Transcript for the Piece Audio version of The Story of Lata
The Story of Lata
LATA MUSIC: Signature "Lata Story" music
Ambience for story of Lata:
T054_1, T055_1, T056_1, T60 (sounds of canoe being built)
Nature sounds such as T175-178 (in search of te ube bird)
Narration 1:
Every culture has its idea of how to live in balance ? no dark without light, no woman without man. For the Polynesians, living in the Solomon Islands, that person is ?Lata.? Lata is so much a part of how they see themselves, that he is their grandfather. And he learns how to do everything from nature, and with nature. Lata is the not the first person, but he is the first person to invent a voyaging canoe.
This is the story of Lata.
T28 KaveiaMyGrandfather 7:59-8:30
T28 MimiMyGrandfather 9:15-10:18
Kaveia (Overdub Translation): My grandfather Lata, from generations before, he used to take his axe over to Tahua and sit on a stone chair. And he saw people going together to build a canoe. A canoe called a TePuke. And he sat on a stone chair and watched them go into the bush.
Lata 4 with te ube bird
T28 KaveiaWhileLataSitting 10:33-11:18
T28 MimiWhileLataSitting 11:43-12:19
Kaveia (Overdub Translation): While Lata was sitting there on the chair, he watched the people take their axes and together they went into the forest, and he watched them do this so he went and picked up his own axe and he followed them into the forest, to see what they were going to do.
LATA MUSIC out
Part I -- INTRODUCTION
SFX: T10-WindWaves1
SFX: T66-Mae Song 1
(Mix Note: Starts in the clear. Then runs in and out of Introduction)
T15.L Jocelyndelightful
Jocelyn: (Overdub Translation) I was very happy when I went out sailing te puke. It was very enjoyable. And the customary ways of doing things were so beneficial to everyone.
Narration 2:
The Pacific ocean was the highway for the ancient Polynesians. It wasn?t an impossible barrier. It was a path from island to island. In those days life on an island was not isolated. As long as you knew how to sail ? and no one in the history of humankind knew how to sail better than the Polynesians.
file1059 PaulGotNoCanoe 0:00-:25
Paul: (English. But with Overdub Transliteration.) In our society, you have to have a canoe. Because if you don't have a canoe you can't eat the fish, you can't get money.
Narration 3:
The Solomons are a chain of islands ? 922 of them ? sliding southeast across the South Pacific, starting at Papua New Guinea and ending thousands of miles later at the Fiji Basin. So they?re spread over about forty-five hundred square miles of open ocean in the South Pacific.
Te puke were the big ocean-going vessels that created a lifeline among many of the islands.
T16 Jocelyn Utupua
T16 MimiCommunication Tepuke
Jocelyn: (Overdub Translation) This was the main way of communicating between the islands at that time. There were no other forms of communication. The foreign ships were not regular. So travel was by te puke.
Narration 4:
People who live on the ocean, with its tides, currents and wind measure their lives by change. Old ways grow into new ones. Life in the Solomon Islands today is different from the days of te puke. Modern boats, which run on Diesel fuel were introduced to be a better way to keep the islands connected. But today, Solomon Islanders find themselves navigating the modern world guided by their old ways.
SFX: T66-Mae Song 1
END Mae Song here. (End of Introduction)
PART II -- THE OLD WAYS
Music: Panpipers 10-01.L
(Mix note: Bring this or some music in here. Up in clear and then in and out between bites.)
Narration 5:
Temotu Province is the most remote corner of the Solomon Islands. Look at google earth at about 10 degrees south and 167 degrees east, you won?t even see these islands at first. Zoom way in - there they are -- coral atolls and volcanoes scattered through the vast open stretches of deep blue sea. Pretty far away from the rest of the world.
Musical Zing
Narration 6:
In Temotu Province, the old people who grew up with traditional tepuke sailing canoes still remember how central they were to the community. Jocelyn Sale is over 100 years old. Her family once made and navigated te puke canoes.
SFX: T10 WindWaves 2 (Throughout this section as needed)
T16 JocelynUnfavorableWinds
T16 MimiUnfavorableWinds
disc 16 trading in the old days ? Jocelyn tr. 8
Jocelyn (Overdub Translation) In the Old Days, my husband and I would go out sailing very often -- on the te puke canoes. We were trading. We would bring nuts and fish and things from our island that people on other islands would want.
T15.L Jocelyndelightful
(Polynesian. Rain background)
Jocelyn: (Overdub Translation) People would share things. They didn't have to go to market. They had partners on others islands and when they would arrive at an island they would go directly to the house of their partner. The same thing when that person would come to their island. So they had trust and could share with each other.
Narration 7:
But te puke travel was not just about buying and selling goods. It was an essential part of every social relationships -- from birth to marriage to death.
T15.L-Jocelyn Umbilical
T15.L-Mimi Umbilical
Jocelyn: (Overdub Translation) When the first born child was born to a family, there would be a big sing, sing. And they would take the umbilical cord from the child and they would put it in a net and they would go out in a te puke and they would put this umbilical cord into the mouth of a fish and let it go.
Narration 8:
It?s easy to romanticize the life of people in the olden days. But then as now, life befell them, and people didn?t always have answers. Life wasn?t always good.
