Building a Vaka

If you want to build a vaka, first plant a garden.
Ni-Vanuatu saying

Building a large vaka can take more than a year. It can only begin if the right trees have been planted and are ready to use. A spiritual expert often performs a ritual GLOSSARY ritual - ceremony to ask the spirits for permission to cut down a tree. The experts might be paid with valuables like weaving and food as well as shown great respect. Another expert guides the vaka builders. In Satawal, heís called a senap (master vaka builder). Young children watch, and older boys help out.

Before Europeans arrived in the Pacific, people used things from the world around them to build canoes - like stone or shell axes to cut the trees and shape the canoe parts. There were no steel tools and certainly no chainsaws like today! A canoe builder knows which trees are good for different canoe parts. The wood for hulls must be strong and long-lasting but not too heavy. Other canoe parts - like the outrigger GLOSSARY outrigger - side float and the sleeping platform on Satawalese canoes - are made from softer woods. Some of the wood used for the sleeping platform is brought by ocean currents GLOSSARY currents - the directional flow of the sea from unknown places. If a community doesnít have building materials or a canoe builder, they may trade for canoes from other islands.

After the canoe is tested, thereís a ceremony to celebrate. In Satawal, they throw food all over the canoe. When theyíre finished, they feast!

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How Lata Acted Badly Again

Chief Kaveia and Ambrose Miki

“When Lata returned to the forest, he saw that the Tamau tree was standing once again. So again he chopped it down and removed the bark and branches. But when Lata went home, again Hinora raised the tree. When Lata returned to the forest, once again he found the tree standing. So, for the third time he cut it down. But once again Hinora raised her tree.Lata asked “Who did this to my vaka?”Hinora told him “That tree belongs to me.” So Lata was a criminal at fiest, but ty the end he would have to become a man. Why do I say he was criminal? What was criminal was that he stole that tree from Hinora. In the end, Hinora took pity on Lata and said, “you can have this tree to work on.” But again he behaved badly. When his Te Puke was finished and ready to be taken to the sea, then Lata lied to Hinora again! Man, I am really shocked by it! …”