12 May 2016

Canoe Summit at the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts
(Guam, 26 May 2016)

Organizers:
The Canoe Summit Organizing Committee
Anthropological Institute, Nanzan University
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo
Traditional Arts Committee, Guam
Tatasi (Seafaring) subcommittee, GuamWith support of:
UNESCO Office for the Pacific States
The Organizing Committee of the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts, Guam 2016
Objectives:
To encourage the sharing of knowledge and skills related to traditional seafaring in the Pacificamong practitioners
To identify opportunities and challenges facing traditional seafaring in the Pacific
To discuss regional and international cooperation for its safeguarding and transmission
Description:
This Summit will provide the opportunity to discuss issues involved in the safeguarding of traditionalnavigation systems as shared heritage in the region.
The Programme of the Summit consists of Activity Reports by practitioners in the region, Research
Reports by experts, and Round table discussion on the topics of safeguarding, transmission andpromotion of the Canoe culture in the Pacific.
The Summit will produce an outcome statement which will guide future regional and international
cooperation in this area.

Venue: Latte of Freedom/Hall of Governors, Adelup

AgendaTime
8h30
9h00 –
10h00

10h00 –
10h30
10h30 –
11h15

Programme
Registration
Opening ceremony: Chamorro Tatasi welcome – emcee Sandra Okada, NCS Co-chair
Fanlalaian (Guam Chant Group) followed by Guam Tatasi Media Presentation
Introduction of participants: Monica Guzman, Festpac Programming Chair
Welcome and Brief Remarks: Honorable Eddie Calvo, Governor of GuamGroup Photo and Morning tea
Session 1: Keynote Presentations
Prof. Vicente Diaz (University of Minnesota), Historical, cultural and political significanceof seafaring in the Pacific
Hotu Kerr, Navigator, and Wikuki Kingi, Carver/crew member, NZ Waka Haunui
Dr. Akira Goto (Nanzan University), Dr. Tomo Ishimura (NRICP Tokyo), Objectives andProgramme of the Canoe Summit

11h15 –
12h30

Session 2: Presentations of Activity/Research Reports
1. Dr. Mimi George and Mr. Luke Vaikawi, Taumako, Solomon Islands
2. Dr. Peter Nutall, University of the South Pacific
3. Mr. Elia Nakoro, Fiji Museum
4. Master Navigator Sesario Sewralur, Micronesian Voyaging Society
Q and A12h30 –
13h30
13h30 –
15h00

Lunch
Ana Varu Chamorro Sakman Voyage – Burghard Pieske and Ignacio Camacho
Continued
5. Mr. Mario Benito and Ms. Kyoko Miyazawa, Polowat, FSM
6. Mr Matahi Tapeta Tutavae and Mr. Danee Hazama, Tahiti, French Polynesia
7. Master (Pwo) Ali Haleyalur and Dr. Eric Metzgar, Triton Films, Etak vs. GPS
8. Dr. Melissa Nelson, CEO, Cultural Conservancy
9. Dr Sandra Morisson, University of Waikato and Mr Tua Pittman, Cook Islands Voyaging
Society
Q and A15h00 –
15h30
15h30 –
17h00

Afternoon tea
Demonstration of Canoe is the People Educational Kit
Session 3: Round Table Discussions - Transmission, promoting, and safeguarding
Seafaring Traditions in the Pacific
Facilitated by Dr Vicente Diaz, University of Minnesota and Dr Akatsuki Takahashi,
UNESCO in Apia
Lino Olopai, Patrick Tellei, Mario Borja, Mariano Benito, Heads of the seafaring groups.
Wrap up
Closing