MUSIC:
T16 JocelynFluEpidemic1 9:25-15-25
Jocelyn: (Overdub Translation): In the time of the great flu epidemic, two te puke canoes left from Pilenia Island and sailed to the Duffs. (6:43 At this time the te puke canoes were going back and forth from Pileni to the Duffs all the time.) But this time, when we approached the Duffs we noticed a terrible smell. And when we got ashore, we could see that people were dying. Almost all the people there were dying. And the people that had enough strength were digging holes. And they would put one body in and they would fill it up and they would put another body in or even more until the hole was full. And then they would dig another hole and drag still more bodies in. And one of the people on the two te puke that I was on 9:10 was a man named Gopala. Gopala saved me by giving me traditional medicine, which he rubbed on my body. This protected me from being killed by the disease. But later on, Gopala?s wife went to get betle nut. When she got back Gopala had already fallen ill and died. He was already dead by the time she got back. So they buried him there too. As soon as the weather allowed, we returned to Pileni with te puke. As we came ashore we found the people were having a dance on shore. One of the all night dances. And we had to tell people about the big epidemic and what was happening at Duffs. We had to tell people that Gopala had died there at Duffs and that they had buried him there.
Narration 9:
It?s an old sailor?s superstition that a woman on a boat is bad luck. But tell me exactly how you?d go about settling new islands without them? Polynesian women aren?t known to have sailed alone, but they were definitely voyaging alongside the men. Jocelyn's daughter, Joanne Kahala is herself about 75 years old. She also remembers sailing te puke.
T20 Joanne Going on Tepuke
Joanne: (Overdub Translation): Going on the te puke, we women shared the work with the men. For example when the canoe needed bailing out I would take the bailer and go down in the hull and bail it out, and when it was time to raise the mast, the women would help raise the mast. We would raise the mast and hold the sheets, the haha. And we would tie the knots, tie up the rig. I know how to do all that.
Narration 10:
The Polynesians knew the ocean as well as they knew themselves. These gifted navigators read every sign in the wind the waves, the currents under the waves.... and overhead: the clouds, the birds and the stars in order to find their course. Every wind had a name, and every current, and where a wind converged with a current ? that had a name too. One of the signs that they navigated by that?s unique to this region is called te lapa. And, while anthropologists have recorded it there is no good scientific explanation for what?s happening.
T140 PaulTeLapa
Paul: (Overdub Transliteration.) Te lapa is a light in the sea, about 2 or 3 yards under the water. It flashes, really flashes.
Narration 11:
Te lapa looks like a laser beam that shines off the coast of an island at night. But navigators often look for it under the water, where it?s reflected.
Narration 12:
Every island?s te lapa is unique, so they can tell which island they are off the coast of by looking at the te lapa, several miles off shore. Paul Vaya explains navigating with te lapa.
T140 PaulTeLapa
Paul: (Overdub Transliteration) You have to look very carefully for te lapa. Then you know, "Oh, the island must be there." But you have to be careful, because each island has its own te lapa. Like Matema has te lapa. Pigeon Island has te lapa. Nembanga Nende has got te lapa. And Reef, it has te lapa too. So you have to be careful You have to know because if you get te lapa from Nembanga this means you are near this island not another one.
LATA MUSIC: Signature "Lata Story" music
T28 KaveiaSoLataCutTheTree 22:32-22:59
T28 MimiSoLataCutTheTree 23:42-24:31
Kaveia (Overdub Translation): So Lata cut the tree and he made the tea ma and he lashed the tea ma to the main hull and he put everything together for the te puke and then he waited for a big rain, and when the big rain came, there was a flood, and the te puke and it came all the way down to the sea, riding on the water of the flood.
T28 KaveiaWhenRainWasFalling 24:31-24:43
T28 MimiWhenRainWasFalling 22:15-26:07
Kaveia (Overdub Translation): So when the rain was falling and then the flood began and the te puke began to slide down in the water and come towards the sea it was night time and it was dark and the te puke came down all the way to the sea and Lata tied it to some stones that are like mooring stones and they are just near the island of Tahua between the island and Manaiva.
LATA MUSIC out
Narration 13:
The Polynesians did not create isolated societies throughout the Pacific. They created relationships among island groups. This interconnectedness was the basis for a sustainable society.
T10 JanetFather Tepuke
Janet: (Overdub Translation) When I was young my father had a te puke and he used to sail to Lata and I used to sail with him.
Narration 14:
Janet Lono Maha was born on the island of Pileni, married a man from the Duff Islands and now lives on Tahua.
T10 JanetMarried
Janet: (Overdub Translation) That?s how I arrived here. My father brought me here for a visit one time. And then he sailed his te puke back to Pileni. Then when I came to be married here he also brought me here in a te puke and dropped me off.
Narration 15:
Hand-crafted "te puke" canoes, made from local materials were central to maintaining life itself for these Islanders. So owning a te puke gave a person status in the community. Ross Hepworth was born and raised in Temotu Province.
T215 Ross UsedToBeMarket
Ross: The orders would come from Reef Islands, "We need this canoe built." And they would build it. And they would receive customary payment on arrival on Reef Islands. And everybody was happy. And it was part of the culture, the community. And it was also part of the standing in your community. If you had one of these you are a very important person because not everybody owned one.
