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Heirs of Lata: A Renewal of Polyne- members by building several tepuke sian Voyaging. 21 minutes, 1997, and sailing them to remote destina- vhs (n t s c), color. Filming and script tions under the direction of skilled by Taumako students of Vaka Tau- navigators. The entire procedure was mako Project. Vaka Taumako Project to be captured on video. The project Archive and Research Center, PO Box was embraced and carried out by the 662224, Lîhu‘e, hi 96766. us$20. Taumako community, with financial su p p o r t from several government min- Vaka Taumako: The First Voyage. istries and private businesses, and with 17 minutes, 1999, vhs (n t sc), color. anthropologist Mimi George serving Producer: Juniroa Productions. as director and principal investigator. Vaka Taumako Project Archive and These two films represent a first step Research Center, Lîhu‘e, hi. us$20. in documenting the project’s accom- (Both films available as a set for plishments. us$35.) Heirs of Lata focuses on the pro- cess of constructing a voyaging canoe, Taumako is the main island of the from selection and felling of a tree for Duff Group in the Solomon Islands’ the hull to the eventual launching. It Temotu Province. Like their well-doc- includes scenes of the community umented Polynesian compatriots on pulling an enormous log along skids Tikopia and Anuta, two hundred from the island’s interior to the beach. miles to the south-southeast, Duff And it shows the major canoe-making Islanders are remote from centers of activities: shaping the hull with axes governmental authority and economic and adzes; plaiting sennit cord; lashing development; and like Tikopia and pieces together; fashioning pandanus Anuta, this community of approxi- sails; and preparing wood pres e rv a t i v e mately five hundred people has from seaweed. Vaka Taumako covers retained much of its earlier culture some of the same ground, even using and social organization. Duff Islanders some of the same video footage, but it are renowned throughout the Solo- focuses on the proj e c t ’ s first interisland mons for their seafaring exploits and voyage. It shows preparations for their outstanding voyaging canoes, departure, the canoe’s performance at known as tepuke. Polynesians from sea, its arrival at Nifiloli in the Reef the neighboring Reef Islands once Islands, and the voyagers’ enthusiastic made similar canoes and shared essen- reception. Both films nicely depict the tially the same seafaring traditions, as community working together and pro- described by commentators from Had- vide impressive views of Taumako’s don and Hornell to William Daven- elaborate, sophisticated voyaging port and David Lewis. canoes with neatly crafted shelters and In 1993, Taumako’s elderly para- gracefully curved “crab-claw” sails. mount chief, Koloso Kaveia, estab- The video footage raises some lished the Vaka Taumako Project. His intriguing comparative issues. The lit- objective was to promote mastery of erature on Oceanic seafaring contains traditional canoe-building and voyag- descriptions of tepuke, including a ing skills among younger community good deal of information on how they media rev iews 615 are put together, accompanied by a sailing characteristics and their impli- number of photographs. The photos, cations for interisland contact. however, are mostly of models; and These films are a commendable they do not show the vessels at sea. In beginning in what promises to be an the films, I was struck by the Tau m a k o ongoing project. However, they are canoes’ round hulls, which are surpris- better in conception than execution. ingly slender for the complex super- Heirs of Lata was filmed by Duff st ru c t u r e that they support. These con- Island students, and the lack of expe- trast with the deep-V voyaging hulls rience is evident in its cinematic qual- found in such areas as Micronesia, the ity. Vaka Taumako was professionally Polynesian outlier atolls of Papua Ne w produced. The photography and color Guinea and the western Solomons, or ar e a marked improvement, and where Tikopia and Anuta. Unlike those hulls, the same footage is used, it is handled which may measure four or five feet more adeptly. Most of the first film’s fr om keel to gunwales and prov i d e points are made again, but more suc- plenty of free b o a r d, te p u k e hulls and cinctly, in the second. outriggers are entirely submerged for Both films miss splendid opportuni- much of their time on the open sea. ties to address important issues. For This system would seem to create a lot example, women are shown making of drag, impair the vessels’ speed and sails and plaiting sennit, but their con- ef fi c i