Last night we had a meeting of the Traditional Seafarers at Frank's Father's house. We went there to view a couple of videotapes on the Hawaiian canoe programs and the traditional lifestyle of the people of Lamotrek. Larry has a book called The Song Of Saterwall (sp?) about the island of Saterwall and the people who live there. It is near the island of Puluwat and it mentions our navigator, Manny Sekau, and his grandfather. The book tells the history of the island and explains how the people were pirates and raiders until Germany claimed (or bought) the island and installed a legal code. That brought the piracy to a halt.

Apparently there has always been a strong rivalry among the islands here. The art of navigation had fallen into disuse until the legendary Hepower navigated his way to Guam from Puluwat in a modern sailboat. That spurred another island to determine that they would do it using a canoe. Then the Puluwatese had to build their own ancoe and make a legendary voyage. Young men became interested once more in the old ways and the old men were still there to teach them.

One canoe made the voyage to Saipan from Palau or maybe farther away (I apologise for not having the details). On arrival they could not leave the canoe because there was no chief to greet them in friendship. So they bought provisions and went home again.

The video on Lamotrek talked about the skills of "rong". These are the necessary skills needed by the people to survive and thrive on the island. One of those skills was weather forecasting. They showed Manny's uncle using chants, dance and consulted sacred objects to determine the oncoming weather. He is gone now and his skills have gone with him. The islanders depend on the radio for weather forecasts. I met the man who runs that radio system recently. Quite a character. He was the one with the very smooth tequila at Diane Strong's party.