Marshallese canoe fleet
pp. 20-21 · Read in the full issue
to herald millennium dawn in New Zealand
By Giff Johnson
THE Marshall Islands is preparing to send a fleet of outrigger canoes to a dawn millennium cele bration in New Zealand - an event that
is expected to be witnessed by tens of thousands of peo ple, and a huge worldwide television audience.
The small town of Gis borne in the North Island is sponsoring a millennium cel ebration involving canoes from New Zealand, the Cook j Islands, the Marshall Islands! and elsewhere, said Te Atu-1
rangi Nepia Clamp, who was
in Majuro recently making
final arrangements for ship ment of the six Marshall Islands canoes to New Zealand.
“Gisborne will be the first city in the world to see the
sunrise,” Clamp said. The!
New Zealand government is I funding the flotilla of canoes 1
“representing voyaging peo- ]
pie of the north and south] Pacific as the focal point for the dawn ceremony at Gis-1 borne.” The celebration wilfi reconnect islands that are'
separated by thousands of miles of open ocean, but generations ago were visited regularly by large voyaging canoes.
“We always considered Microne sians and Polynesians as one family
Gisborne will be hosting a major party for the end of tbe year as part of its claim to be the first city in the world to see the sunrise
because our ancestors sailed here,”
Clamp said in Majuro. “(This celebra tion) will reestablish our ties to the Mar shall Islands.” The Hawaiian voyaging canoe Makali’i, which earlier this year
completed the his toric voyage con necting Polynesia with Micronesia with the famed
Satawal navigator
Mau Piailug on
board, may also participate in the New Zealand event. Clamp is choreograph ing a canoe extravaganza that will fea ture a fleet of Pacific canoes sailing into Gisborne bay with the rising sun
A fleet of Marshallese canoes, including three two-man sailing canoes such as these pictured, still be heading to Nest Zealand for a dawn millennium celebration.
as a backdrop. Marshall Islands Visitors Authority general manager Ben Graham said this is a tremendous opportunity for promotion of the Marshall Islands and its unique canoe culture.
He indicated that the top three win ners of the annual Outrigger Marshall Islands Cup race, who sail small two man canoes, plus two larger 20-25 foot canoes will join a 50 foot voyaging canoe from Enewetak Atoll.
The Enewetak canoe is a national symbol for the tradition of voyaging in the Marshall Islands and was, for about five years in the mid-19905, exhibited at the National Maritime Museum in Auck land.
The Enewetak canoe gained fame in the South Pacific after sailing in the Cook Islands at the 1992 Festival of Pacific Arts, where Clamp first saw it.
“The Marshall Islands is renowned for
The question is whether this sleek voyaging canoe can be readied in time: for the past 14 months, since its return from New Zealand, it has sat packed in a box in the local stevedore’s dock side garage
its outrigger canoes,” Clamp said.
Despite having been neglected for a
while, there appear to be efforts to get the canoe back into the water. Graham said that a local canoe building project, Canoes of the Marshall Islands, and the national museum, are coordinating repair and upgrades for the fleet of canoes to have them ready to send on a container ship to New Zealand in October.
New Zealand is funding shipment of the six canoes plus transportation costs of about 20 sailors for the millennium celebration, Graham said. ■