The Native Iowan

Just had a discussion with an old friend that is quite interesting…

He wrote:

Have you ever read the book, “We, the Navigators”? Did you ever meet that old Reef Islander named Tevake?

We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific (Second Edition) by David Lewis 

Excerpt:

How did voyaging migrants during prehistory from Asia find and get to the tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean? 

Did they bring some food and water into a canoe, start paddling, and hope they would find land?

Many assume that Pacific islanders mastered navigation to such an incredible extent, it was like GPS. Pinpoint accuracy to where they could sail thousands of miles with the navigator’s target a tiny island only a few miles wide.

While that was the ultimate aim, the navigator’s initial target was actually a circle a couple hundred miles in diameter, which made the task so much easier.

For an experienced old timey native Pacific seaman, he just needed to get to the general ballpark – with a margin of error of more than a hundred miles. Once there, there were many tells he could work with to fine tune his way from the general vicinity to a specific island. E.g.; birds that don’t fly more than a hundred or so miles from their nest. If he saw them, it’s a safe bet that following their flight path in the afternoon would serve as an arrow pointed directly to land.

An experienced navigator could also tell from the chop and swell of the water if there was land nearby. Ditto special cloud formations that typically form over land, and that can be seen from dozens of miles away.

So basically, the navigator’s task wasn’t to be pinpoint accurate. He just had to point his canoe in the general direction of where he wanted to go. He then had to be not so accurate that he had to hit a mile wide island from a thousand miles away, but just accurate enough to hit a two-hundred-mile-wide circle of ocean or some such, which is a lot easier. From there, his experience would allow him to use a variety of clues to work his way to land within that big circle.

-end

I replied:

Know the book, vaguely, must have read it ages ago. I’ll chase it down again. Refresh my memory.

I thought the last navigator was from Utupua, or Vanikoro, south east of Lata. 

You may recall… in the early 80s there was a sailing canoe anchored off the Point Crux Yacht Club. It was there for quite some time. Long enough for me to know about it, and I lived remote. 

The canoe was owned by the Last Navigator, or so I was told at the time. If I ruminate long enough I’ll think of his name.

He had come to town as was his habit, by sailing canoe. He was famous. The “Drum” would post picts of him anchored off PCYC. Thats how I know his name, read about him… cant visualise his name. 

Rumour was, then, that he’d come to town and fell ill, left his canoe, stayed with his son in town. Normally he come to town and lived on his canoe. I believe he died in Honiara.

This gives us an idea of the distances involved…

A friend, a Kiwi Vol, had a Kiribati style sailing shunt-outrigger, Roviana Express. He had one of the last still active, old Gilbert dudes, that built shunt, sailing canoes, build him a small one. It was coooool.

When time came to leave the Solomons, my buddy did not know what to do with his amazing sailing canoe. It was cool but heavy. And he’d spent a lot on it, it was cool. But not a daily sailer…

He eventually donated it to the museum. 

The Museum had a cool canoe house by the Cenotaph, behind the Mendana. A Reef Island dude, Lawrence, was the young fresh out of uni guy, with the keys to the canoes. I helped Simon and Lawrence move “Roviana Express” into the museum, where we were introduced to the Last Navigator’s sailing canoe.

On the hard, it was bigger than it looked on-water.

Lawrence was close to the family and the canoe. I believe Lawrence had done some interviews and recordings with The Navigator. May have even voyaged with him.

It had been moved from the front of the Yacht Club into the shed by family of The Navigator.

There were some cool vessels in that shed; canoes of all shapes and sizes, outriggers, plank canoes able to haul over 20 paddlers, an old tokmoko.  Cool, cool vessels, made from old tech. The type of stuff that will never be seen again.

Years later I became quite friendly with The Navigator’s son, George West. He told me many stories of his father. 

Of course the Last Navigator, a wise man, had sent his only son off to school at a young age. Boarding school with the Anglicans on Guadalcanal. 

George had a 4 handicap.

George had not grown up in his father’s shadow, yet had many, many tales of his father’s exploits, of him being on the water for days, weeks, months. Being lost, gone, given up for dead.

What made him A Navigator is that he always found his way to where he was going. Always made it home. 

He’d sail off over the horizon…. A feather on the surface of the briney blue. It’s what he did. 

Often alone. 

Often he’d take family. 

The sailing canoe had a small lean-to with a fire pit. He was capable of spending long periods of time at the mercy of the elements. Catch fish and rain water. have a few potatoes. Mostly living “on deck”. Hunkering down, tying-in, in the cubby below deck only when it got really, really gnarly.

The Navigator had knowledgable about currents and winds and constantly got lucky, did not perish at sea. 

Very cool to think of the knowledge and experiences That Man had. 

When the SIG sold the old GG’s Rez and the cenotaph area the old canoe house was razed, and all in it burned.

Smiles