing canoe to fight the demonic force on a far away isle that is threatening Motunui (which can be translated as “big island”).

This is the basic plot of Disney’s sumptuously animated musical adventure, but what most reviewers have missed is that disguised in the medium of a feature-length colorful cartoon, Moana’s filmmakers have created a motion picture parable about climate change.

And emerging while Native tribes take a stand at Standing Rock against fossil fuel development and oppression of indigenous peoples, Moana is also a movie metaphor about indigenous rights. (If Dakota Access Pipeline protesters are “water protectors,” however, in Moana the Pacific protects the title character — whose name can be translated as “ocean.”)

The entire raison d’etre for Moana’s mission is that an environmental disaster has befallen Motunui. The crops are failing, the coconuts have turned black, and the lagoon’s fish have been fished out.

To restore ecological balance Moana must sail to the distant island of Te Fiti and return the “heart of Te Fiti,” a sculpted, jade-like precious gem-like stone that glows green (symbolizing Mother Nature) in order to defeat Te Kā, a fierce fiery creature threatening her home.

Te Kā’s heat and flames represent global warming; Moana and Maui repeatedly proclaim they’re not only rescuing Motunui, but “saving the world.” 

Disney’s creative team has rendered, within the animation format, an allegorical version of Pacific Islanders’ struggle against climate change, as depicted in documentaries such as Josh Fox’s How to Let Go and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change.

In that 2016 nonfiction film the Pacific Climate Warriors — including islanders from Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia — form a blockade with a fleet of outrigger canoes to stop coal ships from leaving the port at Newcastle, Australia. Compelled by the fear that global warming-caused sea level rise will inundate the isles, their slogan is: “We are not drowning, We are fighting!”

Moana also expresses the revival of traditional Polynesian seafaring methods that was launched in the 1970s by the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule’a. This movement proved that ancient Polynesians purposefully and scientifically sailed to and settled islands across the vast stretches of the Pacific by using the stars, ocean currents, winds, etc., to chart their courses.

This systematic wayfinding technique gave the lie to the racist canard that Pacific Islanders were not intelligent enough to have crossed the ocean by design and had only discovered their far-flung islands randomly and by chance.

The 1970s’ resurgence of traditional Oceanic voyaging contributed to a Pacific Renaissance of culture that inspired ethnic pride among colonized peoples at Hawaii, Tahiti and beyond, and Moana taps into this proud legacy.

Fox’s documentary also goes on location at Vanuatu and at Savaii, the big island of Samoa, the first major film to shoot there in 90 years, since Robert Flaherty made the classic silent film Moana of the South Seas.

Starting with 1922’s Arctic Circle-set Nanook of the North about Inuits’ way of life, Flaherty pioneered a form of ethno-filmmaking of  documentary-like films shot at remote locations. Moana of the South Seas, released in 1926, was his poetic follow-up to Nanook.

Disney’s 2016 animated feature probably derived its name from Flaherty’s exquisite black and white masterpiece, although in it, Moana is actually a teenaged male.

And instead of saving his island — let alone the planet — the Savaii villager’s goal is to undergo the painful traditional knee-to-navel tattooing of the “Fa’a Samoa” — the Samoan Way. Ninety years later, a cinematic highlight of Disney’s Moana are scenes in which Maui’s tattoos come to life on his body.

Some Polynesians have criticized the depiction of the ancient demigod of their pre-Christian religion, Maui, as obese. While it is true that Maui is portrayed as overweight in the film, Moana’s body type is a huge improvement over that of Disney’s other indigenous princess in 1995’s Pocahontas, where the young teenager was over-sexualized, illustrated as a voluptuous beauty, and given voice by Alaska-born Irene Bedard, an Inupiat Eskimo and French Canadian/Cree actress voted one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People.”

The cartoon Pocahontas was reportedly modeled on Bedard, who was about twice her character’s age at the time.
Despite the continued prevalence of South Seas celluloid stereotypes portraying Polynesian women as promiscuous, Moana — voiced by Cravalho when she was only 15 — is not sexualized in the film, and is depicted appropriately for a female character who is in early adolescence.