List of Speakers
Monica Guzman

Vicente Diaz

Akira Goto

Monica Guzman, Festpac Program Chair, served as chair for the GuamCouncil on the Arts and Humanities Agency (CAHA) to guide thepreparation of Guam’s artists for presenting and hosting Festpac 2016. She
is a professional graphic artist, event organizer and supporter of Guam’s
traditional arts with a focus on seafaring. Under her leadership, theMaster of Traditional Arts program was revived and 6 additional masters
were formally recognized. She guided the preparation of Guam’s artists
for Festpac through a series of capacity-building workshops and regularplanning meetings over the past four years. She has participated with,encouraged, and assisted the development of Guam’s Tatasi – Navigation,
Canoe and Seafaring practitioners for many years.
Dr. Vicente Diaz teaches Global and Comparative Indigenous Studies at the
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus, where he also runs the“Digitizing Ancient Futures Virtual and Augmented Canoe, Voyaging, andAtoll Project”. He taught Pacific History and Micronesian Studies at the
University of Guam from 1992-2001; Pacific Islands Studies at the
University of Michigan from 2001-2012, and American Indian Studies andAnthropology at the University of Illinois from 2012-2015. Diaz is theformer Coordinator of the Micronesian Seafaring Society in the mid-1990s,
co-founder of the Guam Traditional Seafaring Society, which studied under
Polowat navigators and canoe builders in the late 1990s and early 2000s to
help revive traditional seafaring in Guam via courses at the University ofGuam, the refurbishing of the Guam-based 47 ft Polowat sailing canoe, theMaelae, the building of the present canoe house Utt Sahyan Tasi
Fachemwan in Hagatna, and the sailing of the Quest from Polowat to theNorthern Mariana Islands. He also participated in the 2000 Millennium
Voyage that featured six canoes that sailed from Polowat and Satawal to
Saipan under the navigators Manipy Onopey and Mau Piailug. Diaz also
wrote, directed and co-produced the 1997 documentary Sacred Vessels:
Navigating Tradition and Identity in Micronesia. Diaz also works withtraditional canoe builders and cultural practitioners of the Native US Great
Lakes region (Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa) and the Suquamish of
Seattle, Washington to help build cultural and educational exchange
programs between American Indians and Pacific Islanders.
Born in Sendai, Japan. M.A. in Archaeology from University of Tokyo, andPh.D. in Anthropology from University of Hawaii. Currently teachinganthropology as a professor at Nanzan University, Nagoya,Japan; the director of anthropological institute of Nanzan University,
director of graduate school of anthropology of Nanzan University;
Chair of anthropologists association of Central Japan; vice chief director of
NVA (Nippon Voyaging Association) established at Hyuga City, Kyushu,
Japan; a research advisor of Okinawa Marine Expo. Memorial Park;
supervisor of renewal of Okinawa Oceanic Culture Museum andPlanetarium from 2003 to 2013. Currently. Akira has been participating inan experimental Paleolithic voyage project of 30,000 years ago organizedat National Museum of Science, Tokyo, building a hypothetical boat byreed and bamboo to cross from Taiwan to Okinawa in 2008. OrganizedCircum-Philippine Sea Small Boat Pre-Summit held at University of Guamsponsored by the Toyota Foundation.
Tomo Ishimura

Born in Hyogo, Japan. Ph.D. in Archaeology from Kyoto University. He iscurrently the Head of Audio-Visual Documentation Section, Department ofIntangible Cultural Heritage, National Research Institute for Cultural
Properties, Tokyo. He has been engaged in safeguarding both tangible andintangible cultural heritage in different parts of the world such as
Afghanistan, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Myanmar, the Pacific island countries,
and Japan. Recently he has been involved in the support for thenominations of the Ruins of Nan Madol, the Federated States ofMicronesia, and the Yap Stone Disk Sites, Republic of Palau and FSM, for
the UNESCO World Heritage sites, as well as in the cooperation for
preparing the national inventory and nomination files of intangible cultural
heritage in the Independent State of Samoa. In addition, he with National
Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo is collaborating with the
University of the South Pacific to carry out cooperative research forsafeguarding cultural properties from the negative impacts of climatechange.

Peter Nuttall

Senior Research Fellow at the University of the South Pacific. Leads a small
team researching the potential for Pacific Island Countries to transition to
low carbon sea transport futures. Obsessed with the heritage of Drua, thegiant Fijian double hulled sailing canoes. Lives in a wooden sailing ship andhas lived and sailed extensively in the Pacific Islands. Worked insustainable planning and policy across the Pacific from village mat to theUN.

