Mau and his students on Satawal

Photo Left: Mau Piailug (seated to the right) with three of the Hawaiian navigators (with lei) who will be initiated into Satawal's society of open ocean navigators tomorrow (left to right): Maisu and Makali'i navigator Chadd Paishon; Hokule'a navigator Nainoa Thompson; and Maisu captain / Makali'i navigator Shorty Bertelmann. Also to be initiated, but not in the photo, Hokule'a navigators Bruce Blankenfeld and Chad Baybayan. Photo by Gary Kubota of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, traveling with Hokule'a, in Gift of canoe reaches goal; Mau's dream fulfilled, Star Bulletin (Vol. 12, Issue 75 - Friday, March 16, 2007).

Mau

Photo: Sam Low

Dancer on Satawal

Photo: Sam Low

Sacred Bracelet

Near the end of the Pwo ceremony, a bundle of sacred medicine (the dark packet being tied in this picture) is tied to the navigator’s wrist. It contains two kinds of coral – a stinging coral and a kind called Porow, the hardest variety found on Satawal. The coral symbolizes the power of the Pwo – his toughness and his authority. “His word is stinging and as hard as the hardest coral,” explains navigator Lambert Namobey Lokopwe, a colleague of Mau’s who was initiated into Pwo in 1997. ”Sometimes there are jealous navigators,” Lambert continues, “so when a navigator is leaving on a journey somebody who may dislike him will do from the shore certain things so he would go and never return. So that navigator knows that somebody may do that so he performs a blanket sting – a sting backwards for whomever is doing it - to block it. To block and sometimes to attack so that he is disabled. But the main thing is power. Pwalupwal is the word for putting a wall around himself and his canoe and his crew. It simply means ‘covering’ - but in this case it is putting a wall all around himself and his crew and his canoe so that whoever is doing adverse things will not penetrate.” The feathers - asafen-weriyeng - seen on the bracelet are from Asaf - what Lambert calls “the big bird.” Photo and Commentary: Sam Low

Five Hawai'i Navigators

The five Hawai'i Navigators pose for a photo after the Pwo ceremony. 16 navigators in total(11 from Satawal and 5 from Hawai'i) were inducted into the Pwo in the ceremony. Photo by Na'alehu Anthony

Shorty Bertlemann Inducted into Pwo

Master navigator Mau Piailug inducts Shorty Bertlemann into the Pwo. Photo by Na'alehu Anthony

Mau and Shorty Bertelmann

Photo: Sam Low

Nainoa and Kathy Thompson on Satawal

Photo: Sam Low

Bruce Blankenfeld on Satawal

Photo: Sam Low

Chad Baybayan on Satawal

Photo: Sam Low

Chadd Paishon on Satawal

Photo: Sam Low

Makali'i Aiha'a

Keaka Mo'ikeha-Yasutake performs the Makali'i Aiha'a in front of the mens house in Satawal After the Pwo ceremony.

Photographer Na'alehu Anthony

Maori Haka at the Pwo ceremony

Frank Kawe (right) and Sesario Sewralur (left) perform a Maori Haka at the Pwo ceremony celebration. Photographer Na'alehu Anthony

Landing on Satawal

Photo by Gary Kubota of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, traveling with Hokule'a, in Gift of canoe reaches goal; Mau's dream fulfilled, Star Bulletin (Vol. 12, Issue 75 - Friday, March 16, 2007).

Navigator Nainoa Thompson looks towards Satawal

Navigator Nainoa Thompson looks towards the horizon at the tiny atoll of Satawal. The island is a mere mile wide by half a mile long.

Photo by Na'alehu Anthony

Crab Claw Sail

Photo: Sam Low

Crab Claw Sails and Navigator

Photo: Sam Low

Sailing for Satawal

Photo: Kanako Uchino

Hokule'a and Maisu off Pulap

Hokule'a and Maisu off the island of Pulap enroute to Satawal, with Hokule'a leading the way.

Pulap is a low island whose only tall feature is coconut palms. Pulap is one of a "net" or "string" of small islands which sits astride the direct route from Chuuk to Satawal. They are a key landmark enroute; but, at the same time, pose a real hazard to navigation. In an amazing display of navigational skill and expertise, Hokule'a spotted Pulap at a distance of about nine nautical miles during a heavy squall on a day when the visibility was really quite poor.

(Photo by Mike Taylor, Captain, Kama Hele)

Mau Piailug performs Pwo Ceremony chant on Pollap

Grandmaster navigator Mau Piailug performs the pigikoal "tapping of the breadfruit" chant at a Pwo ceremony which was conducted on Pollap (Pulap) in July 2000. Master navigator Lambert Lokopwe (seated to the left) invited Piailug to come from Satawal to assist him with the initiation and education of six navigators . The chant is done to sanctify the bowl of food before distribution to the initates and assembled navigators. Photo by Eric Metzgar, Triton Films. From Mau Piailug performs Pwo Ceremony chant on Pollap

Mau Piailug on the beach at Satawal, with a star compass in the sand (1983)

From the Steve Thomas TRADITIONAL MICRONESIAN NAVIGATION COLLECTION, online at the University of Hawaii at Manoa/UH Manoa Library/Pacific Collection.

See the PVS weblog for thoughts on Mau. See Pacific Worlds/Re-plantings for talk-story about Mau's sailings from Satawal to Saipan. To read about Mau and Micronesian voyaging, see Eric Metzgar's "Carolinian Voyaging in the New Millenium" in the Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences" (Click on the "Issues" tab. The article is in the current issue (Vol 5, Nos 1 and 2), seventeen down in the table of contents, first article under "Canoes and Voyaging." Reference courtesy of Frank Glass.)

Cooking fish and coconuts/Satawal

From the Steve Thomas TRADITIONAL MICRONESIAN NAVIGATION COLLECTION, online at the University of Hawaii at Manoa/UH Manoa Library/Pacific Collection.

Hauling a canoe ashore/Satawal

From the Steve Thomas TRADITIONAL MICRONESIAN NAVIGATION COLLECTION, online at the University of Hawaii at Manoa/UH Manoa Library/Pacific Collection.

Mau teaching navigation

From the Steve Thomas TRADITIONAL MICRONESIAN NAVIGATION COLLECTION, online at the University of Hawaii at Manoa/UH Manoa Library/Pacific Collection.

Two Micronesian canoes sailing

From the Steve Thomas TRADITIONAL MICRONESIAN NAVIGATION COLLECTION, online at the University of Hawaii at Manoa/UH Manoa Library/Pacific Collection.

Fisherman

Photo: Sam Low

Pile of aku

Photo: Sam Low

Cutting breadfruit

Photo: Sam Low

Weaving

Photo: Sam Low

Chief's house at night

Photo: Sam Low

Mau

Photo: Sam Low

Song

Photo: Sam Low