Celebrating the rich heritage of traditional seafaring in the Pacific region of Micronesia, the Yap Visitors Bureau, in partnership with the Yap Traditional Navigation Society, has announced that the 8th annual Yap Canoe Festival will be held December 8 & 9, 2017 in Colonia.

The two days of festivities will take place at the Yap Living History Museum and will include a parade of traditional sailing canoes, dances, skills demonstrations and a marketplace offering food and handicrafts for sale.

Micronesian scholar and filmmaker Dr. Eric Metzgar will provide the keynote address and present his video, A Voyaging Odyssey, featuring highlights from the 2010 ocean voyages captained by Pwo Master Navigator Ali Haleyalur and Master Canoe Carver Chief Bruno Tharngan. The ocean crossings “rediscovered” the ancient, traditional sea routes between the islands of Lamotrek, Guam, Yap and Palau.


“We are excited that Dr. Metzgar will be joining us along with Ali Haleyalur and Chief Tharngan,” said Don Evans, general manager of the Yap Visitors Bureau. “Dr. Metzgar has spent many years on the Outer Islands of Yap studying the art and history of traditional sailing and is a leading expert in the field.”


Voyaging canoe rides will be offered on Friday, December 8 followed that evening by the traditional dances of Yap that are renowned throughout the region.


On Saturday, December 9, a photographic exhibit of Yap's seafaring history along with other exhibits will be on display. Visitors will also have the rare opportunity to taste the traditional offertory, voyaging, and celebratory foods connected with successful long sea voyages.


“This year’s Canoe Festival promises to be a not-to-be-missed experience for not only canoeists but anyone interested in learning more about the seafaring history and traditions of these remote Pacific islands,” adds Evans.

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Reprinted with permission from the Kaselehlie Press

Micronesian citizens living in Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, gathered in South Carolina in mid-May to reassemble a traditional paddling canoe. The boat was crafted in Yap and serves as a symbol of the interwoven history of the American and Micronesian Peoples.


Gift of this one-of-a-kind craft was prompted by support from private citizens across the United States –and in particular South Carolina– following Super Typhoon Maysak, a record-setting storm that ravaged the Micronesian States of Yap and Chuuk in 2015.


Canoe delivery was organized by “Habele,” a South Carolina headquartered charity serving students across Micronesia. Habele had solicited, coordinated, and delivered relief supplies to pupils and educators in the wake of the storm. “Waa’gey,” a Yap-based community preservation organization, crafted the canoe, also working with Habele to identify Micronesians in the United States who could reassemble the craft once it reached Edisto Island, south of Charleston.

"The canoe is the central object of Pacific Island cultures, and preserving the knowledge of its construction and use is essential to cultural preservation in the region,” explained Douglas Herman, Senior Geographer, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. “It is exciting to see this knowledge being shared and perpetuated.“

The westernmost state in Micronesia, the tiny islands of Yap are scattered across 500 miles of ocean, just south of the US Territory of Guam. An American protectorate following liberation in World War Two, Micronesia is now a sovereign nation in a special “Compact” with the US.  Through that status, many Micronesians come to study, work, and live, in the United States. Reassembly of the canoe offered some of these Islanders a chance to reconnect, and preserve their distinctive cultural skills.


“The practice of building and sailing canoes is an essential component of Micronesian culture,” says Barbara Wavell, an anthropologist and author of “Arts & Crafts of Micronesia.” “Canoe building requires many important skills including woodworking, lashing. These skills can also be applied to other cultural activities such as house construction and the making of bowls and tools. The Habele canoe project is a significant step in the promotion and preservation of this important cultural knowledge.”


Among the Micronesians who gathered to reassemble the canoe using distinctive and complex lashing techniques were Camilius Epoulipiy, John Salmai, Marino Yarogimal, Ralph Tawerilig, Richard Yangitelmes, and Troy Hasugulut. American born relatives of Island descent joined as well as American volunteers.


The canoe’s point of origin and its new berth share historical ties with the Spanish Empire. In 1686, the Islands of Yap were sighted and first claimed as Spanish colony. That same year -over 7,000 miles away- Point of Pines Plantation on Edisto was burned by Spanish raiders from Florida hoping to expel English colonists from present day South Carolina.


“This canoe is authentic enough for museum display, and functional enough to take shrimping in South Carolina’s tidal creeks,” explained Larry Raigetal of Waa’gey. “It’s made from local materials, with traditional tools, and we are excited about our friends at Point of Pines putting it to good use.”


“I join our elders and young men of Waa'gey in extending our heart felt appreciation and congratulations to our partner, Habele and those who have helped to assemble the canoe,” continued Raigetal, the "Senap," or master carver. He was supervised by his late father and master canoe carver Peter Pakemai  “This is a proud moment for us and we are humbled with the opportunity to play a small part of this achievement.” Organizers hope to formally commission the canoe in mid-June.


“I was grateful to be a part of this,” said Cam Epoulipiy, who drove more than seven hours to attend. “To reconnect with Islanders living in the States, to practice and preserve important skills, and to see that others outside our Islands also value these things of such importance to us.”

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The famously traditional Island of Stone Money is sending top students to a high tech global robotics competition.

Students from 153 nations will gather in Washington DC this summer for the international high school robotics Olympics. Few will have traveled as far –geographically or culturally– as the Robo League team from Yap.

The FIRST Global Challenge is a worldwide robotics competition. Small student teams design, build, and compete complex robots from simple parts. The work demands hands-on mastery of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) skills. Featuring teams from across the planet, it also serves as a forum for students to meet and partner with diverse international peers.

Students in Yap –a remote Micronesian Island most famous for its Stone Money– established their own Robotics League in 2011, holding Micronesia’s first public exhibition in summer of 2012.

Organized by US-based NGO “Habele,” the Yap Robo League remains the only coordinated multi-year robotics program in the Central or Western Pacific. It has grown and thrived through a defining partnership with a robotics team at Chaminade College Preparatory School, in Los Angeles, California. In-kind gifts of time and talent, as well as private donations and local fundraisers entirely finance the league.



The all-star team headed to the FIRST Global Challenge is comprised of three high school seniors from Yap Catholic High School, winners of the 2016 Habele Robo League Championship.  They will spend nearly a week in the US Capital, participating in a lavish international opening ceremony, a series of robotics exhibitions, competitions, and eliminations, as well as tours and team building exercises with students from around the world.

“Since 2011, hardworking students, educators, and community members have grown and sustained one the Pacific’s most exceptional –and most popular– educational programs,” observed Alex Sidles, a Habele Director. “Invitation to the Global Challenge is just the latest testimony to the accomplishments and ambitions of the Yap Robo League, and its innovative focus on competition, incentives, and accountability.”

The many tiny islands of Micronesia are home to a semi cash economy, primarily comprised of subsistence agriculture and fishing. Their remoteness and relative lack of resources limits formal economic growth and opportunities. However, they place great emphasis on preserving cultural practices while learning modern technology.

Widely studied in the West, Yapese stone money, or "Rai," are an example. The large, circular stone disks have been used for centuries as currency. The system relies on oral histories of ownership because the carved stones are too large to move.

One project to sustain traditional practices is “Waa’gey,” an after school cultural skills program. Many Yap Robo League students participate, receiving instruction on-campus and after-school from Waa’gey mentors in centuries old Carolinian carving and sailing techniques.

“There are many connections between the techniques of canoe building and celestial navigation and the skills students develop with these robots,” explained Master Navigator Larry Raigetal. “The outside world’s increasing focus on so-called STEM instruction is, for us, something of a return to the way we’ve always understand knowledge and building. I hope our young people take that insight with them to Washington.”

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