Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 3, 1 March 2006 — Papa Mau's Legacy [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Papa Mau's

Legacy

r,^V^ ni* By Derek Ferrar Public lnformation Specialist 1 i In 1973, when H ■ the founders of ■ ■ the Polynesian V o y a g i n g Society set out to build the Hōkūle'a and sail it to Tahiti using only traditional navigation methods, they faced a serious problem: there were no such navigators to be found in Hawai'i, or all of Polynesia. So they turned to Pius "Mau" Piailug, a soft-spoken master navigator from the tiny Micronesian island of Satawal,

where the ancient skill of celestial wayfinding was still practiced. Mau recalls starting to learn the art of eanoe sailing from his grandfather when he was four years old. When he was 18, he started making voyages to other islands, and at 20 he underwent an initiation ceremony to heeome a full-fledged navigator. He was given the niekname Mau, or "strong," because of his habit of staying out at sea regardless of the weather. "The people on my island, they put my name as Mau because when I was young I no

Iike stay Iong time on the Iand, he says. "When I eome from the oeean, two or three days, then I go back again. Even when the storm is eome, I still stay out on the oeean. That's why my people they eall me Mau." Voyagers in Hawai'i also point out that in Hawaiian "mau" means to perpetuate - a role Mau has certainly played many times over. When Hōkūle'a's builders asked Mau to teach them his navigation methods, he agreed, although this went against his island's custom of keeping navigational knowledge a secret within the family. Since fewer

and fewer islanders were prac-

ticing the oid methods, he says, "My grandfather tell me not to hold the knowledge to myself; I have to pass it on. Before, some navigators in Micronesia, they never share the knowledge. But me, I share it to everybody, because I know maybe sometime we lose it." In a very real sense, Hawai'i's voyaging 'ohana are all Mau's "children" (and now grandchildren and great-grandchil-dren), so they eall him "Papa Mau," along with the special title of Grandmaster Navigator. Members of the voyaging family often speak of their deep debt of gratitude to Mau forreconnecting

the Hawaiian people with their voyaging traditions. "It's

hard to even express īn words the impact that Papa Mau has had on all of us," says crewmember Iunior Coleman. Since he first guided the Hōkūle'a safely to Tahiti and back in 1976, Mau has been featured in award-winning documentaries, received an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Hawai'i and been honored at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington as "one of the most important influences in the resurgence of cultural pride in the Pacific." Among his many journeys aboard the growing fleet of Hawaiian voyaging canoes

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was one aboard the Makali'i in 1999, whieh carried him through Micronesia to his home island - whieh is just a mile long and half a mile wide, with about 300 residents - as a gift of thanks and respect from the Hawaiian voyaging 'ohana. 'Last request' Now 74 and in failing health, Mau matter-of-factly says that he may not have mueh time left. But there is still one last thing he would like to do: bring a Hawaiian double-hulled eanoe home to his islands, where it would remain as a training vessel to help revitalize voyaging among his own people. With the young people there increasingly dependent on motorboats, radios and GPS navigation, he says, the old ways have all but disappeared. "The people in Micronesia, they not like before," he says. "Before, everybody, man and woman, they learn about the culture and navigation. But now, nobody like learn, because they use the GPS and the motorboat. But what you going do when the GPS broke, or the engine broke? You just gonna follow the wind and the current away, and maybe die in the oeean." A pair of Mau's original stu-

dents, the late navigator Clay Bertelmann and his brother Shorty - along with the other members of their voyaging organization, Nā Kālai Wa'a Moku o Hawai'i, whieh built the Makali'i and sailed Mau to Satawal in '99 - have again stepped forward to help the master realize his vision. For several years, they have been working on the construction of a 56-foot eanoe for Mau, the Maisu, at Kawaihae Harbor. Mau had been insistent that he wanted to set sail this month, before the typhoon season arrives in the western Pacific. Quite simply, he says, he's not sure he ean afford to wait. "When I see the people in Micronesia losing everything, inside my body is not feel good," he says. "Because I'm worry when I'm gonna die, then nobody knows navigation." "It's Papa Mau's last request to have this eanoe for his islands, to help teach the youth about their cultural identity amid all these outside influences," says Iunior Coleman. "It would be a real symbol to look to, just as we look up to Hōkūle'a as a spark to give us cultural pride and motivation to do what's right for our islands and our people." But with time in the departure

window growing short, Mau's heahh has become increasingly tenuous. Members of the eanoe community are now beginning to say that if it is not possible to sail the eanoe to Micronesia this season, then perhaps it might be shipped there instead. Volunteers have been working intensely to complete the eanoe, along with a crew from Satawal led by Mau's son, Sesario Sewralur, who is set to follow in his father's navigational footsteps. Mau and Sesario have formed an organization called the "Mau Piailug Society," whieh is dedicated to the perpetuation of traditional navigation and Mau's vision of creating "one united cultural Family throughout the pacific dedicated to the proposition that in our hearts we are all one people." From a home port on the island of Yap, the society plans to operate the Maisu as a floating "oeean academy" to teach navigation, culture and resource stewardship. "The voyaging eanoe and escort vessel will travel from island to island," reads the society's goal statement, "teaching traditional Pacific Islander cultural values to anyone willing to listen and learn." "In my time, everybody they go see the old man, they want to learn from him," Mau says. "But after us, nobody. I tell them every day we should learn eulture just a little bit, because we follow the people before. The people before, every day, every night they talking about the eulture, navigation, loeal medicine. Otherwise, you gonna lose it. "Now I tell them, my time is finished already. Up to you guys." S

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Mau is greeted by longtime Kaho'olawe activist Dr. Noa Emmett 'Aluli at a 2004 ceremony on the island honoring the "original warriors" of the struggle and celebrating the ancient navigahonal teaching site at Kealaikahiki. -Photo: © Monte Costa