TASI  (Traditions About Seafaring Islands) functions as a public non-profit partner and facilitator for the Traditional Seafaring Society (TSS).   TASI has had close connections with TSS.  TSS started as a club of UOG for students, led by faculty advisors.  TASI opened up to non-students who were also interested in traditional seafaring who had time and experience to give.  These people revitalized TASI in 2007.  It had lain dormant and inactive as a non-profit (granted Tax Exempt status by the Government of Guam in 1990).  The members felt that it would be an excellent partner to the university student club.  TASI and TSS work towards the same goals.

 

The mission of TASI is to preserve and perpetuate the knowledge, science, and art of traditional Pacific island navigation.  This includes the geographic knowledge of the locations and inter-relationships of islands, the physics of wind and wave processes, the astronomical alignments and seasonality that provide orientation, as well as the subtle human interpretations of all of these phenomena.  TASI further incorporates the skills of canoe construction and sailing into its programs through traditional navigators and master canoe carver from the Pacific Islands.

 

TASI activities have focused on preserving the islands’ culture relating to seafaring traditions, and, through partnerships with other experts in this field, TASI has provided classes and lectures in schools around Guam and the Pacific.  In addition, TASI participates in various cultural fairs on Guam, including representing Guam at the Festival of the Pacific in Palau in 2004, to further promote and raise awareness of TASI’s efforts to perpetuate the island culture.  The group has participated in the Guam Micronesian Island Fair for the past several years, with 2007 participating by offering rides in their various outrigger canoes to visitors. 

 

TASI members recently engaged in several fund raising activities to obtain materials to construct additional canoes to be used in its classes on canoe construction and sailing.  TASI now has a web site for contact information as well as a springboard to education and future links to seafaring information--- www.traditionalseafarers.com

 

The membership of TASI stretches globally, with members on Guam, in the CNMI, Federated States of Micronesia, Hawaii, North America, Japan, Europe, and much of the Pacific Basin.  Although activities center on Guam, the seafarers have traveled to Palau, the Caroline Islands of the FSM, Japan, and the United States.

 

In the FUTURE, TASI intends to continue the educational course that has directed its existence.  This will include instruction in navigation and canoe building on Guam at the group canoe house as well as in school classrooms across the island.  Yearly contributions of time, presentations, and demonstrations will continue at such venues as the Guam Micronesian Island Fair and various other cultural and historical events. 

 

TASI has also had close association and help in the form of service donations from NoKaOi pest control to treat termites at the canoe house, and KwikSpace to move the large redwood log being carved for the next canoe hull.  The Guam Visitors’ Bureau (GVB) has provided TASI with the opportunity to participate significantly in the Guam Micronesian Island Fair these past years, and is involved in planning future collaborations.  The Guam Department of Parks and Recreation has provided shelter for the canoes when needed, as well as access at the Paseo property for canoe launch, canoe house construction, and trash and vagrancy issues.  The Guam Fishermen’s Co-Op has generously provided the group with space for the canoes, a space to place a storage container, participation in their fishing festival/contest, and ice for our get-togethers.  The Guam Council for arts and humanities (CAHA) has provided grants for canoe construction and education.  The various news media have routinely covered our activities to help us spread the word of our mission.

 

 

TASI Goals

 

TASI seeks to perpetuate traditional seafaring knowledge and skills from and within the Marianas through the following:

(1) Expose members to traditional navigational methods that are handed down through     generations of Micronesian navigators, such the memorization of the stars, months,            seasons that govern the safe voyage of navigators.

(2) Help develop necessary skills in craftsmanship, such as proper usage of traditional and             modern canoe tools in the reconstruction or construction of a traditional outrigger canoe.

(3) Inform the University and the wider community of Guam, through newsletters of the seafaring activities and issues that surround and affect the uprising of traditional     navigation on our island.

(4) Have traditional ceremonies that mark the maturity of the members as he or she progresses in his or her learning of traditional sailing.

(5) Lobby for the interest of the seafaring society.

 

TASI raises funds through contributions and sales, and hopes to become successful in applying for grants, to enable the seafaring students to learn more canoe building, sailing, and navigation.  This requires construction of canoes and eventual funds for planning voyages, reenacting the traditional methods of navigation utilized prior to European contact.

 

TASI seeks to acquire donations of trees and materials to build traditional canoes. 

 

TASI also supports the educational programs of TSS with manpower, funds and materials, and advice.

 

 

Foundation and History of the University of Guam’s Traditional Seafaring Society

 

The University of Guam Traditional Seafaring Society was founded in 1999 by Dr. Vince M. Diaz, a history professor at the University of Guam, Dr. Lawrence J.  Cunningham, a Research Associate of the Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam and the outreach coordinator for the National Research Center for Micronesian Studies, and a core group of University of Guam students and community members.  Precy Calimlim served as our first president.  

 

We were part of an ongoing effort by other individuals, like Rob Limtiaco, Gary Guerrero, Maria Yatar McDonald, Alberto Lamorena V, and Judy Flores, to restore traditional navigation and seafaring in Guam and promote its survival in the wider Micronesian region.  In 1992, Limtiaco and Guerrero, along with others formed an organization, TASI (Traditions About Seafaring Islands).  Earlier they, along with the help of Segundo Blas, had built a small sailing canoe, now in the Guam Museum.  They had traveled to Polowat to study with master navigators and canoe builders there.

