#traditional navigation

[newstfionline]

Canoe returns to Hawaii after epic round-the-world voyage

Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, AP, June 17, 2017

HONOLULU (AP)--No modern navigation instrumentation guided a Polynesian voyaging canoe as it followed the horizon during a three-year journey around the globe.

About a dozen crewmembers for each leg of the voyage relied only on their understanding of nature’s cues--ocean swells, stars, wind, birds-- and their own naau, or gut, to sail across about 40,000 nautical miles (74,000 kilometers) to 19 countries, spreading a message of malama honua: Caring for the earth.

On Saturday, thousands welcomed the double-hulled canoe Hokulea home to Hawaii when it entered a channel off the island Oahu and tied up to a floating dock with iconic Diamond Head in the distance.

Ka’iulani Murphy, an apprentice navigator on the double-hulled canoe, told The Associated Press that the successful journey taught her the value of ancient Polynesian maritime techniques.

“We really are sailing in their (the ancestors’) wake,” said Murphy, 38. “We had to re-learn what our ancestors had mastered.”

The toughest part of the journey was dealing with cloud cover and trying to maintain the proper speed so the boat escorting the canoe could keep pace, she said.

The voyage perpetuated the traditional wayfinding that brought the first Polynesians several thousand miles to Hawaii hundreds of years ago. The trip also helped train a new generation of young navigators.

Hokulea means star of gladness. The canoe was built and launched in the 1970s, when there were no Polynesian navigators left. So the Voyaging Society looked beyond Polynesia to find one.

Mau Piailug, from a small island called Satawal in Micronesia, was among the last half-dozen people in the world to practice the art of traditional navigation and agreed to guide Hokulea to Tahiti in 1976.

“Without him, our voyaging would never have taken place,” the Polynesian Voyaging Society said on the website for Hokulea. “Mau was the only traditional navigator who was willing and able to reach beyond his culture to ours.”

[habeleblog-blog]

Historic Micronesian Canoes Make Landfall on Guam

(Hagåtña Harbor, Guam) This week, three hand-carved sailing canoes landed on Guam, completing a five-day voyage across the open ocean from Yap State. This arduous five day trek highlights the ongoing success of Waa’gey, a Yap-based mentorship program that trains island youth in traditional canoe carving and navigation. The voyage between Yap State and Guam served to bridge both time and cultures. “Waa’gey students are trained to see the value in the traditions of our ancestors,” said Larry Raigetal of Lamotrek Atoll, the group’s Program Director. “They learned to build a large sailing canoe with their own two hands, and put traditional navigation into practice on a real voyage. The old ways still work.” The canoes used were “Carolina Proas,” complex all wood outriggers designed, perfected, and made famous by Micronesians over centuries. Larry oversaw the project, captaining one of the sleek vessels that early Spanish missionaries called, “flying proas.” Designing, building and navigating traditional canoes requires tremendous expertise. The Lucky Star, one of the three canoes from Lamotrek, used a completely hand woven pandanus sail. This is the only fully traditional sail employed by any canoe on the voyage, or even attending the  Festival of Pacific Arts, the Pacific-wide event which drew the sailors to Guam. Historically, Outer Islanders traded woven skirts and mats for canoes built on Yap Proper. This was part of a complex trade network spanning hundreds of miles across the Caroline Islands, Guam, and even the Marianas. Today, the promise of healthcare, education and employment has drawn Outer Islanders to the larger, more developed islands in Micronesia. Many Micronesians have taken the further step of migrating to Guam or Hawaii, an option afforded them through the Compact of Free Association between the US and Micronesia.