Mimi George

Mimi George, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist, sailor/researcher ofvoyaging, and writer. She has worked mostly under the auspices ofcharitable NGOs—with Austronesian voyagers of New Ireland, PNG,
scientific over- wintering in Antarctica, Siberian Yupik of Alaskan &Chukotkan Bering Straits.
Mimi answered the request of Paramount Chief Kaveia of Taumako to aidein his effort to teach a new generation how to build and navigate using
only the materials, methods, designs, and tools of Culture Hero, Lata, todocument the knowledge, and to train Taumako youth to record their own
culture with video.
Mimi is Principal Investigator of the Vaka Taumako Project of the PacificTraditions Society (501c3), a non-voting, international, board member ofthe Vaka Taumako Project of Solomon Islands, and a 23 year member of
the “crew of Lata.” Mimi is writing a book about the VTP— “Sailing with
Lata”—, and fundraising to complete a documentary—We, the Voyagers—and for costs of Holau Vanuatu—a voyage of reunion for families and theregion.
Luke Vaikawi

Commander Luke Vaikawi was born and raised on Taumako Is. SE Solomon
Isles, until he went away to secondary school as first generation to do so.
Vaikawi captained Solomons Patrol Boats for 25 years,and is now
Commander. Luke also represents his country in international maritime
safety training patrol.
Vaikawi is a grandson of Te Aliki Kruso Kaveia. Duff Island travelers to
Honiara stay at his home. Luke is experienced handling political
adversaries, civil war, dysfunctional government, iack of access to modern
communication, etc. Vaikawi assisted Vaka Taumako Project from 1993
on, and is now a Director of the Vaka Taumako Project of Solomon Islands,a charitable org. He is a lifelong member of the “crew of Lata”—theCulture Hero of Polynesians.
Vaikawi’s main concern now is preparations for a vaka to voyage from
Taumako to Vanuatu in November. It has been over 70 years since family
members were separated by the closing of the border. The crew needs
passports, rations, escort vessel, clearances, transport to go home while
they wait for the return voyaging season, and a permanent roof for the
Lata Wayfinding School, archive and Halevaka.

Elia Nakoro

Elia Nakoro is an archaeologist and the Head of History Archaeology
Department, the Fiji Museum. He engage in a number of archaeologicalfieldworks in Fiji, including excavating sites of the Lapita peoples, the firstseafarers in the Pacific 3000 years ago. He is also involved in theconservation of the historic Drua that is over 100 years old stored in themuseum.

Sesario Sewralur

Master Navigator Sesario Sewralur is a member of the Micronesian
Voyaging Society, along with President of Palau - Tommy Remengesau Jr.,
Ibedul, Reklai, Alan Seid, Dr. Victor Yano, Ms. Faustina Rechucher-Maruggand MVS President Shalum Etpison. He works closely with Dr. Patrick
Tellei, president of Palau Community College where MVS is an important
program of the college. Sesario is a master navigator who guided thevoyage of the double-hull MAISU from Palau to Guam for Festpac 2016.

Mario Benito

Benito is a member of the Houpolowat clan, and its canoehouse, Utt
Wenimai. He also belongs to Utt Wenipukuw. Benito was educated in the
Werieng school of navigation and as a child studied under some of themost famous and revered old-time navigators from Polowat, including
Hipour and Manipy Onopey. As an adult Benito studied with the late Teo
Onopey and Rainam Edward. A long time cameraman, photographer, andarchivist of Polowat images based in Saipan, Benito was the lead
photographer for the documentary “Sacred Vessels: Navigating Tradition
and Identity in Micronesia” (1997) and shot for many visiting documentary
teams over the past two decades. Benito serves as an informal
ambassador of Polowat seafarers in Saipan, served as one of thecoordinators and translators in the building of the Lien Polowat in 2012

and its sail to Guam and final resting place at the Oceanic Culture Museumin Okinawa in 2013.
Kyoko Miyazawa