South Seas Cinema is a popular film genre dating back to 1898, and most of these movies set and shot in Oceania depict white characters as the protagonists, such as Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, and Mel Gibson portraying Fletcher Christian in various versions of the Bounty mutiny saga.

On the other hand, all of Moana’s human characters are aboriginal islanders co-existing in harmony with nature (at least until the ecosystem is menaced). Motunui’s inhabitants live in pre-contact Polynesia before European explorers arrived, followed by colonizers, missionaries, and merchants.

And like 2002’s Maori movie Whale Rider starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, with its spunky grrrrrrl power protagonist who confronts Maui and monsters alike, Moana also has an empowering feminist message.

The film’s relative authenticity and cultural sensitivity reflects the fact that the filmmakers traveled to the South Pacific and hired a team of Native cultural consultants to advise on the production. One advisor listed in Moana’s closing credits is Dr. Vilsoni Hereniko, a University of Hawaii professor, playwright, and moviemaker born on the Polynesian islet of Rotuma in Fiji.

Samoan-born songwriter Opetaia Foa’i — whose father is from Tokelau and mother from Tuvalu — co-created Moana’s music with Disney musical veteran Mark Mancina. All of the key cast members giving voice to the animated human characters are Polynesian, though the dramatis personae themselves are not identified as coming from any particular island group.

And according to the L.A. Times, the PG-rated, one hour and fifty-three minute Moana “will be the first Disney movie ever translated and re-recorded in Tahitian.”

Like Aesop’s Fables, Moana’s film fable has “a moral to the story.” With its rare depiction of an intact, untouched Polynesian culture, Moana shows how the issues of native lifestyles and climate change are inextricably bound up with one another; how indigenous peoples are among those most impacted by global warming.

Moana and Maui’s quest is to restore ecological balance to preserve traditional culture. Framed in the medium of computer-generated animation with some hand-drawn artwork, Moana presents an environmental, indigenous vision via mass entertainment for children of all ages.

• Ed Rampell is a L.A.-based reviewer/film historian Ed living in Oceania for 23 years who co-authored three film histories on South Seas Cinema, including The Hawaii Movie and Television Book.

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Hokulea sister ship Hikianalia

SUBHEAD: The Hikianalia is on her maiden voyage from New Zealand to Tahiti, before arriving at Hilo, Hawaii.

By Staff on 9 October 2012 for Hokulea.org -
(http://hokulea.org/uncategorized/october-9-pvs-press-release-on-the-hikianalia-voyage/)



Image above: Hikianalia was out of the water  for balancing the steering and orop pitch adjustment at the Salthouse Boat Builders in New Zealand. From (http://pacificvoyagers.org/preparing-hikianalia-for-her-first-voyage).

Like Hokulea, Hikianalia carries a Hawaiian star name. Spica (Hikianalia) rises together with Arcturus (Hokulea) in Hawaii. “They are sister stars because they break the horizon together, and Hikianalia will be the first wa‘a, or traditional double-hulled canoe, to accompany Hōkūle‘a as an escort vessel,” explains master navigator Bruce Blankenfeld.

Hikianalia will sail alongside Hōkūle‘a as part of the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s 2013 Worldwide Voyage and will be a vital component in the WWV’s educational endeavors.

Hikianalia is a high-tech, eco-friendly double-hulled canoe constructed by master boat builders in Auckland, New Zealand.  She is made from the same mold as the seven waka moana of the  Pacific Voyagers that sailed to Hawai‘i in 2011.

Hikinanalia has electric rather than diesel motors, and in-board propellers. She is 72 feet long, 23 feet wide, and weighs 30,000 gross tons.  Each of Hikianalia’s hulls contains an electric motor powered by onboard photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight to electric propulsive energy.

Hikianalia was launched in Auckland on September 15th.  Since then, crewmembers have put her through extensive sea trials.


Image above: crewmember Jenna Ishii helped Captain Bruce Blankenfeld inventory gear and manifest storage locations before voyage to Tahiti. From (http://pacificvoyagers.org/preparing-hikianalia-for-her-first-voyage).

“She has great balance and sails beautifully,” says Blankenfeld, who will captain Hikianalia from Aotearoa to Tahiti. “Like all canoes, she’s definitely a living entity and will be a faithful companion to Hokulea during the Worldwide Voyage.”