MUSIC:
PART III -- SAILING TO TAUMAKO
SFX: T10-WindWaves3
Narration 16:
I?m Stephanie Guyer-Stevens. I was really intrigued by what I?d heard about these remote islands, and so when my friend invited me to come and meet some of the few people left who were able to preserve traditional navigation I really jumped at the chance - what an opportunity. But I was also pretty intimidated. It seemed like a huge amount of water to sail across. But never in my life have I met kinder and warmer people ? never have I seen a place so beautiful.
Narration 17:
And their navigation technique is also completely different.
SFX: Door to cockpit opens, footsteps, close door.
AMB: Ambience changes to interior cockpit.
FX of buttons, dials, etc.
Mix Note: Put echo on voices to put them into this small space
SFX: T2-radio
SFX: file1113 radio windtoomuch
(Mix note: Keep radio low under voices in cockpit)
FX: Chart being unrolled and rustling.
T4 Steve Bogeywalu
Steve: Now this is a chart that shows an area from Fiji to Australia, Solomons and New Guinea, South to northern New Caledonia.
SFX: T4 Weather Fax
T4 Steve Bogeywalu
Steve: So where we are now, according to this weather fax, up here in Luganville, basically you?re looking at 25-25 knot winds out there today, which is one of the reasons we?ve been waiting a couple of days for the strong winds to go by In Fiji, they call this situation of a strong high creating reinforced trades a Bogeywalu.
Narration 18:
Rather than depending on sun and stars, Steve charts his course by satellites which can pin-point any spot on the globe.
Steve: Well it?s a lot easier now I mean the GPS has revolutionized you know like cruising.
T1.L TerryIfYouHaveToNavigate 54:22-58:59
Tr. 32
Steve: Now you just hit a button and it tells you where you are and you plot it on your chart and that?s where you are.
Narration 19:
Navigation has changed a lot in Steve's time.
T1.L TerryIfYouHaveToNavigate 54:22-58:59
Tr 30 p.7 well if you do have to navigate ? through ? that?s their skill and they definitely do it.
Steve: When we started sailing there was no GPS, there was no Sat/Nav, you only had a sextant- that?s why not that many people went to sea. You had to learn how to shoot stars or the sun, and fix your position with the sextant and the time piece when you went through the islands you had to take bearings off each point, and continually cross them and do these hand bearing compass things, and navigation took up most of your time.
Tr. 33
Steve: And even then you only found out where you were maybe once or twice a day. And the rest of the time you were keeping track of your course and speed to estimate where you were.
Narration 20:
Meph Wyeth and Terry Causey are on the Gershon as well. They worry that traditional skills like "celestial reckoning" -- which is navigating by the stars with a sextant -- is no longer being taught to new sailors in the Western world.
T1.L Annapolis
Meph: Is celestial still a requirement for getting a captain?s ticket?
Steve: No in fact they?ve dropped it as a course in the Annapolis
Meph: Oh that?s scary
Steve: Navy Academy.
Stepping on each other
Terry: (off mic) It is scary because it?s a fundamental knowledge that ? and it should be basic training.
Steve: We?re going to lose it in our culture, just like the Polynesians lost navigation in their culture.
Meph: Exactly.
Narration 21:
Steve may contemplate the "olden days" of navigating with a sextant. But he has a great respect for the truly ancient art of Polynesian navigation:
T1.L SteveLongitudeDeadReckoned 45:38-48:17
Tr 27 7:00? P. 4
Steve: The Polynesians have always dead reckoned their longitude. Until they developed the time piece nobody could determine their longitude at sea, so
7:49
Steve: You learn that the southern cross is vertical, and if the distance between the top star and the bottom star is equal to the distance between the bottom star and the horizon, you were on the latitude of the Big Island, and if you had come up form Tahiti and kept to the east, hopefully, when the southern cross gets to that point you turn left.
Steve: And it certainly worked.
T1.L TerryIfYouHaveToNavigate 54:22-58:59
Tr. 33
Steve: And the canoe people, they stayed up all the time, I mean they keep track of their course and speed in their mind, and they have to adjust in their mind they have to learn how to keep their course. And the wind can change and the waves can change, how do you keep - they don?t have compasses . So how do you keep on a course to know where you?re going and that?s their skill and they definitely do it.
Narration 22:
The te puke canoes themselves were perfected over time to ply the open ocean. Calling them "canoes" might conjure up the wrong image for what these beautifully engineered and graceful vessels were really like.
SFX: T1-engine noise ? (room tone for Meph)
T1.L MephNotSkinnyAsProa 38:15-39:50
Tr. 27
Meph: When you see the thing face on it?s a perfect deltoid shape and its extremely aerodynamic. Apparently the shape creates vortices, which draw the wind off the top of the sail, and thus enable it to move forward with much more thrust than an ordinary sail. And if you talk to the chief about that they understand that principle perfectly well, They have their own way of describing it. But it?s a very scientific and well thought out design. And highly aerodynamic. It works the same was a the wing on a stealth bomber, basically
Narration 23:
Steve's own keen interest in traditional navigation is his incentive for making this voyage.
T2-SteveHopeNavigation-02
Steve: I hope we get to learn something about their system of navigation I think that would be really interesting, especially, to compare it with other things that have been written and done.