Kyoko Miyazawa is an independent documentary producer andcameraman affiliated with Studio UMI in Japan. She specializes indocumenting indigenous seafaring skills and knowledge in Asia and thePacific. Her work on traditional canoe building and sailing spans Africa andthe Middle East (Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Dubai, United ArabEmirates); South Asia (Bangladesh, India); Southeast Asia (Mandar of West
Sulawesi, the Bugis of South Sulawesi, and Maluku, in Indonesia; theMoken in Mergui, Myanmar); and Oceania (Kitava Island and the Motu ofPort Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Suva, Fiji; Majuro, Marshalls; Yap,
Ifalik, Polowat, Federated States of Micronesia. In 2012 Miyazawa
documented the building of the Lien Polowat in Polowat, and in 2013, shesailed on it to Guam where she helped ready it for its final destination at
the Oceanic Culture Museum in Okinawa.

Matahi Tapeta Tutavae

Associated with the Ministry of Culture, French Polynesia, Tutavae is a
respected navigator of Tahiti as well as an official documentarian for
Tahiti’s participation in Festpac 2016. He works closely with photographer
Danee Hazama for Polynesian seafaring documentation.

Danee Hazama

Danee Hazama has immersed himself in Polynesian culture since 1992 at
the Pacific Arts Festival in Rarotonga. His work as a professional
photographer since 1984, has led him to embark on a personal journey of
discovery, embracing the many and varied aspects of Pacific Island
heritage and traditions encountered in his research and experiences
throughout Oceania. Since 2007, he curiously involved himself in a 3 year
field study documenting the Taiwan indigenous peoples and found culturalsimilarities amongst the Pacific islanders. He shares his knowledge andfindings by public speaking and photographic expositions. This enabled
him to help create international cultural bonding and friendship withinsome of the Pacific island nations. Danee has also participated on several
canoe projects as well as sailed across the Pacific from Hawai’i to the
Solomon Islands on voyaging canoes with the Pacific Voyagers whileserving as a crewmember /photographer on Faafaite, Tahiti Voyaging
Society since 2011. He has spoken on the TED program entitled One Big
Family, helped worked on the documentaries to include National
Geographic Channel, Lost Continent of the Pacific and was the project
photographer for UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination, Marae
Taputapuatea complex in Raiatea. He was awarded Adventurer of the Yearby the Los Angeles Adventurers’ Club in 2013 and was selected as one of
Air Tahiti Nui’s Ambassadors and Tahiti Nui Explorers. Danee feels that oneof his responsibilities is to document, record and safeguard cultural history
through photography for the future generations.

Ali Haleyalur

Master Navigator Ali Haleyalur is from Yap. Navigated several extensive
voyages between Yap, Guam and Palau.

Eric Metzgar
Melissa Nelson

A researcher, filmmaker (Triton Films), and close associate with Master
Navigator Ali Haleyalur, which whom he participated in major voyages.
Professor Nelson is a cultural ecologist, writer, editor, media-maker andnative scholar-activist. She is Anishinaabe/MÃ’tis/Norwegian and anenrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. Her
work is dedicated to indigenous rights and revitalization, Native scienceand biocultural diversity, ecological ethics and sustainability, and therenewal and celebration of community health and cultural arts. Dr. Nelson
is an associate professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State
University and president of the Cultural Conservancy, an indigenous rights
organization, which she has directed since 1993. Dr. Nelson received her
B.A. degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her Ph.D.
from the University of California, Davis, both in the field of Ecology with anemphasis in Ecophilosophy and Native American Environmental Studies
respectively. Her first edited anthology “Original Instructions Indigenous
Teachings For A Sustainable Future” (2008), features three of her essays
and focuses on the persistence of Traditional Ecological Knowledge bycontemporary native communities. She publishes regularly in academic
and popular journals and books. In 2005 Dr. Nelson was the co-producer of
the award-winning documentary film, “The Salt Song Trail: Bringing
Creation Back Together” and has co-produced three other documentary
short films. In 2006/2007 Melissa was a Visiting Scholar at the American
Indian Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. In
2010/2011 she served as the Anne Ray Resident Scholar at the School for
Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sandy Morrison