The Hikianalia is currently sailing from New Zealand (or Aotearoa, to the Maori), to Tahiti. Hikianalia is expected to reach Pape‘ete in 3 weeks, accompanied by the Tahitian canoe Fa‘afaite.  A new crew will sail Hikianalia to Hawaii from Tahiti and will make landfall in Hilo.    

Hikianalia Progress Report (2012-10-09 06:30 UTC/GMT; Oct 8, 20:30 HST)
(http://hokulea.org/hikianalia-aotearoa-hawaii/hikianalia-progress-report-2012-10-09-0630-utcgmt-oct-8-2030-hst/)

We had a nice peaceful day of sailing, slow at first, but a bit faster as we exited Hauraki Gulf and entered the Pacific Ocean itself. 

We cleared Cape Colville at the end of Coromandel Peninsula and Cuvier Island and are using those two landmasses to “back sight” as we face backwards while steering. 

Many of the crew braved icy buckets of green seawater for bracing baths during the sunny portion of this morning. The first bucket takes your breath away, but you really feel great when the whole process is over. Master chef Gary Yuen prepared the ono-like fish we caught today in a delicious fish and long rice dish topped off with Oreo cookies. 

We opened up a bit of a gap on Faafaite today, but slowed to be near each other throughout the night. It is good to have a companion on this voyage and we both benefit from each other’s company. Hikianalia is proving to be a smooth, crew-friendly sailor so far and we have all developed a deep affection for her already. 

Every day is a great new learning experience and we really benefit from the crew members who have many deep sea miles “under their keels” sharing their knowledge with the rest of us.

 

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Polynesians again tour Pacific

SUBHEAD: South Pacific islanders revive sail power with traditional fleet on year long Pacific Ocean tour.

 By Jan Lundberg on 15 August 2011 for Culture Change - 
(http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/769/1)

 
Image above: The sailing canoes which began their journey in New Zealand, arrive under the Golden Gate Bridge 8/3/11. From (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/hawaii/detail?entry_id=94575).

On April 19, 2011, five 60-foot boats left Auckland, New Zealand to set off on a year's voyage. Stops have included a sacred Polynesian homeland known as Hawaii, the end of one of the longer legs of a round-the-Pacific tour. A sixth boat had joined at Cook Islands, and a seventh in Tahiti. The crews represent the biggest traditional transport and exchange of Polynesian islanders in modern times.

The nearly identical boats are traditionally configured but modern canoes - a catamaran rig called a waka (or vaka or va'a according to dialect). They are too tall in the water to paddle. I was able to meet up with them in beautiful Monterey Bay, central California. When I asked if these boats were of original design, a crew member told me "hundreds of boats like this came out to meet Captain Cook at one of his early calls."

Just as important as the sailing of these traditional craft is perhaps the navigation method employed, handed down for uncounted generations by a revered master to a chosen student. It's not just about reading the stars, but the waves, wind, birds, and more.

To complement tradition and bow to 21st century demands, the fleet has high-tech assists, such as auxiliary power in the form of twin submersible electric engines for each boat, powered by solar panels. The motor power, good for 5 knots for 8 hours per charge, is just for maneuvering in and out of harbors. The batteries are not so heavy that sailing speed is compromised, but each engine is always lifted out of the water by pulleys for sailing.

The prime supporter making the project possible is the Okeanos Foundation, Germany. It is producing a feature-length documentary film on the voyage called "Blue Canoe" -- referring to our Earth home.

From Monterey the fleet is -- at the moment I write this -- on its way to Malibu, working its way down to San Diego where it will winter. Then from Mexico it's on to the Gallapagos, and the South Seas. The last official stop will be an arts festival in the Solomon Islands, the end of the voyage next July.

Six boats were at anchor on August 13 in Monterey Bay, backed right up to the sand. The seventh waka had remained in Hawaii for training, and returned to Tahiti. Out in Monterey Bay at anchor was the accompanying support ketch serving as home for the film crew. The formal name for the fleet is Fleet Tavaru 2011, "Te Mana o te Moana" - The Spirit of the Sea.

