All language subtitles for We, The Voyagers- Our Vaka - PBS. org

I am Lata.

I was born on the island of Tumaco.

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.

Thank you.

My name is Simon Salopuka.

I was born on the island of Tamako.

On Tamako, our ancestor is Lata, the
first voyage.

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 Island.

Lata named the vessel Tepuke.

There's a lot of water, a lot of sand,
and there's a lot of water here.

There's a lot of water, a lot of sand,
and there's a lot of water here.

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 Dickson had

actually joined the crew of a tepuke.

and made a voyage.

My name is Dixon Holland and I'm a
cameraman from Tumaco.

We call him the bush journalist.

I also grew up on Tumaco. I remember
sailing in small

dugout canoes.

I was afraid.

To me, it seemed to be very dangerous.

Yeah, if you drift out for more than two
weeks or three weeks and you don't have

food, you are lucky to be dead.

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
sell it, like lata.

My

grandfather

was the paramount chief of Taumako.

When he first asked me to be a
cameraman, I got a big question in my

Can I do it?

As a child, I left Tamako to go to
school, and I studied to become a

doctor.

I spent 20 years away from home.

living in other countries and working at
a hospital in the capital city Hunyara.

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 Tomako, I saw that it
was true.

The old people were teaching how to
build and sell lattice cannons.

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

I'm

an anthropologist and a sailor

I loved 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

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 Solomons.

When I met Mimi in 2005, she told me
that our word for voyaging canoes,

waka, had the same meaning all around
the Pacific.

I wanted to learn more about what
outsiders think about my people and

with what my people know.

There is evidence that about 5 ,000
years ago, people from Taiwan sailed to

distant Pacific islands.

It's clear that the sea around Talmaco
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

islands.

There are bones to prove it.

We even have a place called... There are
at least 18

long -settled Polynesian islands in the
Western Pacific.

Today, over 1 ,200 Austronesian
languages are spoken from Taiwan to

Madagascar to Rapa Nui.

and we tell Lata stories.

Lata has different names in different
places.

People on Taiwan still give offerings to
laka, 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 cannon.

Wherever Rata went, he also left
children there.

He must have had wives all over the
Pacific.

That sounds like my great -grand -uncle
Tawake.

His cell is the pukai all over Temotu.

Wanikoro. Utapua, Ticopia, 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 Taumaco.

but they gave very little description of
them.

They did say that they saw one at sea
that was 20 meters long and had 50

on board.

19th century European paintings show
canoes near Talmaco with massive

outriggers and crescent -shaped sails,
but the details are few.

When the Spanish face came to Tamako,
they met Tumai, our great chief.

He tried to keep the peace, but they
kidnapped four men from an island to

them navigate.

We never saw them again.

Great Britain's finest navigator,
Captain James Cook, realized that

navigated using very different methods
from his own.

During his first voyage, Cook met a
Tahitian navigator named Tupaya and

him aboard the ship.

Using no physical instruments, Tupaya
indicated the direction of 130 islands

and how many days it took to sail to
many of them.

Cook never learned how Tupaya 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?

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, fishing, and living our
tradition, what we call

custom.

Custom 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 fish.

According to my custom belief, if I go
to that island, the spirits might take

life.

So I never visited that island.

Tamako 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 horses.

We lost many of our crops and fruit
trees.

Sailing around the southeastern Solomon
Islands can be dangerous.

The sea is rough.

Some ships trying to reach Tamako 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

separating. Many of the old people had
passed away.

I really missed them.

I was worried that there would 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

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 goods. trade goods.

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

. .

.

. .

. .

. .

.

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.

People here need boats. They can build
from local materials and maintain by

themselves.

Sustainable sea transportation.

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

and find land just as accurately as
anyone using European instruments.

David wrote about this in We the
Navigators, and soon people around the

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 -grand -uncle 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.

David and I sailed together for many
years.

By 1993, he was losing his vision and
hearing.

He wanted to visit the Southeast
Solomons one last time to say goodbye to

Tevaque's crew who might still be alive.

When we arrived at Taumaco, we met with
Tevaque's one -time steersman, Coloso

Cavea, who was over 80 years old.

Chief Cavea 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,

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 Cruz de Cabea, the paramount chief
and in

control of Tamaco.

My father is Latin.

I can remember Chief Cabea from when I
was a child.

He was our most respected elder, so we
called him Tematua.

The name Kavea means star path.

I remember he was very strict.

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

He was a master navigator, I'm a very
powerful man.

When he spoke, people listened.

He knew how to deal with difficulties.

Our chief was generous and wise.

The community counted on him for help.

It was one of Cavea's main
responsibilities as paramount chief to

wind.

and the seas.

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

Anything and everything he told me about
the weather or told me was going to

happen about the weather, no matter how
wild and impossible it seemed from the

point of view of Western knowledge,
every single thing was right.

He never missed once.

People don't usually believe me.

But I saw Tematua stop an advancing
storm. The wind became calm and the

cleared away.

He made a short meditation as he lashed
the sticks to the Vaka and he pointed

them towards the storm.

When he set these various sticks up and
said his prayers and

pointed them at, 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 Kabea's

confidence and knowledge.

Kavea told his crew how to overcome
problems, like if the vaka was damaged

sea.