Sandy is Māori from the peoples of Tainui and Te Arawa. She is an
Associate Professor at the University of Waikato, New Zealand and her
research and professional specialty focuses on the application ofindigenous models in addressing social, environmental and developmental
issues to improve livelihoods for indigenous peoples and peoples of the
Pacific. She served as President of ASPBAE, Asia South Pacific Associationfor Basic and Adult Education from 2004-2008 and was inducted into theInternational Adult and Community Education Hall of Fame by the
University of Oklahoma in 2009 in recognition of her adult education workthroughout the diverse populations of the Asia- Pacific. She is currently
the President of ICAE, International Council for Adult Education, a global
NGO which advocates for the right of adults to education and lifelong
learning.
Sandy was the Project Manager for the Translation into Te Reo Māori ofthe He Waka He Tangata Manual.

Tua Pittman

Cook Islands' Master Navigator, Tua Pittman, along with other PWO
navigators in the Cook Islands, Hawaii and Aotearoa have been at theforefront of a Pan-Pacific movement to revive traditional voyaging in the
Pacific. A movement of preserving the secrets of ocean navigation thatbrought ancestors of modern Polynesians to the Cook Islands, andultimately populating all of Polynesia. One of only two Traditional Master
Navigators in the Cook Islands of the South Pacific, Pittman was bestowed
with the title of Pwo navigator along with his fellow navigators from
Hawaii and Aotearoa in 2008 by famed Grand Master Mau Piailug ofSatawal Island. Pwo is a sacred initiation ritual, in which students oftraditional navigation in the Islands become master navigators and are
initiated in the associated secrets of this ancient art. From the teachings of
Mau Piailug and Nainoa Thompson of Hawaii, Tua and others havecaptured the astounding navigation skills passed on to a select few by oral
tradition, from navigator to apprentice. After 30 plus years of voyaging
Tua has followed his pledge to his mentors Mau and Nainoa to uphold theculture of traditional navigation, share the knowledge of this art form withthe younger generation and the stress importance of caring for our oceans
through powerful conservation and environmental messaging on ourcanoes to the World.

Akatsuki Takahashi

Akatsuki Takahashi, BA in international relations (Tsuda College, Tokyo),
Diploma in education (International Christian University, Tokyo), PhD in
cultural heritage risk management (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto) has
been the Programme Specialist for Culture at the UNESCO Office for the
Pacific States in Apia, Samoa, since January 2010. She is in charge of the
Culture Programme for sixteen Member States and one Associate Memberof UNESCO in the Pacific with a focus on the promotion andimplementation of the UNESCO Conventions in the field of heritage andcreativity. Previously, she was at the Executive Office of the Culture Sector
at UNESCO Headquarters (2001-2009), UNESCO Office in Venice (19982001) and the Secretariat for the World Decade for Cultural Development(1989-1998) at the Culture Sector of UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Before
joining UNESCO in 1989, she worked at the Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for
UNESCO (1986-1989) in Tokyo as Programme Manager.

Roundtable Participant
Lino Olopai

Lino Olopai is Refalawasch from Saipan, CNMI. A fisherman, educator,
cultural worker and activist Olopai is recognized as one of the earliest andmost important leaders of the revival of seafaring in the Marianas. In theearly 1970s, Olopai returned to his ancestral islands in the Central Carolines
to study seafaring traditions, which included voyaging up to the Northern
Marianas from Satawal in the mid
1970s. He is a founding member of the Micronesian Seafaring Society
and is known across Polynesia as one of Mau Piailug's earliest
assistants. His experiences and views are detailed in this memoirs,
The Rope of Tradition (2009) whose topics include his role ascoordinator of and instructor for the US Peace Corps language training
program in the western pacific and his voyage to learn how
traditional culture and traditions can help steward the land andwaters, and check unbridled tourism development. Olopai was also one of
the subjects featured in the film Insular Empire (2010).
Dr. Patrick Tellei

Patrick U. Tellei, Ed.D, is president of the Palau Community College, where
he serves as a member of the Micronesian Voyaging Society. As President of
Palau Community College, he runs the program and watches over thevoyages and essentially worked to institutionalize the program. He works
closely with Master Navigator Sesario Sewralur, and he helped organize thesailing of the double-hull Maisu from Palau to Guam for Festpac 2016.