I felt that what crossed the world's biggest ocean, laying in front of me, was historic. But to then go out on the waves and speed along in a traditional catamaran canoe under sail was more than exhilarating. The large swells were like gentle souls for our craft, Te Matau a Maui, gracefully moving along as fast as 9 knots. The crew were patient all the while as they let visitors on at the shore for free, to go riding together and help out with rigging and steering. It wasn't a time for the usual activist networking, but I did mention to a couple of voyagers, "this is what the Sail Transport Network is about."

 
Image above: The canoes of the Pacific Voyagers expedition at rest in San Francisco Bay 8/6/11. From (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/hawaii/detail?entry_id=94575).

It was beautiful to be on the shores of the same Pacific that has been shared with the Polynesians from time immemorial. It was a red letter day for me, and a red letter year for dozens of young Polynesians connecting with their roots:
"We are a group of Pacific Islanders who have come together from many nations, sailing as one across the Pacific Ocean. We are voyaging to strengthen our ties with the sea, renew our commitment to healthy ecosystems for future generations, and to honour our ancestors who have sailed before us."
I was glad to hook up the voyagers and organizers with Capt. Charles Moore, author of the upcoming definitive book on the plastic plague, Plastic Ocean. Wakas had collected samples of plastic trash north of Hawaii in the infamous garbage patch discovered by Moore.

I was tempted to offer to join crew, so I offered although there's a waiting list. The nice people involved are an inducement. I soon found myself being interviewed on camera for the feature length documentary, and I spoke of peak oil, climate change, sail transport and the plastic plague. This was one of my greatest opportunities to date to potentially expand the Sail Transport Network by including the Pacific Voyagers in the network as well as telling a film audience about STN. Our network unites peoples and their cultures, and its work has barely begun as the globalized world gets back to human-scale proportions and natural values.

Many voices create the Pacific Voyagers' blog. Such as, after a closing ceremony before leaving for Maui, two crew members wrote,
What the hell do we think we're doing? Are we so lazy and stupid that for the sake of convenience we won't change our lives? Is it too much for us to stop using plastics, stop driving fossil fuel cars and take the focus off profit and back onto people? The collapse of our world in various ways, social and environmental, is evidence enough that our systems haven't worked. There is a huge groundswell of dissatisfaction building on many fronts. - Tihei Mauri Ora, What will your legacy be? - Dunc and Haunui.
Fleet Tavaru 2011 arrived in Hilo, Hawaii, on the 18th of June 2011, and blogged:
"The fleet was greeted with chanting and hula dances by our Hawaiian cousins; each va’a participated in a braiding ceremony connecting tea leaves to a set of stones in the middle. The inspiration of this ceremony reflects the braided leaves as tentacles of the fe’e (octopus) reaching out to everyone, regardless of the distance and the differences each Island is connected. Afterwards, the navigators and captains were invited to take the braided tea leaves up to a hill next to the cliffs; according to oral history this hill was used for navigators of the old to train."
"The crew feel invested in a cultural and environmental responsibility. We honor our canoes of a new type, we honor those who participated the revival of traditional navigation in the wake of Hokule'a, Hawaiki Nui o Te au o Tonga, and Hawaii Loa Makali'i, Te aurere. This is the first time that so many people of the great ocean come together to convey a message, that of protecting our common heritage: the Pacific Ocean 'Te Moana Nui Hiva.' To end commercial over fishing, pollution and the killing of protected animals. A shout to the world so that the ocean and its resources, both natural and cultural, are preserved for future generations, the ocean is the cradle of our civilization and the reason to live for millions of islanders."

Written from the boat I sailed on, the Te Matau a Maui:
"Te Matau a Maui, the waka with its Maori Crew no Aotearoa, are coming to the culmination of yet another leg on their voyage throughout the pacific. 'Te Mana o te Moana' is a message that this waka and six others carry to the world. The message is about indigenous peoples standing up for their heritage that has been abused by generations of uncaring people polluting our ocean and ravaging the life-giving elements of this ocean we call home through overfishing and through mishandling the resources within our ocean. Te Matau a Maui is a voice saying enough is enough. Let us preserve this taonga/gift for our future generations."