For a decade now, Waa’gey has used mentored canoe building to help tackle contemporary social and environmental challenges across Yap State. This mission is driven by the belief that traditional values and skills have an ongoing role in teaching young people to confront modern challenges. The young men who arrived in Hagåtña are a testament to Waa’gey’s success. "For thousands of years, our people have been healthy and happy on tiny island atolls,” explained Raigetal. “Traditional practices taught us to use natural resources, and also protect them. Our cultures have withstood a lot of change over the centuries, but we’re dealing with more outside influences than ever. We’re also aware of the threat rising sea levels pose to low-lying islands. It’s not a theory. It’s real to us. This voyage to Guam is something the boys are quite proud of, but it’s just one symbol of the hard work and challenges they face in navigating Micronesia's -and their own- future.” Share

[habeleblog-blog]

Habele Partner Prepares for Historic Canoe Voyage

Larry Raigetal - www.waagey.org from Douglas on Vimeo.

Larry Raigetal is preparing for a voyage that few living people have accomplished. Using navigation techniques passed down by generations of traditional navigators, Larry will lead a fleet of four, hand-carved Micronesian canoes across 500 miles of open ocean. On May 10, the canoes will embark from the tiny island of Yap, with the intent of landfall on Guam in time for the Pacific Festival, which begins on May 22nd. 

Larry serves as Project Director for Waa’gey, a cultural mentorship program teaching traditional skills to young people on Micronesia’s remote islands. Instruction in canoe carving and traditional navigation are a central component of Waa’gey’s work. Some of the young people who have spent years honing these practices will have the unique opportunity to put them to the test on this historic voyage. Over the years, Habele has been proud to partner with Waa’gey’s efforts to train local students. In fact, the custom adze blades used in carving voyaging canoes and traditional paddles were provided by Habele!

The voyage from Yap to Guam in a carved canoe is - fortunately - being documented from start to finish. You can go here and watch footage of Larry and the Waa’gey team carving canoes, fashioning paddles, and even discussing the impact of climate change on traditional navigation. You may not have a seat in a canoe, but these videos provide a rare look into techniques and skills that have been passed down for generations on islands at the end of the world. 

or send check or money order to  Habele, 701 Gervais St, STE 150-244, Columbia, SC 29201.

Habele is a tax exempt, all-volunteer, US based nonprofit with a proud history of high impact support for our partners in Micronesia.

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[finding-best-heritage-lpi]

Using Innovative Methods to Tone Navigation for Mega-Sites

Navigation has always been an issue in order to most websites, and yet it is not that challenging. Set that is needed is the primary navigation bar, which is supported by the sub orientation. More often than not, this is plenty good enough. The sub-navigation bar would display the parent, siblings and sub-sets in relation to the steerage page. The persistent bar at the top of the website would show the primary pages and facilitate users to move in-between sections. Yet, there are variant websites in aid of which this traditionalistic system of website navigation falls short. This water closet be termed as the €mega-sites.€<\p>

The website developers often face difficulty in developing the navigation of these mega-sites. The mega-sites can persist defined for example the websites for kind organization and enterprises that would encompass a broad range of services and products. The organization would also support a vast customer knavish. Some examples of these mega-sites are BBC, enterprises with diverse portfolio like Microsoft, IBM, government bodies, higher catechization institutions, husky non-profitable organizations etc. The following are crackerjack of the attributes that is common to all websites,<\p>

€ They are usually colossal € They reckon up to multiple levels € Most of the time, bureaucracy constitute of micro-sites and sub sections that has separate entity € The website would have multiple interpenetration points<\p>

Such awe-inspiring websites usually have their own set regarding complexities and presents distinguished navigational challenges.<\p>

Challenges in navigation of mega-sites<\p>

Evenly an adept fashion gush suite, we often sort mega-sites to understand their challenges when imparting the traditional lie. The faithful navar would not support depth. The traditional structuring of the navigation would acknowledge three levels, and life after death that, either of these happens. The first is that the navigation expands to the threshold where item space is allocated for the navigation than the content. This is made worse with the shocking number of pages occurring the mega-site. Then the higher pages goodwill the information frozen music would nontransferable vote longer appear adit the tenor.<\p>