e n c y , and produce a great deal of tribution escapes comment. Similarly, wear and tear. when the canoe arrives at Nifiloli in Even such basic maneuvers as the second film, we learn that Kaveia’s bailing would appear to present an wife has made the journey with him, intriguing challenge. The hull is essen- but we are given no insight into her tially a hollowed-out log with a nar- activities during the voyage. Since row opening on top. Although the most portrayals of Pacific Island sea- opening is covered and caulked, on faring treat it as a predominantly male a lengthy voyage there would almost en d e a v o r , ac k n o w l e d g m e n t of wo m e n ’ s ce r tainly be leakage. And with the hull contributions would have been a wel- cover at the water line, one wonders come addition. how the crew accesses the interior Another issue suggested by the without letting in more water than video but not discussed involves the can be removed. integration of old and new. What, for Despite first appearances, the sys- example, does it tell us that the Island- tem evidently works. Still, the pecu- ers’ attire ranges from boots, long liarities of hull design combined with pants, and long-sleeved shirts to lava- the crab-claw sail and the fact that lavas, leaves, and bark cloth? Or that the shelter is perched on the outrigger they use metal tools to hew what the platform—in contrast with the Car- notes call “completely traditional” olinian system of placing it on the lee vessels? More intriguing is the blend- platform—means that tepuke must ing of religions. One scene in the first handle very differently from other film shows Chief Kaveia sprinkling voyaging canoes. It would be interest- some kind of libation on a canoe hull ing to know about the differences in in the early stages of construction; a 616 the contemporary pacific • fall 2001 few moments later, an Anglican clergy - tained their voyaging activities with man in full regalia appears to be neither Tau m a k o ’ s decades-long hiatus blessing the same hull. Immediately nor the necessity for revival. And thereafter, the “traditional” Islanders Polynesians from Ontong Java and break out in the film’s theme song, Nukumanu sail between those two “We Welcome You,” sung in English. atolls, sometimes on a weekly basis. None of this is mentioned, much less Granted, Taumako’s voyaging canoes analyzed by the narrator. are more spectacular than Anuta’s, When the canoes are launched in while mariners from Nukumanu and the first film, we are told that tepuke Ontong Java are in the process of are superior to modern sailing yachts replacing wooden outrigger canoes “in many ways.” Fair enough; but wh y with fiberglass, and sails with out- not spell out those ways? Likewise, board motors. But Taumako’s unique- Taumako’s sophisticated navigational ness need not be exaggerated. This techniques are hinted at but not misstatement is particularly disturbing described. Such details would make since the credits list Paul Keyaumi, an the films more useful both as teaching Ontong Javanese businessman, as one aids in courses on the Pacific and for of the project’s sponsors. Surely the their avowed purpose of preserving filmmakers knew about—and should indigenous knowledge. have acknowledged—the ongoing The two films and accompanying maritime accomplishments of literature contain several minor but Keyaumi’s kin. annoying discrepancies. For example, Despite these reservations I do not the notes give the Taumako popula- wish to sound too critical. It is grati- tion as 50 0 , while Vak a Tau m a k o gi v e s fying to see local people take an inter- it as 450. The films give the distance est in pres e r ving traditional knowledge of the voyage from Taumako to the of canoe construction, handling, and Reef Islands as 100 miles, while my navigation and to know of their col- maps show it as more like 60. And laboration with a representative of the the films suggest that tepuke have not scholarly community. Despite the tech- been built since the 1950s or sailed nical shortcomings, these two films since the 1960s. Yet, I was told during represent a good start to an exciting a 1983 visit to Honiara about a group long-term enterprise. Improvement of Duff Islanders who sailed a tepuke ought to come with practice. to the western Solomons in 1980. richard feinberg According to the story, they had Kent State University planned to go on to Port Moresby but failed to complete the trip because of * * * inclement weather. Most troubling to me is the impli- cation in Heirs of Lata, and the direct assertion in the notes, that Duff Islanders are the only Polynesians who still build and sail traditional voyaging canoes. In fact, Anutans have main-