Source information:
See the website for the Pacific Voyagers, PacificVoyagers.org
SailTransportNetwork.com
Monterey blog entry: Monterey Magic, blog date Aug. 12, 2011. (On the way to Monterey they saw a few kinds of whales and great white sharks.)
Voyage quotations are from pacificvoyagers.org/voyage/blogs.
Capt. Charles Moore's upcoming book from Penguin is Plastic Ocean, announced on Culture Change. His organization's website: Algalita Marine Research Foundation, maker of the award winning film Our Synthetic Sea.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Clear sky over Polynesian canoes 7/12/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Polynesians again reach Hawaii 6/26/11
Ea O Ka Aina: The Sail Transport Network 6/6/11
Island Breath: The Future of Ocean Sail 1/21/08
Island Breath: Rethinking the Sail 12/25/07

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Clear sky over Polynesian canoes

SUBHEAD: Chemtrail clear skies while ocean going Polynesian canoes are in Hanalei Bay on Kauai.
   
By Brad Parsons on 12 July 2011 For Hawaiian Environmental Awareness - (http://www.facebook.com/groups/106449912779150?id=120985194658955)

 
Image above: Canoes shortly after they arrived in Hanalei Bay on July 6th. From (http://thegardenisland.com/image_ed24f4b4-a86e-11e0-a794-001cc4c002e0.html).

Today, 11 July 2011, there are six voyaging sailing canoes (wa'a) from the South Pacific getting ready to leave Hanalei Bay on Kauai after having arrived in late June. I just realized, the past few days while the canoes have been here, we have not had chemtrails sprayed on us. Does the U.S. Air Force respect these visitors more than the residents on Kauai? We'll see if the chemtrails return in a few days.

 
Image above: View of canoes framed by mountains above Hanalei Bay. From original article.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Polynesians again reach Hawaii 6/26/11
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Polynesians again reach Hawaii

SUBHEAD: Navigators from Polynesia land seven canoes with crew from 14 islands at Kualoa, Oahu.  

By Gorden Y. K. Pang on 26 June 2011 for the Star Advertiser - (http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20110626_Navigators_from_Polynesia_land_their_canoes_at_Kualoa.html)


Image above: Pererika Makiha aboard the Te Matau a Maui was among the crew members waiting to be shuttled off their voyaging canoe to Kualoa Regional Park. From original article.
 
The sun broke briefly through the overcast sky over Kualoa Regional Park Saturday morning as the crew members from seven canoes that had journeyed across the Pacific made their way to shore.

The voyagers, who numbered well more than 100 people, came from 14 island nations in the South Pacific, including Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Tonga and New Guinea.

It was a chicken-skin moment for many of the 1,000-plus people who gathered to greet them and understood the symbolism of the arrival. Hokule‘a, the first double-hulled voyaging canoe to make its way across the Pacific through traditional celestial navigation in 600 years, set off for its mission to Tahiti from Kualoa in 1975.

Thirty-five years later, navigators from the nations touched by Hokule‘a had come here, also relying on the stars to find land.

Frank Kawe, who captained the Aotearoa vessel Te Matau A Maui, said, "It's important to complete this aspect of the journey — to bring the newer people who've begun voyaging and sailing from our part of the Pacific up to meet the family that's been here and has been doing this work for 35 years," Kawe said. "These are some of the lifelong friends we've made over the years that have hosted us, that have fed us, that have trained us."

Kailua resident John Myrdal, who paddles recreationally in Lanikai, sat on the beach alone and watched in awe at the seven canoes, constructed in Aotearoa specifically for this journey, sat moored side by side in the bay with the flags of different nations flapping in the wind.

"Any time people from different backgrounds and cultures can get together — it's a good thing to reconcile the differences we may have had in the past in this world. You can't help but be impressed by the camaraderie and people acting as one human race."

Nani Kauka of Kailua canceled all the other activities she had planned for the day so she could attend the "once-in-a-lifetime" event.

Polynesians are "getting back to realizing that we are probably one of the greatest voyaging cultures in the world," Kauka said. "What Hokule‘a did was instill in the rest of the Polynesians a desire to reclaim their cultures."

The mission of the voyage, dubbed "Te Mana o te Moana" or "The Spirit of the Sea," is to promote global awareness of increasing threats to the environment and the world's oceans, the Pacific in particular. It is sponsored by Okeanos — Foundation for the Sea, a nonprofit founded by German native Dieter Paulmann.

