Among the most doggedly “traditional” of contemporary Pacific island societies, the Polowatese are world-renown for an unabated tradition of outrigger
canoe carving and long distance, open-ocean voyaging using ancient and exotic (read: radically different) methods and techniques of navigation (Gladwin 1970; Lewis 1994). It was with such remarkable maritime craft and abilities that ancient mariners, beginning four to six thousand years ago, fanned out from today’s Island Southeast Asia (including Taiwan) to explore and settle present-day Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. (Howe 2007; Irwin 1992; Kirch 1997; Mahdi 1999). Linguistic and archeological evidence suggest pre European contact in the Americas. However, they also sailed in the opposite direction, as far as Madagascar, where one finds linguistic and technological (e.g. outrigger, lateen sails) cognates to Oceanic societies (Finney 1994). Through the turbulent seas of more recent Euro American and Asian colonial rule, the Polowatese, like other Pacific peoples, survived. But the Polowatese and a few other small scale societies in the Central Carolines in particular, did so specifically by holding ferociously to traditions of outrigger canoe carving and open ocean voyaging, seeing them as essential foundations of their distinct identity even if, or perhaps because, these technologies do not preclude innovation and experimentation (Diaz 2002). Referring to themselves as the “Re Metau,” or People of the Sea, the Polowatese are a proud seafaring people whose deep cultural roots and identities have always been forged through the wide ranging routes of their voyages (Diaz 2011; 2002; 1997). Even the islands themselves are conceptualized as mobile, thereby adding additional depth and reach to the “foundations” of Polowatese sense of self (Diaz 2011). There is irony in the ecological and cultural predicament facing the Polowatese today as a result of climate change: their forced dispersal from their beloved atoll may well spell the cultural demise of these mobile islanders, while the cultural potential of advanced imaging technologies in academic collaborative processes may end up being the best canoe and voyage the Polowatese could ever hope to stumble upon. Such a vessel, we believe, can also help shape and move collaborative efforts to diversify academic cultures and environments.
canoe carving and long distance, open-ocean voyaging using ancient and exotic (read: radically different) methods and techniques of navigation (Gladwin 1970; Lewis 1994). It was with such remarkable maritime craft and abilities that ancient mariners, beginning four to six thousand years ago, fanned out from today’s Island Southeast Asia (including Taiwan) to explore and settle present-day Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. (Howe 2007; Irwin 1992; Kirch 1997; Mahdi 1999). Linguistic and archeological evidence suggest pre European contact in the Americas. However, they also sailed in the opposite direction, as far as Madagascar, where one finds linguistic and technological (e.g. outrigger, lateen sails) cognates to Oceanic societies (Finney 1994). Through the turbulent seas of more recent Euro American and Asian colonial rule, the Polowatese, like other Pacific peoples, survived. But the Polowatese and a few other small scale societies in the Central Carolines in particular, did so specifically by holding ferociously to traditions of outrigger canoe carving and open ocean voyaging, seeing them as essential foundations of their distinct identity even if, or perhaps because, these technologies do not preclude innovation and experimentation (Diaz 2002). Referring to themselves as the “Re Metau,” or People of the Sea, the Polowatese are a proud seafaring people whose deep cultural roots and identities have always been forged through the wide ranging routes of their voyages (Diaz 2011; 2002; 1997). Even the islands themselves are conceptualized as mobile, thereby adding additional depth and reach to the “foundations” of Polowatese sense of self (Diaz 2011). There is irony in the ecological and cultural predicament facing the Polowatese today as a result of climate change: their forced dispersal from their beloved atoll may well spell the cultural demise of these mobile islanders, while the cultural potential of advanced imaging technologies in academic collaborative processes may end up being the best canoe and voyage the Polowatese could ever hope to stumble upon. Such a vessel, we believe, can also help shape and move collaborative efforts to diversify academic cultures and environments.