The key aim of this project is to secure a future for traditional Pacific vessel construction and navigational knowledge. The knowledge of building open ocean-going vessels from locally available natural resources and their non-instrument navigation was disrupted decades and centuries ago by settler colonialism and the ‘civilising’ mission in most regions of Oceania. Only few voyaging schools in the Western Pacific can still draw on traditional knowledge. This knowledge, too, is in danger of disappearing, partly though the effects of dramatic climatic changes. This project supports the building of two new secure hale vaka (traditional canoe houses) and two new open ocean-going vessels (vaka). It works with two voyaging schools: The

Halau Vaka Taumako Association in the remote eastern Solomon Islands, and Pasana Group in the easternmost archipelago of Papua New Guinea.

The building of hale vaka and vaka at Taumako and Nuakata Island will involve entire island and inter-island communities. All processes will be documented by teams of specifically trained video documentarians from within the communities. The project serves as a model project for other Oceanian voyaging schools.

The Pacific covers about one third of the surface of the planet. When European expeditions began to venture into this space in the 16th century, they found even the remotest archipelagos settled by diverse Oceanian communities.

Mainly as a consequence of the onslaught of settler colonialism and missionary activities, however, traditional voyaging in Oceania to uphold ties of kinship and trade was severely disrupted. Only few voyaging schools in Oceania can still draw on ancestral traditions. These traditions, too, are disappearing with the last expert elders of the current generation. Their work is aggravated not only by a lack of financial resources, but particularly by a lack of secure constructions to protect the communal building sites, communication and documentary infrastructure, but most importantly the traditional vessels themselves from sea level rise and increasingly extreme weather conditions. And yet, traditional vessels which only depend on local cycles of regeneration and repair are integral to the survival of remote island communities that are irregularly serviced by cargo boats or, as during the Covid pandemic, cut off from modern services for years altogether. The project addresses its goals by means of two larger interrelated measures: the building of two canoe houses (hale vaka), one on Taumako and one in Milne Bay, in the first project year; and the building of two open-ocean voyaging vessels (vaka) with the communities in Taumako and in Milne Bay in the second project year. Both measures are intrinsically interrelated. While the open-ocean voyaging vessels appear more immediately related to Indigenous knowledges in need of support and protection, the hale vaka provide the very infrastructure that facilitates this in the long term.

During the entire project phase, there is a focus on teaching youth, and on documenting the ancestral designs, methods, materials, tools, and cultural processes. Each of the local project directors – Luke Vaikawi in Taumako, and Sanakoli John in the Massim, PNG – are working with a core training team of around 60 people: 20 men, 20 women and 20 youth respectively (while entire island and inter-island communities join the workforce whenever needed).

The major material aims of the project are: The construction of two solid hale vaka (canoe houses), on Taumako in the eastern Solomon Islands and on Nuakata in the Massim, PNG (year 1); the construction and sea trials of two ocean-going vessels, in Taumko and the Massim (year 2); and the compilation of systematic written, audio and video documentation of all cultural processes. Immaterial aims are: The involvement of entire island and interisland communities in the construction of hale vaka and the vaka (voyaging canoes) themselves to strengthen intergenerational ties, cultural identity and knowledge transmission; the establishment of a model training programme involving the teaching of both female and male expert elders, and the training of youth in video documentation, editing and archiving; the revival of ancient voyaging networks within and across the targeted regions; and the training and empowerment of the two local voyaging schools to administer grant funding, and to apply for follow-up grants themselves. The project shall set a procedural model for other voyaging schools in the region.

Title Ms.

Dr. Marianne "Mimi" George

Street and no. P.O. Box 189
Postal code 96703
Anahola HI

United States of America

Pacific Traditions Society
Kaua'i, Hawai'i, USA

Email: info@ptsoc.org

Website: https://www.vaka.org

Holau Vaka Taumako Association and Pasana Group.

The Gerda Henkel Foundation was established in June 1976 by Lisa Maskell in memory of her mother Gerda Henkel as an incorporated foundation under civil law, headquartered in Düsseldorf.

The Gerda Henkel Foundation provides financial support for the historical humanities. Research projects that explore current issues in a larger historical context or consciously focus on topics of relevance to the present or the future receive support from programmes of a limited duration such as the the special programme “Forced Migration”, or the “Democracy” and “Lost Cities” funding programmes. As part of the Lisa Maskell Fellowship programme, the Foundation supports young scholars in the humanities in both Africa and Southeast Asia. With its “Patrimonies” funding initiative, it promotes the preservation of the cultural heritage, specifically in regions experiencing crisis. In connection with funded projects, the Foundation also provides assistance for social support measures as part of complementary projects. The Gerda Henkel Foundation can by virtue of its statutes pursue its objectives both inside and outside Germany.

Website: https://www.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/en/

2024 – Build canoe houses

2025 – Build ancestral voyaging vessels