The voyage began in Aotearoa in April and arrived in Hilo a week ago. While on Oahu during the next 10 days, representatives from the project will take part in Kava Bowl Ocean Summit 2011 at the Imin International Conference Center. After a stop on Kauai, the contingent will head to California.

Billy Richards, one of Hokule‘a's original crew members, said the voyage has not only brought the peoples of the different island nations closer, but also has helped provide what essentially are classrooms for a new generation of Pacific navigators.

The voyage's message of environmental awareness was also repeated throughout Saturday's celebration.

"The Earth's in trouble," said Hokule‘a master navigator Nainoa Thompson, chief executive of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. "And the one piece that needs to be saved first — because otherwise nothing else will make it — is the oceans. And I would argue that the largest, the most magnificent and the most powerful ocean of them all is the Pacific. And if we lose the Pacific, ecologically, it's over.".

Attack on Rapa Nui natives

SUBHEAD: Chilean police use force to oust indigenous people on Easter Island out of their homes.  

By Staff on 4 December 2010 for the BBC - 
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11917511

 
Image above: Photo of Rapa Nui woman with head injury from confrontation with Chilean police. From BBC article.
"The land on this island has always been Rapa Nui. That's why we're asking for our land to be returned” Maka Atan - Rapa Nui lawyer

At least 25 people have been injured during clashes between Chilean police and local people on Easter Island. 

Witnesses say police fired pellets as they tried to evict several indigenous inhabitants from buildings they occupied earlier this year.

The Rapa Nui group say the buildings were illegally taken from their ancestors several generations ago.

Easter Island, which was annexed by Chile in 1888, is a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Chilean security forces began their operation in the early hours of the morning, says reports.

When the group refused to leave and others gathered at the scene, they opened fire with pellet guns.
Officials said 17 police officers and eight civilians had been injured. But the Rapa Nui put the number of injured locals at 19, and denied that any police had been hurt.

A number of people were also arrested and at least one person was air-lifted to the mainland for medical treatment.

A statement on the Save Rapa Nui website said several people had been shot at close range. It said police had used rubber bullets and tear gas.

"They injured at least 23 of our brothers and sisters, three of them seriously," Edi Tuki, a relative of one of those injured, told the Efe news agency.

"One was shot in the eye with a buckshot pellet from just a metre away."

'Shooting to kill'
Maka Atan, a Rapa Nui lawyer, told the Associated Press police had been "shooting to kill". He said he was shot in the back by pellets.

"It seems like this is going to end with them killing the Rapa Nui," he said.

Rapa Nui is the official name for the remote Easter Island, which lies more than 3,200 km (2,000 miles) off the west coast of Chile.

The tiny island has a population of about 4,000 but is best known for its ancient giant carved stone heads, known as Moais.

The indigenous Rapa Nui people have been protesting for the past three months about what say are plans to develop the island, as immigration and tourism increase.

They are demanding the return of ancestral land they say was unlawfully seized from their grandparents.

"The land on this island has always been Rapa Nui. That's why we're asking for our land to be returned," Mr Maka told AP.

"Nobody has said this is a normal situation," said Raul Celis. "There was an eviction, and buildings had been occupied illegally for several months."
Mr Celis said the evictions would continue.

Media reports said police reinforcements were traveling to the island from the mainland.

Dozens Hurt on Easter Island 

By Staff on 3 December 2010 for The Associated Press -  
(http://www.npr.org/2010/12/03/131799036/dozens-hurt-in-easter-island-land-disputes?sc=17&f=1001)

  
Image above: Rapa Nui queen and entourage in 1877 after relocation to South America. From (http://www.chauvet-translation.com/figurelegends.htm). 

A land dispute on Easter Island turned violent Friday when riot police evicting islanders from their ancestral home were surrounded by rock-throwing protesters.

About two dozen people were injured in a seven-hours-long confrontation. The clash began at 5 a.m. when officers moved in to evict 10 people from the home they had been occupying since ousting a government official from the property in September, Rapa Nui lawyer Maka Atan told The Associated Press.

The Rapa Nui resisted and the violence left 17 officers and eight civilians hurt, according to police.