MUSIC: Interlude in here.
T1 SteveAncients
Steve: I think we can learn about ourselves by learning about what the ancients did. And maybe we?ll learn we?re regressing instead of progressing.
LATA MUSIC: Signature "Lata Story" music
Ambience for story of Lata:
T054_1, T055_1, T056_1, T60 (sounds of canoe being built)
Nature sounds such as T175-178 (in search of te ube bird)
Lata story section 5
T28 KaveiaFreeYourLeg 12:19-13:09
T28 MimiFreeYourLeg 14:39-16:29
Kaveia (Overdub Translation): So Lata went behind these people and they were walking on a trail through the forest and by the side of the road there was a bird called te ube, and the bird had a leg that was tangled in a vine and it couldn?t get away, it couldn?t fly or move, so when this line of men with their axes and people walked by the bird asked the first person ?oh please would you free my leg from this rope and set me free?? and the first person said, ?oh, why don?t you ask the next person? I think they might do it for you.? And the then bird saw the next person come by and ask the same question, ?Oh please would you help me to free my leg? And every person in that group ? maybe ten people ? said ? oh ask the next person. And then along came Lata following the group and Teube bird said, "Please would you free my leg?" And Lata said ?Oh yes definitely I?ll free your leg.? And so Lata freed the leg of the te ube bird.
LATA MUSIC - Out
Narration 24:
We sail three days and nights from the northern coast of Vanuatu. On one side of us is the north Fiji Basin and on the other is the Coral Sea. According to the chart we?re headed for the island of Taumako.
The days are grey and the ocean rolling ? ten foot swells in the day, and then at night gales blow and the swells rise fifteen to twenty feet?). It?s July - winter in the South Pacific. The wind and the water are still warm, but the sky fades in and out of sun, slate grey to blue to clear sparkling light then back to grey. We don't see any other boats -- though we do We see frigate birds from time to time. Other than that it?s just six of us on a big sailboat. It is so quiet here.
On the third morning the sun below the horizon turns the ocean pink, and we see land ? a volcano rising straight out of the flat ocean. Lights on a little fishing canoe about a mile off the starboard side ? the first boat we?ve seen in three days and nights of sailing.
As we anchor, canoes start to come out over the reef towards the boat to greet us.
FX: Docking conversation
Ambience bed: On the boat, but not at sea.
Rigging, footsteps, motor idling
T6 RadioKahulaGershon 62:44-66:00
Disc 6 Tr 29 Kahula Kahula Gershon 2 ? through ? could come in on the plane on Saturday.
Tr. 29
Ship radio: Chatter
Steve: Kahula, Kahula gershon 2
Ship radio: Chatter
Steve: Yes is that you Mimi?
Ship radio: Chatter
(Robin: You can stretch this file head or tail to run CB chatter under narration.)
Narration 25:
We?re now within a hundred miles of our destination, But we can?t complete the last leg of the journey to the island where I hope to talk with Polynesian elders and American anthropologist, Mimi George.
So far, CB radio communication is as close as we are getting.
T6 RadioKahulaGershon 62:44-66:00
1:14
Steve: Mimi we?re getting stepped on let?s wait a few minutes
Ship radio: Chatter (continues under...)
Narration 26:
The problem seems to be that the customs official who needs to stamp our passports is still in the Capital city hundred miles away because there are no boats running to Temotu Province.
T6 RadioKahulaGershon 62:44-66:00
Disc 6 Tr 29
2:29
Steve: Mimi Mimi gershon two
Mimi; gershon Gershon kahula here, how do you read me?
Steve: oh you?re barreling in nice and clear, how do you read me?
Mimi: just perfect thank you! And how are you all, over?
Steve: we?re all fine. We?re in Lata. We had a few day delay for that strong weather that we had
3:00
Steve: the real strong trade winds. And we got in this morning. The problem of course is clearance. Over.
Mimi: yes, yes it is a problem, and have you have you learned the solution yet?
Ship radio: Chatter (continues under...)
Narration 27:
It turns out that the boats aren?t running -- because of a lack of diesel fuel.
T6 RadioKahulaGershon 62:44-66:00
Disc 6 Tr 29
3:00
Steve: Yeah Roger Meph got the letter and we did talk to the police guy who said that the immigration clearance people could come in on the plane on Saturday.
Ship radio: Chatter (continues under...)
Narration 28:
It takes five days to straighten out the situation. And we finally head for Taumako. When we arrive, Mimi?s there to greet our boat and help us across the island.
Ambience bed arriving at Nifaloli
file1117-motorcanoe starts
T037 nifiloli engine cut.wav
file1084-arrive Nifiloli
SFX: T18 6 MUSIC
T10 Mimi Introduce Lata
Mimi: where we?re going to is where Lata was born. Lata is the culture hero of these islands and most islands through the pacific. The Polynesian first person who sailed and voyaging canoe. Period.
Steve: Is there any way to get to the beach and walk to the village?
T10 Mimi Island Petrol
Mimi: yeah, yeah, we?d have to work with the tides. You know the people here are very willing to help. If it involves a motor canoe, .... an outboard, then they?ve got to buy the petrol. We?ve got to provide the petrol.
