The role of canoe-building and navigation in Yapese and Marshallese seafaring systems

Under the auspices of the Computational Archaeology & Seafaring Theory Workshop being held between the Stanford Archaeology Center and the Rumsey Map Center, the keynote address of the workshop will be open to the public on December 7, 2022 at 3.30 pm. Larry Raigetal and Alson Kelen will speak about the Micronesian Seafaring System.  They will focus on two of the essential components of the centuries-old seafaring system existing in some of the most remote islands in Oceania.  This event is being co-sponsored by the Stanford Archaeology Center.

The event is free but registration is required. To register for coming in person, please visit this form.

To register for Zoom, click here. 

About the Speakers

H.Larry Raigetal is a co-founder of Waa’gey, a non-profit organization in Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), that works with communities to promote cultural heritage of the “reimethau” indigenous people in the central Caroline Islands.  He also serves as Waa’gey President and as a volunteer instructor in traditional Micronesian seafaring system teaching canoe carving, and celestial navigation.  Raigetal is an accomplished “senap” master canoe carver initiated under the traditional school of “Taan Gech”.  He was also initiated through the pwo ritual us a traditional navigator under the mast/school of “Weriyeng”.  

Alson Kelen has been involved in the traditional canoeing culture of the Marshall Islands for a number of decades. For four years, he assisted the Waan Aelõñ Kein (These Islands) project to document the step-by-step construction of Marshallese canoes. In the late 1990s, he co-founded the Waan Aelõñ in Majel program, a registered non-profit that focuses on empowering young people to use traditional Marshallese skills for young people as a medium to transfer needed life skills and capacity building to the youth of the Marshall Islands.