Three islanders and one policeman were evacuated to mainland Chile for treatment. But protesters said that 19 islanders were injured and denied seeing any police hurt. The official native name of Easter Island, known for its stunning gigantic stone heads known as Moais, is Rapa Nui, and that's what many natives call themselves, refusing to identify with Chile, which annexed the island in 1888.

In recent years, tourism and migration have increased pressure to control available land on the 10 mile by 15 mile island, and the Rapa Nui have increasingly taken matters into their own hands, seizing a dozen properties they said were illegally taken from their families generations ago.

A woman who answered the local government official's phone in the island's main town of Hanga Roa said there would be no official comment on Friday's violence.

But Atan, speaking by phone from the island 2,237 miles west of Chile, said riot police used batons and shotguns against them, firing pellets at close range at their heads. He said he himself was shot in the back with pellets.

Images shared with The AP show several islanders bleeding from head wounds. About a dozen buildings are currently being occupied by Rapa Nui people, who say Chile illegally took their family's ancestral homes on tiny Easter Island, where a total population of fewer than 5,000 people include about 2,200 Rapa Nuis.

The island's top government authority, Valparaiso Gov. Raul Celis, said from mainland Chile that "the evictions will continue." Chilean media reported that a planeload of police reinforcements was on its way to the island. Atan said he witnessed police firing pellet guns at people's faces from a distance of just one yard. "They were shooting to kill. It seems like this is going to end with them killing the Rapa Nui," he said, adding: "The land on this island has always been Rapa Nui.

That's why we're asking for our land to be returned." .

Yap Island Photo Journal

SOURCE: Andy Parx (andyparx@yahoo.com) covered this article here.
SUBHEAD: Just four decades ago Yap Island was much like Hawaii in the 18th century.

 By Damon Tucker on 13 December 2009 in Damon Tucker Blog -
(http://damontucker.com/2009/12/13/1966-yap-and-the-outter-islands-a-photo-journal)



Image above: A typical Yap house in 1966 is part of Damon Tucker's photo journal.  

[Editor's Note: Yap Island is about 15 miles long, 800 miles north of Papua New Guinea and 800 miles east of the Philppines. Please visit links for a delightful, educational, photo essay.]


In 1961, my mother, Su Rowe Tucker, moved to Pahala, on the Big Island where her father and mother (My Grandparents) Dr. P.E. (Ted) Rowe and Elizabeth (Betty) Rowe were the Physician/Surgeon for the private Pahala Hospital run by C. Brewer Corp.

In 1965, Dr. Rowe (my grandfather) was hired for two years by the US Federal Government to run the Yap Hospital from 1965 to 1967. In 1966, my mom and my two uncles, Bob and Mike Rowe, went to visit them in Yap. The posts evoke mixed feelings showing an indigenous culture and a Michener-like juxtaposition with the fish-out-of-water westerners. It’s a simple lifestyle that a short 40-plus years ago was apparently reminiscent of Hawai`i in the late 18th and early 19th century and it’s hard not to feel both wistful and angry that neither exists anymore today.

To see more:
Part I: Introduction
Part II: Who
Part III: Moms Tale of Arrival
Part IV: A Yapese Party
Part V: The Homes and Structures of Yap
Part VI: Quotes from the Diary (Part A)
Part VII: Quotest from the Diary (Part B)

See also:
Island Breath: Hawaii before the crowds 10/12/07

Hobbits and Menehunes

SUBHEAD: Could hobbits from Indonesia be the stuff of Menehune legends?

 By Juan Wilson on 11 May 2009 in Island Breath -  
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2009/05/hobbits-and-menehunes.html)


Image above: Still from video on Homo floresiensis discovery in Liang Bua Cave in Indonesia. From http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=103934319&m=103943549  

Did Menehune Discover Hawaii?
Since moving to Hawaii I have heard many stories of the Mehehune. Some are fantastic tales that involve legend and mystery. Others are more practical explanations of the Polynesian historic experience. The stories seem to share on several characteristics about the Menehune. They were small in stature, but strong. They were industrious and clever. They were reclusive and secretive. They were mischievous.