T10 flip flops and flashlight
Mimi: So anyway ... We?ll go there in a canoe, but we might go back um in conditions where we might have to get out and walk around at times yeah.
And it?s good that you have dry bags,
Stephanie: yeah we have a couple
Stephanie: oh ok
Mimi: yup ? and bring a flashlight if you have it ? if not we have lanterns, and I have a flashlight.
(I put these bites on the Mix-English Voices-Mono track.)
Welcoming ceremony
T11.L Welcome Song
T11.L conch
T11.L KaveiaWelcome
Narration 29:
Arriving here is like nothing I have ever experienced. Everyone from the village is here to greet us. Everyone wants to know who we are. We?re special simply because we are new. I don?t know if I can describe how profoundly their real and genuine warmth affects me.
Ambience beds color and describe Stephanie's description of the place:
T052-MaeCoconuts-01
T050 - Mae Cooking
T053- Mae Cooking
T040-paddle making.A1
T037 coconut chat
T117-list of food.A1
T117-feast kitchen ambi.A1
T75-betelnutwomen.A1
T174-Mae makes Roof Thatch.A1
T180-Mae Shreds Coconut.A1
T182-Ezekiel guts fish-01
T183-waves shore birds.A1
Narration 30:
Over the next few days, I get familiar with my surroundings. Life on the island moves with the slow rhythm of the waves on the shore. Children hunt for fish and bats with homemade bows and arrows. Teenagers play ukulele when their chores are done. Women collect root plants and fruit from the forest. Nearly everything comes from the sea or the thick jungle. Our friend Mae shreds a coconut to make pudding while the neighborhood women chat with mouthfuls of betel nut and weave thatch for a roof. Mae's husband guts fish in his canoe, a huge catch. On shore, an old man carves a canoe paddle while children gather to watch.
LATA MUSIC: Signature "Lata Story" music
Ambience for story of Lata:
T054_1, T055_1, T056_1, T60 (sounds of canoe being built)
Nature sounds such as T175-178 (in search of te ube bird)
Lata 6 te ube bird
T28 KaveiaAfterLataFreesLeg 16:31-17:08
T28 MimiAfterLataFreesLeg 17:59-19:12
Kaveia (Overdub Translation): So after Lata freed the leg of the te ube the te ube asked Lata ?where are you going?? and Lata said ?Oh I?m just following these people. They?re going to make a canoe, and I?m just interested to see what they do.? And the te ube said, "So you want to make a te puke? You want a canoe?? And Lata said ?oh yes, I would like a te puke. And teube said ?oh, would you like to cut a koilo tree for your te puke?
And Lata said ?Oh yes, I would like to do that?. And the te ube said ?well I will help you do that ? I will show you how to build the te puke.
LATA MUSIC ? Out
Part IV -- THE PROBLEM
Narration 31:
I?m starting to get why I had so much trouble getting to this corner of the Solomon Islands. It?s part of a pretty fundamental problem being faced by everyone here.
While, small canoes are still in use for short island hops, traditional long distance voyaging canoes -- the te puke canoes -- are no longer being built. And hardly anyone knows how to sail them anymore.
So as Western influences took hold, the idea was that modern ships and planes would bring the Solomons into the 21st century. But the old te puke ran on wind and wave power. Modern boats need diesel fuel. And because of geographic isolation and a subsistence lifestyle, the Solomon Islanders have never developed a strong cash economy. And so the government boats which carry supplies and people to and from the outlying islands are sporadic, unreliable and rare.
What happened to Joanne recently is a perfect example of this problem:
SFX: T14 honiara ambi
T19 EddyJoanneMyGranny
Eddy: Oh Joanne my gran yeah?
?She?s been here for about four months. Here in town.
Narration 32:
That's Joanne's grandson Eddy Kuper. Eddy and his sister Frida live in the Capital. Several months ago, Joanne traveled from her home island to visit her grandchildren. She only meant to stay there for a few days, but ended up stuck in the Capital for 4 months -- unable to get home, because there was no boat to her island in all that time.
T19 EddyJoanneMyGranny 31:04-31:35
Disc 19 tr. 43.
Tr. 44
Eddy: I sometimes tell stories with her, sometimes we have betle nut. And she always ask me, "When will the ship go up to Temotu Province??
Narration 33:
Meanwhile, Eddy and Frida can't get back home to Temotu Province very often themselves.
T19 EddyStayWithUncle 27:12-30:49
Disc 19 tr. 33 p. 6
Tr. 34
Eddy: For two years now
tr.33
Eddy: I?m living with my uncle here in Honiara. Because I?m doing my studies here, so I have to live with somebody close to the center, so I have to live with my uncle.
Tr. 43
Eddy: For us students we have a problem with it, because you know we have to you know we have to go to a place where it?s quite close to a learning center, to continue with our education.
T19 FridaTransportDifficulties
Frida: It?s because of transport difficulties. There?s no ship available. So I only go once a year, that?s December.
Narration 34:
The irony is that the islanders are probably less able to travel and trade between the islands than in pre-modern times.
SFX: file1073-fuel
T206 BenPetrol
Ben: People try and get petrol where they can.
Narration 35:
Ben Hepworth was born and raised in Temotu Province along with his brother Ross. As the government boat is not dependable, Ben is stocking up on fuel to travel on one of the few private boats available. Here at the dock he?s finally filling his fuel cans.
