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23/12/2004: "CANOE. NUKUORO or possibly at KAPINGAMARANGI ATOLL"
www.darkwing.uoregon.edu
This report documents the research, carving and launching of a Kapingamarangi Canoe. When I became involved with the project, I was told that the Kapingamarangis would be carving the waka siu, their most sacred canoe and that there was one man who still knew the art of carving the canoe, though he was old and physically unable to do the work. By having this "master carver" guide some of the younger men of the village and by documenting this process, it was hoped that the ancient canoe carving skill would be preserved. My task was to manage the project and document the carving.
Initially, this seemed to be an interesting and straightforward project. While waiting for the project to begin, I did some research concerning the canoes of the Kapingamarangi with specific attention to the waka siu. This information was to serve as the foundation and historical background of the final report. While the project maintained its status as interesting, the building of a waka siu was anything but straightforward. The difficulty encountered, and I say this with the greatest respect for the carving skills and craft of the Kapingamarangi, was that the last waka siu was built previous to the birth of anyone in the community.
Throughout my research both in Porakiet and on Kapingamarangi I was unable to find one person that remembered, let alone helped with, the carving of a waka siu. Were we building a boat that no one had ever seen? I was able to find some information, though incomplete, regarding this canoe from various reports done over the years; during the early and mid-twentieth century a number of anthropologists had taken an interest in the Kapingamarangi culture.
It turns out that the waka siu was a relic of the ancient cult religion that went by the wayside with the Kapingamarangis' adoption of Christianity in 1918. At about the same time the carving of the Kapingamarangi style canoe was replaced with the simpler Nukuoro style of canoe. Given other factors, the last time a waka siu was built was probably around 1915. This however is speculation on my part. Kosen Mack, the master carver, was born in 1919, "the year we started counting years" (a reference to Christianity).
