The Canoe Is the People

• Hulls|
• Sails|
• Ropes

The way a hull GLOSSARY hull - the body of a boat is built depends on the use of the canoe and available materials. You need big trees to build a dugout GLOSSARY dugout - a canoe made by digging out the centre of a log . On islands that have no big hardwood trees, such as the low coral atolls of Western Kiribati GLOSSARY Kiribati - Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line Islands and the Tuamotu chain, pieces of wood are shaped into planks GLOSSARY planks - shaped pieces of wood and fitted together. Other planks are tied from the inside to give support. Before iron nails, Roman and Egyptian ships were made like this too.

These are the two oldest ways to build hulls. People refined them more in the Pacific than in other parts of the world. This enabled them to travel far on the open ocean. By fitting and tying all the parts together, Pacific people made very strong– but they lashed the parts together so that their vakas were flexible GLOSSARY flexible - easy to bend . When sailing, the canoes could absorb the force of the waves better than more rigid GLOSSARY rigid - stiff, hard European boats. The lashings allow the joins between vaka parts to bend rather than break.

If a vaka is used for fishing in lagoons, or if a place rarely has strong winds (like the protected channels and lagoons of the central and western Solomon Islands), it doesn’t need side planks. But if it’s used for voyaging between islands, where the seas are high, side planks or cover boards are necessary. Balance is essential for these vakas. The hull shape and the distance between the two hulls (or hull and outrigger GLOSSARY outrigger - side float ) has to be just right. Carvings on the hulls often have spiritual meaning and are there to protect the vaka and the voyagers.