| Description |
Communities in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and in particular, communities of the outer islands of Yap state, continue the age-old indigenous traditions of building long distance ocean voyaging sailing canoes from local materials; and of traditional ocean navigation (wayfinding) without maps or instruments. As such, these communities preserve (their local versions of) the technical and intellectual traditions which are the last vestiges of indigenous traditions involving crafts, sustainable materials, design, mathematics and navigational reasoning. These traditions and technologies made possible the settlement of thousands of islands across the entire vast Pacific Ocean. These traditions are now lost in most Pacific nations. It is of note that the much celebrated Polynesian seafaring renaissance, and the history-changing voyages of the Hokule’a, would not have occurred without the involvement of a Micronesian master navigator, Mau Piailug, who taught the Hawaiians navigation skills long lost in their own culture.
In addition to celestial navigation, the traditional wayfinders use a huge variety of environmental cues, including: atmospheric phenomena (the gathering of clouds over islands beyond the horizon); the subtle perturbations of swells caused by islands beyond the horizon; the behavior of (long distance flying but land based) seabirds and the occurrence of other air and water species.
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| Social and cultural significance |
The leaders of the communities in question recognize the crucial significance of these traditions to their cultural identity and the practical importance to the livelihood of their communities. They also recognize that they preserve this treasure for the people of the world. In many cases, this preservation is a desperate struggle against economic, environmental and social forces that threaten to eradicate it. In many cases around the Pacific, this knowledge resides with a dwindling number of elderly community members. The canoe making and seafaring communities in FSM continue to train their younger generations in these arts, and pass on the oral traditions, methods, chants, songs and stories.
Indigenous navigation is likewise premised on non-western procedures and concepts. The tradition is inherently deictic, conceiving of the navigator as the only fixed point in a moving world. This way of conceiving the task and ones relation to the world makes ‘maps’ not only unnecessary but irrelevant. Traditional wayfinders employ an indigenous system of celestial navigation (wayfinding). Star-path bearings from a place to neighboring islands are learned, but these bearings vary for every island. Thus, a navigator has to learn a new set of bearings for each destination he visits. A master navigator may have learned over 100 such systems of bearings, one for each island he knows how to sail to. In modern times, the range of indigenous wayfinding has become diminished, due to repression during colonial occupation. Micronesian wayfinders are actively reopening these traditional seaways (travel routes) with each major voyage.
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| Transmission method |
In the Federated States of Micronesia, these traditions are passed on through extended traditional apprenticeships with master canoe carvers and master navigators, culminating in initiation ceremonies celebrated by the whole community. Practitioners are organized into ‘guilds’, each one with specific design and construction traditions. Of the 13 guilds which used to exist in what is now modern Yap state, only four survive. Every voyage begins with community ceremony and celebration. Each villager and family member recognizes that the sailors - the communities’ ‘best and brightest’ - may never return. The practice of voyaging and the associated knowledges of places and seasons as well as natural phenomena, of materials and methods is, or was, central to the identities of members of the island communities. Voyaging integrated communities and developed kinship. Canoe carving and canoe-based fishing as well as marine food gathering are integrated, respectively, with stewardship of forest and ocean resources and ecosystems. |
| Community |
Traditional navigation and canoe building are elements of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding that concern residents of each state in the Federated States of Micronesia. The most concerned communities are those that live among the numerous outer islands where fuel, technology, access to food and other necessities are far less available and where these practices can therefore have a direct material benefit. One such community would be the Carolinian Outer Islanders among the border regions of Chuuk and Yap States. Indeed, it is within this region where the highest concentration of the very few living knowledge bearers and practitioners of traditional navigation and canoe building reside. These traditions are also found is several other remote areas elsewhere in the FSM, including Mokil, Kapingamaringa and the Mortlock islands. |
| Type of UNESCO List |
List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding |
| Incribed year in UNESCO List |
2021 |
22:07