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

Lata is the name, not just of the
original Lata, but also for any leader

voyage, any time.

Kaweah was the living Lata.

Me no say count them anything, lo see.

No matter me float for one week or two
weeks, lo see.

But me still think that, uh,

buy a wind come yet, yeah. Because he'm
not teaching me about him, that one.

Then him pass over and go, lo, dive lo
me. Then dive lo me and put him come.

And me hear him, lo, previous time, lo,
time, lo, to grannies, where, or to

ancestors, or to sailing before, lo, to
say face him this one too, yeah.

If we want to sail confidently, we need
a seaworthy vessel, so we asked our

grandfather how to build a tepuke.

His answer surprised us.

The people must eat well so that their
tools eat the wood.

Cavea's grandchildren asked him to tell
more about how to build a tepuque.

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 Teube.

Teube bird was trapped with her leg
entangled in a vine.

Some people passed by and Teube 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.

When I was a child, I used to go to
school, and I used to go to school,

and I used to go to school, and I used
to go to school.

As the Lata of his time, Chief Kabea had
a vision for his community to build and

sail a new Te Puke.

He asked me for help, and I agreed.

I was honored to join the crew of Lata.

Chief Kavea asked permission before
cutting the tree because he knew the

story of Lata.

and he did not want to make the same
mistake that Lata did.

While Lata was resting something
surprising

happened to his tree.

I don't know what happened.

I don't know what happened.

I don't know what happened.

I don't know what happened. I don't know
what happened.

What is your name?

What is your

name?

. .

.

. .

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know what I'm saying.

I don't know what I'm saying.

. . . . .

Hey!

So Lata got his Vaka tree down to the
ocean.

But again, he behaved badly.

Then you give him karma Naravanya for
blow you in aura for me use him but

blow me for the best one yeah Then he
himself in aura me selling go out little

bit Time by me blow me just open him
blow you yeah, this one me give him

then you just blow him Hey Lata inside
lotte puka in aura stand up Los Angeles

Lata go out go outside lotte veni Then
him just blow na yeah If you don't know

how to do it, try to do it, but there's
no place for you to do it.

If you don't know how to do it, there's
no place for you to do it.

If you don't know how to do it, try to
do it, but there's no place for you to

it. If you don't know how to do it, try
to do it, but there's no place for you

to do it.

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

Now, He had to grow up at sea.

When Chief Kaweah began to teach a new
generation how to build and navigate a

teppuke, he also wanted his
grandchildren to video the work so that

learn.

In 1998, Kaweah and his crew sailed
their new Te Puke from

Kalmakau to the Outer Reef Islands.

The people living on this island are
Taumako's closest family and were once

our traditional voyaging partners.

When they saw the work arrive, they were
so amazed and they felt a lot of

emotion about Latos' return to Nifiloli.

The people of Nifiloli gave Chief
Cabella a roll of red feather money

as a traditional sign of respect and
welcome.

The community embraced the crew as
family.

Women brought ashore baskets of gift
foods from Talmaco.

People rekindled old connections and
made new ones.

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 he could meet some more wives.

It's been a long time.

It's been a long time.

It's been a long

time.

The younger generation wanted to learn
more from their chief and teacher.

But then, Cavea joined the ancestors.

We thought Cavea was the only patient
who really knew it all.

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

They did not have Kavea's vast
experience at sea, and they were very

themselves, but they were willing to
teach what they knew.

Jonas Solani became Aulata.

The new crew will include Kaveh -san,
Fox Boda, Jonas

-san, Ambrose, Mickey, Harry Vanossi,
and Reginald Yossi.

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 came home, I was 17 years old.

I was 21 or 22 years old.

When I came home, I cut the tree and it
was already dead.

Sometimes I cut the tree and it was
already dead.

Under the direction of Chief Jonas,

the community is building a new baka.

The new baka is smaller than a
traditional tepuke, but this training

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 the spirit 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.

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

But he needed a full crew. He would have
to learn to walk with others.

But again, he behaved badly.

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

In the lagoon at Tamako, 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 lacquer fit together.

Custom is our identity.

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

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

Their fibers and those of other plants
are then twisted to become

cords, ropes and lashings.

The community uses these

lashings to secure the crossbeams.

the outrigger, the deck, and the other
parts of the vacca.

The lashings allow flexing between parts
of the vacca, so the parts themselves

do not break in heavy seas.

The Vaka embodies Lata.

Sitting on each end of the Vaka,
supporting the cell, is Teubebe,

Lata's guide and helper.

The cell represents Lata with his arms
stretched over his head to catch the

wind. It is the cannon'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,

Taumaku 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
baka will sail well.

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

Hello Lalo.

Thank you.

I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know.

In Tamako, the old people, they don't
read and write.

They do not stand in the classroom and
teach.

To learn how to build a waka, you must
see how they do it, and you do it

yourself.

This is how we learn.

The new

waka is completed.

Now Alata 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 Alata's
crew.

I want to learn how Alata navigated. I
want to find out what happened to my

family on Nifiloli.

I want to share the navigation system
that Chief Kavea showed me.

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

We will begin to navigate the open ocean
in our waka or lata.

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

too.

Let's go sailing.

Thank you.

God bless you.