T206 BenPetrol
Ben: We actually haven't had a petrol run to the Reef Islands since back in May. There have been ships that have had a few drums of petrol on board. Where the airfields is at Lata they've had a fairly regular petrol run. But they are 45 miles away from us and the petrol comes in 44 gallons drums. So it's not easy to transport those drums from there to here.
T206 BenWeeksWithoutShip
Ben: Occasionally we go 6 to 8 weeks without a ship. I mean there's nothing very regular about it. (chuckle).
Narration 36:
While the economic impact of this problem is important, Jocelyn and Joanne, feel that the effect on the cultural life of their community is even greater.
Ambience bed: Rain to match Jocelyn with narration and others.
T15.L Jocelyn Everything Market
Jocelyn:(Overdub Translation) These days, nearly everything is related to market, money, cash. It's a very expensive way to live. And the enjoyable aspect of it is gone. So, my big question is, what?s going to happen to these young people who are growing up and all they know about is the market? They don?t have the experience that I grew up with going back and forth with te puke. What will happen to the young people who don?t have that?
The young people are lost without that kind of relationship and joy and sharing.
T21 Joanne HowToGoBack 38:14-40:22
Joanne: (Overdub Translation) How to go back? The question is who will start to follow the old way since the old ones -- who led us, who helped us, who were born into it -- are all dead? They?re all gone. And even those of us who saw it when we were little, who were born into it but just before it changed -- we all asked that question -- who will do it? Who can do it? How can we do it?
T15.L JocelynTimeOfTePuke 32:46-34:59
Jocelyn: (Overdub Translation) When the te puke were going back and forth it was a time that was very good for everyone. So, how can it start again? How can we go back to that?
MUSIC: Musical Interlude:
T17 7 Music
Part V -- A WAY FORWARD
Ambience Bed:
Mix Note: Use throughout this section when possible to give a sense of canoe building and general Island life.
T054_1 (sounds of canoe being built)
T055_1 (sounds of canoe being built)
T056_1 (sounds of canoe being built)
T60 (sounds of canoe being built)
T055_1-canoecarving
T055_1-canoethickness
T60-kastom canoe painting
T052-MaeCoconuts-01
T050 - Mae Cooking
T053- Mae Cooking
T040-paddle making.A1
T037 coconut chat
T117-list of food.A1
T117-feast kitchen ambi.A1
T75-betelnutwomen.A1
T174-Mae makes Roof Thatch.A1
T180-Mae Shreds Coconut.A1
T182-Ezekiel guts fish-01
T183-waves shore birds.A1
Narration:
Jocelyn and Joanne tell me that they believe that rebuilding the te puke canoes and reviving knowledge of traditional navigation might be a solution for their people. This could give the Islanders a reliable way to travel between islands which doesn't depend on the uncertainty of a fuel-based economy. While helping to keep the economy afloat, it would also support the traditional culture.
There is, in fact, a project underway whose goal is to revive ancient te puke sailing in the Solomons. The Vaka Taumako project was started by another woman -- the American anthropologist, Mimi George.
T25 Mimi technology
Mimi: They did have technology that was perfectly adequate.
?And they had it long before Europe went and discovered the Pacific for themselves, because people were there 60,000 years before the Europeans got there. And they had to get there by boats, over pieces of water that they couldn?t have drifted there.
Narration 38:
Mimi has been traveling back and forth from her home in Hawaii to the Solomons, raising money and organizing the Vaka Taumuko project.
Mimi New Interview 00:00
(Robin: The original file for Mimi New Interview is
Mimi: The vaka taumako project aims to train a new generation in building sailing and navigating traditional polynesian voyaging canoes, using traditional polynesian methods?
The people of taumako are polynesians and their paramount chief asked for some help from the outside, which he needed to get things going so he could teach a new generation from his own vast knowledge. My role has been to assist paramount chief Kaveia in this project. And my role is to do research and documentation of the Polynesian methods and to basically assist the young people of taumako to do their own documentation.
9:20
Mimi: There is so much we can learn about the world and about ourselves with this depth of traditional knowledge versus you know it's a fact that anybody can go into a planetarium and learn enough stars and you know the connections, you know you can you can navigate based on modern information, without a without instruments. You can study the weather and oceanographic records, and you can decide when is the best time to go from here to there or how to recreate a voyage route or something like that. you can do that. But the difference is that when somebody shows you how to do that, or when somebody does that who has thousands of years of knowledge behind them the knowledge is much deeper . The knowledge is much more rich and safer, and you can learn alot more. So which way is more interesting?
(Robin: This needs cutting down!)
Narration 39:
John Tealava (Te-Ah-Lava) is the grandson of Basil Tevake (Te-Vak-e), a famous navigator. He's explaining how to carve the walls of a small canoe. You have to get it just right; he listens to the sound of the wood as he carves to determine the proper thickness. Later the canoe gets a traditional paint job with calciferous seaweed, to protect it from insects.
Ambience and SFX of canoe building
(Mix Note: Run under narration of Tealava building small canoe)
T055_1-canoecarving
T055_1-canoethickness
T60-kastom canoe painting
Narration 40:
But in order to revive te puke sailing, someone needs to teach the art of building the large, seafaring canoes and the art of navigating the open ocean by wind and waves and stars. This knowledge resides in the memories of only a few elders.