Another common theme in stories about Menehune is that they could be relied upon to do heavy labor tasks, beyond what could be expected from their small stature. The Menehune were clever craftsmen on civil engineering projects.  They worked through the night. Legendary stories about "wee" people are not uncommon throughout the world. The Irish have their Leprechauns and many cultures have their dwarfs, elves, sprites and fairies.

One thing different about Menehunes is that they seem to have some historic reality. Some stories place Menehune living on Kauai until recent times, hiding out in closed valleys along the Na Pali and isolated locations in the upper reaches of the island. There are records indicating that Menehune were counted in the first population census in the mid 19th century.

My opinion about the historic reality of Menehune has been that they may have been the earliest discoverers of Hawaii. I agree with those who believe that the first Polynesians arrived in Hawaii in the 3rd century from the Marquises and were followed by Tahitian settlers in AD 1300 who conquered the original inhabitants. It is well documented that the Polynesian culture evolved from Southeast Asia. Our ancestors spread from Africa, crossed Asia and eventually found their way throughout what is now Indonesia and New Guinea, before developing the Polynesian culture that discovered Hawaii.

That culture spread an agrarian package of chickens, pigs and dogs as well as sweet potato, taro and breadfruit. This was a hearty and resilient package for sailing off to distant undiscovered tropical islands. However, this package included no metal or draft animals. That meant that no matter how sophisticated their culture, the Polynesians were limited by doing work within the bounds of manual labor, using stone-age tools. (Read Jared Diamond's "Collapse" and "Gun, Steel and Germs" for background on the role of domestication of animals and plants in the development of civilizations.)  

Were these Hobbits the Menehune?
Something I heard on the radio this weekend has added a new wrinkle to my thoughts on Polynesian history and the legends of the Menehune. A recent National Public Radio Broadcast of "Science Friday", updated a fascinating story that featured Stony Brook University anthropologist Bill Jungers, who discussed the skeleton of a recently discovered humanoid species.

The discovery was made in 2003 on an Indonesian island named Flores (Flower Island). Flores lies southeast of Java, and Sumatra and west of East Timor. A team of Australian anthropologists (Peter Brown and Michael Morwood) conducted a dig in the Liang Bua Cave. About twenty feet below the current floor of the cave they unearthed a new species of hominid they named named Homo Floresiensis. It was soon nicknamed The Hobbit. The nickname stuck because of the diminutive height (three feet) and large feet of H. floresiensis.

The feet are chimpanzee-like while the arms and hands more human-like. The bones discovered in Liang Bua Cave were about 17,000 years old. The species is thought to have survived on Flores until as recently as 12,000 years ago making it the longest-lasting non-modern human, surviving long past the Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) which became extinct about 24,000 years ago. Due to a deep neighboring strait, Flores remained isolated during the last glacial period. This has led the discoverers of H. floresiensis to conclude the species, or its ancestors, could only have reached the isolated island by water transport, perhaps on bamboo rafts around 100,000 years ago.

This idea of H. floresiensis using cooperation and technology on a modern human level has prompted the discoverers to hypothesize that the Hobbit almost certainly had language. These suggestions have been some of the most controversial of the discoverers' findings. One thing seems clear from the time line. The Hobbits of Flores coexisted with some the modern humans in Indonesia. Some of those humans migrated on and eventually became Polynesians. There may be oral legends about H. floresiensis that are based on historical facts and personal contact. These oral histories may be the basis of our Menehune legends.  

Could humans have used draft hominids?
Let me throw in another idea. This, obviously, is not supported by any anthropological evidence. And this is not meant to be a scientific argument - just a socio-anthropological thought experiment to explain some of the content of the Menehune legends. What if H. floresiensis were used by early Indonesian modern humans as domesticated animals? There are not many species of animals that have ever been domesticated.

There are only a few large draft animals that include the horse, ox, camel and llama. One key to human domestication of another species is that the animal grouped itself in herds or packs and is obedient to an alpha-leader. Is it possible that H. floresiensis and humans learned to share a language and were domesticated by humans? Is it possible that H. floresiensis traded its independence for safety as the laborers for a larger dominant parental species? Certainly, humans have been able to rationalize the use of slave-labor of their own species to this day.

 See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_floresiensis
Island Breath: TGI#11 - The Future Polynesian Package 8/24/07
Island Breath: Legend of the Menehune Fish Pond 6/14/2004

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