''Alingano Maisu'', also known as ''Maisu'' , is a double-hulled voyaging canoe built in

Kawaihae, Hawaii Kawaihae is an unincorporated community on the west side of the island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii, north of Kailua-Kona. Its harbor is one of only two on the island, together with that of Hilo. Description The town's harbor inclu ...

by members of Na Kalai Waa Moku o Hawaii and Ohana Wa'a members from throughout the Pacific and abroad as a gift and tribute to

Satawal Satawal is a solitary coral atoll of one island with about 500 people on just over 1 km2 located in the Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district in Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia. Satawal is th ...

ese navigator

Mau Piailug Pius "Mau" Piailug (pronounced ; 1932 – July 12, 2010) was a Micronesian navigator from the Carolinian island of Satawal, best known as a teacher of traditional, non-instrument wayfinding methods for open-ocean voyaging. Mau's Carolinian ...

, who navigated the voyaging canoe '' Hōkūlea'' on her maiden voyage to

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

in 1976 and has since trained numerous

native Hawaiians Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii ...

in the ancient art of

wayfinding Wayfinding (or way-finding) encompasses all of the ways in which people (and animals) orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. Wayfinding software is a self-service computer program that helps users to find a location, ...

. The word ''maisu'' comes from the Satawalese word for

breadfruit Breadfruit (''Artocarpus altilis'') is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family (Moraceae) believed to be a domesticated descendant of ''Artocarpus camansi'' originating in New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippi ...

that has been knocked down by storm winds and is therefore available for anyone to take. The name is said to symbolize the knowledge of

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

that is made freely available. The concept for ''Alingano Maisu'' came about in 2001 when two Hawaiian voyaging groups, the

Polynesian Voyaging Society The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) is a non-profit research and educational corporation based in Honolulu, Hawaii. PVS was established to research and perpetuate traditional Polynesian voyaging methods. Using replicas of traditional double-hul ...

and Na Kalai Waa Moku o Hawaii, met with Piailug. The two hulls of the vessel were fabricated by the Friends of ''Hōkūlea'' and ''Hawaiiloa'' on

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

and shipped to the

Island of Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii ) is the largest island in the United States, located in the state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of , it has 63% of th ...

where Na Kalai Waa completed construction of the canoe. The Polynesian Voyaging Society provided much of the funding for the voyaging aspect of the project as well as an escort boat to help sail the canoe to

. The canoe is home-ported on the island of

Yap Yap ( yap, Waqaab) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federated States of Micro ...

under the command of Piailug's son, Sesario Sewralur.

Maiden voyage

Accompanied by '' Hōkūlea'', the ''Maisu'' left

on January 18, 2007. After stops in the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...

Pohnpei Pohnpei "upon (''pohn'') a stone altar (''pei'')" (formerly known as Ponape or Ascension, Proto-Chuukic-Pohnpeic: ''*Fawo ni pei)'' is an island of the Senyavin Islands which are part of the larger Caroline Islands group. It belongs to Pohnpei ...

, and Chuuk, the Maisu reached Satawal on March 15, 2007. On March 18, while on Satawal, five native Hawaiian

navigators A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

on the voyage were inducted into

pwo {{for, Pwo languages, Pwo languages Pwo is a sacred initiation ritual, in which students of Micronesia navigation, traditional navigation in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia become navigators (''palu'') and are initiated in the associated secrets. ...

, a sacred

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

n brotherhood of master navigators. ''Hōkūlea'' and ''Maisu'' both left Satawal on March 20 and made stops in

Woleai Woleai, also known as Oleai, is a coral atoll of twenty-two islands in the western Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district in the Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia and is located approximately west-n ...

Ulithi Ulithi ( yap, Wulthiy, , or ) is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about east of Yap. Overview Ulithi consists of 40 islets totaling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest i ...

and

before reaching

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...

. The ''Maisu'' then returned to Yap, while the ''Hōkūlea'' continued on to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Navigation Training Program with Palau Community College

In June 2008, Palau Community College announced that there will be a one-year program in traditional non-instrumental navigation on the ''Alingano Maisu'' under Sesario Sewralur.MESEKIU'S NEWS

References

{{Culture of Oceania, state=autocollapse Hawaii culture Individual sailing vessels Training ships Symbols of Hawaii Federated States of Micronesia culture Hōkūleʻa Replications of ancient voyages Polynesian navigation Voyaging canoes

Maiden voyage

Navigation Training Program with Palau Community College

See also

References