 

Presently Dr. Diaz is a Professor of Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies at  the University of Michigan, where he continues to teach courses and organize activities related to traditional seafaring, including building cross cultural and educational exchange programs with native peoples from the Great Lakes region who are also revitalizing their canoe traditions.  Cunningham teaches Guam history at the University of Guam College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and is the faculty advisor for the Traditional Seafaring Society and a Research Associate at the Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center or MARC.

 

In 1994 Dr. Diaz, with Lamorena, Flores, Yatar McDonald, Limtiaco, Guerrero, and representatives from all of the Micronesian nations and territories founded the Micronesian Seafaring Society (MSS). The MSS was the result of two symposia sponsored by the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency  (CAHA), under the leadership of Lamorena and Flores, in 1994, which brought together traditional canoe carvers, navigators and government representatives from Micronesia. Today the MSS remains an informal network of former participants, and has sporadically raised money to send delegations to regional art and academic forums in the wider Pacific.

 

The MSS also spawned other educational and video projects, including the 1997 video documentary, Sacred Vessels: Navigating Tradition and Identity in Micronesia.  Written and Directed by Diaz, and co-produced with Christine Taitano DeLisle and Suzette Kioshi Nelson, Sacred Vessels featured efforts by Limtiaco and Guerrero, and brothers Sosthenis and Celestino Emwalu from Polowat, to promote the tradition in the late twentieth century.  Sacred Vessels also featured music by Maria Yatar McDonald and Eremas Emwalu, from Polowat.  The people of Polowat and an island 130 miles to the east, Satawal have best preserved the practice of traditional navigation.  Polowat is in Chuuk State of the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam is the southern most of the Mariana Islands.  Both Guam and Polowat have been the colonies of Spain, Japan and the United States.  In addition, Polowat was under German control from 1899-1914.  Today Guam is an unicorporated territory of the United States.  Polowat is an atoll composed of five islets surrounding a lagoon and has a total land area of 1.3 square miles.  Guam is the largest island in Micronesia and is 212 sq. miles.  Although small in size, Guam is the largest island between New Guinea and Japan and the biggest between the Philippines and Hawaii.

 

The MSS also was the forum for brainstorming ideas for educational exchange programs. In 1997, with sponsorship from the University of Guam's College of Arts and Sciences, the Micronesian Area Research Center, and the Micronesian Studies Program, Sosthenis Emwalu came to Guam and taught courses in traditional voyaging. With additional sponsorship from the Guam Visitors Bureau, students in these courses helped restore and sail the MAIELAI, a 30 foot voyaging canoe from Polowat, that had ended up on display for almost half a decade at Jeff's Pirate Cove in Ipan, Talofofo.  The MAIELAI was the last canoe built by the legendary Polowat navigator, Ikuliman, grandfather and teacher of TSS's present master navigator, Manny Sikau.  It sailed to Guam in 1991 under the command of Polowat navigator Ikefai, in what had then been the latest effort by artist Maria Yatar McDonald, to build ties between Guam and the Central Carolines.  In refurbishing and sailing  the MAIELAI from Ipan on the East Coast of Guam to Ipao on the West Coast for the annual Guam Micronesia Island Fair, the UOG students were also mentored by other members of the Polowat community in Guam.

 

The momentum at UOG was halted temporarily with the sudden death of Sosthenis Emwalu just before the completion and sailing of MAIELAI.   But in 1999, Diaz was contacted by Manny Sikau, who had just moved to Guam with his family.  Diaz had met Sikau in Polowat for the shooting of Sacred Vessels, and Sikau was also featured in the film. Trained by Ikuliman himself, an experience that included sailing to Guam in 1972 on the Santiago, Manny offered to continue where Sosthenis left off.  By 2000, Manny began to teach navigation courses at UOG, and the first project that was deemed necessary was to build a traditional canoe house.

 

The organization we formed is officially known as the University of Guam Traditional Seafaring Society.

 

At present our officers are

 

Daniel Pangelinan – President Anthony Ritter – Vice President

Kantero Aled – Secretary Denise Taitano – Treasurer

 

and

 

Dr. Lawrence J. Cunningham – Faculty Advisor and Historian

Both Dr. Vince Diaz and Frank Cruz have held the faculty advisor position earlier.

 

The members of our group had different motives for joining the group.  For many of the Chamorros of the Marianas this was a chance to revive their proud seafaring past, which had been lost through years of colonization.  For the Carolinians this was a chance to share their expertise with others.  Knowledge that was once secret is now shared in a effort to not lose this tradition in an age of globalization.  For academics this was a chance to learn about the Pacific seafaring skills that allowed Austronesian speaking peoples to discover and settle Micronesia and Polynesia not hundreds of years but thousands of years before Europeans and others were sailing great distances out of sight of land.  These voyages of discovery were truly a major triumph in the history of human achievement.