T215 RossKaveia
Ross: I think it's in the Polynesian culture there are only certain people who actually did the sailing, and knew how to navigate, and today that is basically one man, Chief Kaveia, is the only one who knows how to do it,
T215 RossKaveia
Ross: He's an amazing man, because he has some customs and traditional things that he uses while he's navigating, and that's actually seen him use it, and I've been very very surprised. Like one is directing the weather, so if there's a thunderstorm in the front of the canoe, he can move that thunderstorm to the side, with his little stick and bamboo. So it's absolutely amazing. And I say this because I've actually experienced him. He was on my boat and we were coming to bad weather and he's actually moved that... rain away from us. And when he put his stick down, the rain came back. So he put it up again, and the rain moved away. And he did that for 7 hours on our crossing. And I was absolutely amazed that he still had the ability. So I asked him if he was gonna pass that on and he said yes his first born son would get that if he was interested. So I hope that custom stays alive because it's very important when you're traveling on a traditional canoe that you do have some control of the weather?.
Narration 41:
Much of the navigation and boat building was traditionally done by men. But many women, including Joanne, helped to build and sail the canoes. Now, as only a few elders are left who still hold this knowledge it will take both men and women to restore it.
MUSIC:
SFX: 14 Audio Track-02
T21 Joanne role
Joanne: (Overdub Translation) My role will be to tell stories, and to give advice. I will give advice to the women and the young girls and the young boys and the young men. I will be able to tell them what to do when they have a te puke canoe.
Narration 42:
Here, everyone pulls together to keep the children fed and the community solid. Men and women each have their own designated place in this social order. But now women may have to go beyond their traditional roles in order to perpetuate tradition.
T21 Joanne role
Joanne: (Overdub Translation) I will be able to tell them when you go to the bush that you have a coconut, that you take coconuts, that you must bring the husk, bury it in the sand, and it will rot and it will be ready to make the rope, the sennit rope. And I will show the young girls how to weave the te pulla the woven things that they cover the te puke so that the sun doesn?t bake it and make it crack.?And at the time of rain, the boys and girls need to bring salt and wash the te puke down with salt so that it doesn?t rot. And they need to paint it again with limu ? the young boys need to go to the reef and collect the calcerous white limu seaweed and pound it into paint. And then paint it on the hull so that the insects won?t eat it. So all these things are going to be part of having a canoe again. And I will be able to advise them.
Narration 43:
The work of reviving boat building and navigation that?s being done by the Vaka Taumako project goes beyond the practicalities. It is part of the wealth of the islands, not easily measured by the yardstick called Gross National Product. Aseri Yalangono works for the Ministry of Education of the Solomon Islands.
T019_1 AseriPovertyOfOpportunity
Aseri: Poverty is a concept from the developed world. People are poor because they don't earn money. However in the in the rural areas one person might not earn a dollar but still lives. Nobody pays them in terms of a dollar. So you don't buy fish. You don't buy potatoes. They might be using kerosene for lighting. But if you don't have kerosene you won't die. You can do without lighting. You can go to bed. ...And the next day you wake up when it's light and you go to your work. If they wish to buy something, they will go and look for money. But they don't look for money for the sake of looking for money. So it is quite a difference living in a developed country and then coming back to the Solomon Islands. You can see the difference there. They're certainly not poor because they can live, they can eat. But there is poverty of opportunity - they don't have alternative opportunities.
Narration 44:
The Vaka Taumako project built several te puke canoes in the 1990's. Aseri was at the launching of the first canoe.
T26 Aseriministryinvited
Aseri: The ministry was invited to attend this launching of the sailing of the Vaka Taumako te puke from the Duffs to Nifiloli in the Reefs.
Narration 45:
Janet Lono Maha was on one of these canoes. She remembers how it felt to be sailing te puke again -- just like when she got married so long ago.
T10 janet full moon
Janet: (Overdub Translation) In the moonlight -- it was extremely bright.. A full moon. And I was very happy when we sailed into the bay. In the morning when the sails were put up and I felt the wind I was very happy and all the canoes were alongside The wind blew and sailed in and then there was a very big custom greeting when they reached Nifiloli and that made me very happy too to actually see that and be a part of that.
Narration 46:
But these elder women also have concerns that their window of opportunity to revive the old ways may be closing.
T10 Janet afraid
Janet: (Overdub Translation) I think that many of those girls and boys today -- if they were sailing back and forth on te puke they would be afraid.
T10 Janet OnlyOneTepuke
Janet: (Overdub Translation) They don?t have a father to go with them like I did when I was young. So the young people would be afraid unless they had their father with them.
T21 Joanne FathersSons
Joanne: (Overdub Translation) The fathers give a te puke to their sons. And those sons give it to their sons. And those sons give it to their sons. But that didn't happen. There was no handover. So we grab at our adopted life. But the real life was left behind. Custom is not something you read from a book. You?re born with it.
Narration 47:
It all sounds encouraging. But truthfully? The work of building new te puke canoes -- and maintaining the small fleet that has already been built is taking a back seat to the daily concerns of making a living.