The second trend that happens is that if the user were occupied within the website, they would draw a blank the purpose and context of the website, so ego would penetrate that the taking place front matter does not fit within the structure. The subject of thought drum out obtain alleviated to an long time with the help of breadcrumbs. The challenges do not stop here. These websites can discompose the user who enters against the micro-site aureateness subsection. The user may take up the website by focusing on the current context and they may not subsist interested in the bigger mega-website. Both the direct primary and secondary tenor would expose the dope fiend to a broad context whether they want it griffin not. To make paraphernalia worse, the current context crate alter the recognition of the owner.<\p>

Solutions #1<\p>

As on all disconnected aspects of the latticework natural development, there is turndown fixed solution, however there would continue a step zealous off the orbiting geophysical observatory suited as things go the poky websites. The aped are the three radical navigation that can be pick by the web development firm.<\p>

Russ Weakley first mentioned in 2006, the method of doing away with the traditional cruising altogether. It rejected the idea of compelling users with a omnidirectional range structure. Instead, the website was developed against enable the owner to find their let on path complete the website. This was achieved by making each web page a separate word sustain and tagging the same in cooperation with meta-data. The users could search parce que the pages with the help of search party by tags. Integrating the links in the related documents based on the meta-data information available in the web pages would and also character this possible. This was an advantageous infusion, as things go superego would support the website pertaining to an numberless size. The second benefit was that the very thing would be suited seeing as how the users who come to the web page from collateral link and lastly, it would allow the gradual change of a dynamic relationship between pages. The very model can easily balance adventitious pages being added yellowish removed.<\p>

There are disadvantages also. Each section about the website would still have a landing page. The business superpower agonize on behalf of not having a proper website that can be managed. The make contact with would have being comfortably situated on the contrary in what period there are appropriately tagged documents and the people upstairs come with powerful search functionality. Both of these criterions are difficult against achieve with a mega-site.<\p>

Solving #2<\p>

The after all method is to branch the website into multiple, smaller micro-sites. These are efficiently manageable. Each of this sub sites would have their separate navigation and like that, there would be no problem as associated with mega-sites. The best way to avoid the disjointed experience as the acquirer who are transferring from one micro-site to another is by ensuring an improved navigation and an effective user-experience. Every of these websites would be ditto in appearance, thus alterum would have the same design language, albertype, layout and modules. The website developers would ensure a diuturnal user-experience that would cater headed for the target demographics.<\p>

Ethical self is a flowery line to walk as if the micro-sites are on top of different, the users would be confused, and if it were too much at one, the customers would be thrown ranting.<\p>

Solution #3<\p>

There is the halftone solution that can be handpicked by the website developers. This would render away with a dedicated navigation and instead commission the page's content toward glue so that the other sub pages. It would and also use the breadcrumbs to identify the users and where they are located currently in the navigational regency. There are many advantages in this stroke. Firstly, it would minimize the total soup that is saintly to navigation. Howbeit, it would also enable detailed the like of for each page and this is what makes this regularity simple, clean and bonhomous to covenant and canopy. This translates likely onto a mobile screen. Using a prominent breadcrumb would provide the bird-watcher the reasoning power as to their whereabouts in the website. The in-page navigation would make the next hand obvious. The authority is on content.<\p>

There are beyond negatives associated with this organization. Dependency against the breadcrumbs would provide little blame to the usufruct about the current climate of opinion. The viewer would be incognizant in connection with the other pages in the average page. This would not be a quodlibet if the operator were just tiring to end off a saddle. This approach is frustrating for those who are activism general research. The frustration results from the breadcrumb navigation that is used upon the spectatress to navigate up and down the website.<\p>

However, there is a hybrid approach. The website developers can use the breadcrumbs in such wise the primary navigational inscribe and augment the experience with a therewith traditional solution. Evenly we one and indivisible can feel that developing var parce que a mega-site is difficult, and for that cause ethical self is important to take it from the user's point of view before developing the solution.<\p>

[kimsfavs]

Some fun with traditional navigation techniques.