 

Dr. Diaz’s and Sikau’s class was a great success but everyone lamented the fact that we didn’t have hands-on experience.  We needed an ocean-going canoe.  Dr. Diaz asked Manny if that was feasible.  Everyone agreed it would be quicker to buy a canoe than to build one.  With a grant from the Guam Visitors Bureau, we planned to purchase a traditional outrigger sailing canoe in Polowat, but first we needed a canoe house to store the canoe.  We reached a memorandum of understanding with the Guam Fishermen’s Cooperative to build the canoe house on property they leased from the Government of Guam Parks and Recreation.  The Guam Historic Preservation archaeologist approved the site, because it was a land-fill area on the reef and did not have ancient burials.

 

To help with the construction of the canoe house we had a not for college credit course to learn about canoe house construction. Dr. Vince Diaz and Manny Sikau taught this course.  During the course we had a lot of hands on work in felling trees and gathering the materials to build the canoe house.  In the spring of 2001, we had to finish the canoe house because we wanted to bring a Polowat canoe to Guam.  We considered having men from Polowat sail it to Weno in Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia and from their we could ship the canoe to Guam on the deck of an oil ship, but in the end it was easier to just sail the canoe to Guam.  The canoe we were buying was too small to make a 505 mile voyage alone.  We made arrangements for a larger canoe to accompany it.  So many of our members wanted to make the trip but only a few could get off work or school to do so.  In the end we decided to sail the two canoes, The QUEST and the HALEMETAW from Polowat to Guam, then on to Saipan, where the large canoe would then sail back to Polowat and we would sail our canoe would sail back to Guam.

 

But first we had to build the canoe house.  We named the canoe house Sahyan Tasi Fache Mwan.  This is Vessel of the Sea in Chamorro the language of the people of the Marianas and Meeting House of the Great Spirits in Carolinian.  In our attempt revive traditional navigation in the Marianas it was clear that we would have to rely on the expertise of our Master Navigator from Polowat.  Our members were greatly helped by the generosity and skill of the   Polowat community in Guam. 

 

With the help of Manny Sikau and the people of Polowat, and the Guam Visitors’ Bureau the Traditional Seafaring Society of the University of Guam purchased the QUEST, a 22 foot Carolinian outrigger sailing canoe.  Two members of the group, Tom Taisipic and Lawrence J. Cunningham, along with seven skilled sailors and two navigators, Manny Sikau and Soto Ainam from Polowat sailed to Guam in May of 2001 on the QUEST and a 30 foot proa, the HALEMETAW.  This 505 mile leg of the voyage took seven days with an 18 hour layover on the uninhabited island of Pilelot.  Other members of the Traditional Seafaring Society, Dr. Vince Diaz, Erwin Manibusan, Ken Perez, Joe Tuquero, and Mike Aguon then sailed with the Polowatans from Guam to Saipan in June.  The QUEST returned to Guam with our members Ward Kranz and Joe Tuquero aboard, and the HALEMETAW returned to Polowat from Saipan.

 

It was at this time that Dr. Diaz was tempted by greener pastures at a major research university, the University of Michigan.  But he is still involved and an important member of TSS.

 

Other projects of our group include a voyage to Pagan on conventional sail boats, repairing our traditional outrigger sailing canoe, and canoe house after typhoon damage and shipping our canoe to Palau for the 9th Festival of the Pacific Arts, building a small sailing canoe, our relationship with Monden and UMI Studios and Dr. Akira Goto, hosting Native Americans in a Canoe Crossing Project,  graduating over 20 people to the Agadnga  or deft helmsman level of seafaring, hosting the crew of the Hokulea and our present plans to build a large Chamorro flying proa under the umbrella of TASI. 

 

In 2002, with modern sailing craft, the Traditional Seafaring Society voyaged to Pagan in the Northern Marianas.

 

In December of 2002, typhoon Pongsona destroyed the Traditional Seafaring Society’s canoe house at the Paseo in Guam and seriously damaged the QUEST.  Members of the Traditional Seafaring Society spent most of 2003 repairing typhoon damage, so they could attend the 9th Annual Festival of the Pacific in July of 2004.

 

They had hoped to build a proa in the Marianas and sail it to Palau, but because of the typhoon, we were not able to complete that project.  Hopefully, a Chamorro “flying proa,” either built in Guam or by Noel Quitugua in Saipan, will find its way to the 10th Annual Festival of the Pacific in 2008.  Another possibility is to carve a Chamorro style canoe in American Samoa, the site of the next Festival of the Pacific.

 

In 2004, 2005, and 2006 the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities awarded Manny Sikau grants to teach traditional navigation, seafaring, canoe building and canoe house building.

 

The Traditional Seafaring Society rebuilt their canoe house (Såyan Tasi Fache Mwan – Vessel of the Sea Meeting House of the Great Spirits) in the Spring of 2006.  It is located at the Paseo de Susanna, along the Hagatna Boat Basin channel. The Guam Preservation Trust awarded the Traditional Seafaring Society a grant to help rebuild our cnaoe house.

 

We are also building a small Chamorro paddling canoe in 2007.

It should be finished this summer.