T215 Ross Only WhenMimi
Ross: There's a lot of work involved, because the rope for example is the coconut husk, and they have to take the green coconut, bury it in the sea, leave it there for a couple of weeks, and then they have to plait the rope and make the rope and it's very tedious time consuming, and alot of work is involved. Nowadays, everybody finds it easier to do something else, rather than make the rope and make the sails and that sort of thing.
Mimi New Interview 16:45
Mimi: They need some money. To pay their children?s school fees, to by clothes. It doesn't take alot of money but there's got to be some money so if they spend a year and a half building a voyaging canoe or taking some voyages that their families are not suffering.
Narration 48:
Maybe Mimi cares more about the canoes than the Islanders do. It?s easy to challenge what she?s doing, see it as disjointed. But Aseri says that sometimes it takes an outsider perspective to appreciate one's own culture.
T26 Aseri bound2blost
Aseri: I think researchers and people who try to assist people to revive something that is bound to be lost, and having looked around the pacific quite a number of traditional heritage culture has been sort of diluted or being lost, and seeing this it probably requires motivation from other people to go back into history and say ? I think we have to preserve this because we in another place have lost it. And if you don?t preserve it is bound to be lost. (Robin: Recut to make what he's saying here a bit more straight-forward.)
T215 Ross OnlyWhenMimi
Ross: The biggest problems that we face the islanders need to realize that in order to maintain their culture they are receiving some benefit from it.
T26 AseriLotOfWork
Aseri: There?s a lot of work needs to be done in the country in preserving cultural way of life. And this is one aspect of it. And we can say maybe in 50 years time 100 years time that this was a good thing that this was recorded. Or else it will be lost.
Narration 49:
There?s a common perception in our world that the old people in traditional cultures care about the old ways, and young people are jumping to get out into the big city. But here none of the islanders young or old seem very interested in the fast paced life in the capital Honiara ? a big city by Solomon Island standards. But, city life changes Islanders whether they like it or not.
Joanne?s granddaughter, Frida Kuper, moved to Honiara for her studies. She is working on transportation problems from a different perspective, learning aviation law and working at the airport. She?s seeing, first-hand, what can happen to young people when they come here.
T19 FridaKastomValuable
Frida: There are lots forget about their culture?
?They adopt the European style of living?
?They adopt the modern world?
?And they forget about their past way of life.
Narration 50:
When asked about young people who don?t have knowledge of their culture, she says she feels sorry for them. She says she would feel completely adrift without her culture to anchor her.
T19 FridaKastomValuable
Frida: It?s like you are floating. When people come and ask you about your kastom you don?t know what to tell them because you don?t know anything about your culture.
Frida: So it?s better for us to continue to maintain it.
Frida: I think it?s best if the old people educate the young ones today. Of the culture I mean how to weave baskets and mats.
Frida: Because if we are not very careful people will forget about it
Narration 51:
But Frida's brother, Eddy, is frustrated. When he graduates, his plan is to start a shipping business for the Islands-- using modern, fuel-run ships.
T19 EddyStayWithUncle
Eddy: Right now I?m continuing with my preliminary education. And if possible I can go over to Fiji to continue with my studies at the University of the South Pacific there at Fiji.
? My major subject is commerce. And business, rather, dealing with you know money problem, like that.
? I want to be a major of a company.
? A shipping company, because you know my province is very far from the capital in Honiara, so we have problems with transport
? The government, the provincial government has a shipping company, but they do not have a proper schedule for the province. So they only go up during the Christmas seasons. And the people in the remote areas they find it very hard for them to come down to the town, do the shopping, like that.
? Since I was born we?ve been going through this type of problems,
? So I prefer to have a shipping company to service my people.
? Actually that?s my dream.
Narration 52:
The reality is that both solutions are foundering right now. The economy is just not strong enough to keep pace with skyrocketing global fuel costs. Yet the te puke canoes are no longer part of the Island economy. So how to address the practical problem of island-to-island transportation?
I see a problem that needs to be solved. But maybe if I lived on that island, I wouldn?t be so likely to isolate this situation. And I?d be able to see it as pacific islanders often do - as one long continuum, one day after the next, life coming in with the tide and out again with the next good wind.
LATA MUSIC: Signature "Lata Story" music
Ambience for story of Lata:
T054_1, T055_1, T056_1, T60 (sounds of canoe being built)
Nature sounds such as T175-178 (in search of te ube bird)
Lata story 7 te ube bird
T28 KaveiaTeUbeSaysFollow 19:12-19:37
T28 MimiTeUbeSaysFollow 20:24
Kaveia (Overdub Translation): So the te ube said, ok Lata, you follow me. I?m going to fly and you must follow me. And when you see me flapping my wings and when I give a cry then you will know that that?s the tree, that?s that koilo that you need to cut for your te puke. So the te ube bird flew ahead and Lata followed behind.
T28 KaveiaTeUbeFlapWings 21:22-21:38
T28 MimiTeUbeFlapWings 21:55-22:32
Kaveia (Overdub Translation):
And when Lata saw the te ube flap its wings and cry around the tree then Lata knew that was the tree. That was his tree and that was the one he would cut down to make the te puke.
LATA MUSIC ? Out
FX: CB radio transmissions of different ships searching for one another.
MUSIC:
T135.WAV (goodbye song)
---FIN--
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