Waa'gey's traditional canoe carving program is changing lives in Micronesia. It provides young islanders with a sense of self, community and their cultural heritage.

Publication of this blog post, by Pacific Voyagers, speaks to a growing awareness of the Habele-supported effort:

"Islanders on these remote [Micronesian] coral atolls have little contact with the outside world and even fewer modern day resources. Now, their complicated and time-honed crafts are being used to pursue a broader social agenda."

"A small group in Yap by the name of “Waa’gey” has begun to pair master carvers, weavers and other skilled mentors with post secondary school aged boys and girls. They hope to support those students’ academic and personal development. The exciting side benefit is the preservation and revival of a distinctive and technically rich tradition of craftsmanship and navigation."


"The process of crafting these complicated vessels is passed on from a handful of elderly experts, one generation to the next. The seemingly tenuous oral link with the past is kept vibrant through practice and observation. Waa’gey sees this as a chance to build bonds between generations and develop a positive work ethic among young islanders, particularly those who now reside in the more dense and developed state centers.

Waa’gey’s approach has been to work with master carvers across the Outer Islands and coordinate projects among teams both on Yap Proper and back on the smaller outer islands where the practices remain more vibrant. In the process they’ve revived a centuries old process of obtaining trees on Yap Proper (where they grow much taller) and exchanging the logs for specialty items only produced in the Outer Islands. That form of tribute and barter stopped when the Japanese ordered an end to the practice of inter-island canoe voyages in the 1920s"

Read the full story here.

Share

All of Habele’s scholarship recipients have a lot to be proud of, but no one more than 2nd grader Kyle Taitiw.

That’s because Kyle is the only Habele scholarship student reporting a perfect 4.0 GPA on his second-semester report card!

Thanks to excellent instruction from the staff at St. Mary’s School in Yap, and a lot of hard work, Kyle is off to an inspiring start to the school year. Habele’s directors look forward to seeing more great things from Kyle in the future.

Without scholarship assistance from Habele, it is unlikely that Kyle’s academic aptitudes would ever be developed. That’s because Kyle is a native of the tiny undeveloped atoll of Woleai, which lies more than 400 miles east of Yap. There is incredible natural beauty on Woleai, but few opportunities for academic growth.

There are many children on Micronesia’s remote Outer Islands as eager to learn as Kyle, but little – if any – opportunity to cultivate that interest. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, Habele is currently helping twenty-five children from the Outer Islands attend school. That’s a record number of scholarship recipients for Habele, but the need is still great.

Please consider how your generous donation to Habele could open up a new world of learning for another child like Kyle.



Share

Share

An ambitious project to provide every middle school student in the Micronesian State of Yap with an English Langauge Dictionary reached a major mile stone this week.

The final shipment of boxes of books arrived in the state's capital city of Colonia where they were received by the State's Department of Education.

The effort began in earnest in mid 2012 when "The Dictionary Project" committed to donate 1,000  student dictionaries to the US-based "Habele" charity, which has been working across Micronesia since 2006. Habele then reached out to Nils Winkler, CEO of Yapital, a European-based electronic payments company. Yapital provided the financial support to process and forward the books to Yap State, and then distribute the texts to students  both on Yap Proper and throughout the remote Outer Islands.

Officials at the State Department of Education volunteered to oversee and coordinate that process of delivering the dictionaries. They worked with Habele, the Yap State Post Office and the Department of Sea Transportation. Seaman on the state supply ship also pitched in, stevedoring the boxes at each of the tiny islands and atolls on the ship's semi-regular field trip. Leaders at DOE also sent thank you letters written by students and teachers throughout Yap back to the donors.


"This was a great project that met a local need and was well executed, explained Nils Winkler, CEO of the Yapital. "Yapital was happy to be part of the effort to get these dictionaries in the eager hands of the students across Yap."

Winkler and several Habele board members were in Yap as the bulk of the shipment arrived this fall. They were able to deliver several boxes of books to schools in person during their "Listening Tour" of the state. "Meeting with students and parents in the Men's Houses of these tiny, isolated and un-develop Pacific Islands was a wonderful opportunity" reflected Winkler. "I'm certain the dictionaries will be put to great -and regular- use!"

Share

Larry Raigetal of the Community Based Organization “Waa’gey” has returned to Yap following a planning and partnership tour in the United States.

Raigetal met with a range of public sector officials and private citizens across several states, the District of Columbia and the Territory of Guam. “It was great to talk with policy leaders, philanthropists, cultural aficionados and others. I was surprised by the interest in -and frankly awareness of- the big issues we are facing in Micronesia,” reported Raigetal. “Every where I went, folks were particularly excited about Waa’gey and eager to help.”

Working across Yap State, Waa’gey uses traditional skills to confront the social, economic and environmental challenges faced by the people of Micronesia’s most remote outer islands.

The planning and partnership trip began with time in and around Washington DC. Raigetal conferred with officials from the US Departments of the Interior and Health and Human Services. He also sat down with retired State Department officials as well as former Peace Corps Volunteers living in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs around Washington.


Raigetal then traveled south to the Carolinas. He sat down with Curtis Loftis, the State Treasure of South Carolina. Loftis is the founder, chairman and primary benefactor of the Saluda Foundation, a development group known for its innovative and cost-effective work in Eastern Europe and South America. He advised Raigetal on how to grow Waa’gey in a sustainable way. “The Treasurer told it to me straight,” joked Raigetal, “never let your work or the group become an end in itself,” he said, “focus on empowering people at the grassroots with the end goal of making the organization itself unnecessary.”


Raigetal also took time to meet with volunteers and donors to Habele, a group that has provided Waa’gey with support for its canoe carving and skirt weaving projects.

Larry Raigetal of Waa'gey and KGUM's Travis Coffman

Traveling west back to the Pacific, Mr. Raigetal spent several days on Guam. He appeared as a guest on “the Big Show” with Travis Coffman. The call-in talk radio show on KGUM gave Raigetal the chance to share information about the Waa’gey canoe project with Micronesians living on Guam and local Chamorro groups who are similarly working to revive and sustain traditional carving and sailing techniques. Raigetal followed up with site visits and meetings with several of these Guam based efforts, including the Traditions Affirming our Seafaring Ancestry (TASA). He also met with US corporations on Guam interested in community outreach in Micronesia.

Back on Yap, seated in the open-air traditional canoe house beside the lagoon, Raigetal is circumspect about the trip. “I think of the chilly snowy days, staring up at the awesome monuments in DC and the grace and hospitality of my hosts in the Carolinas” he explains. “Most of all I think to how the lessons learned and relationships made can help the people and places right here in Yap State.”

AUDIO - listen to Larry's discussion about Waa'gey with Travis Coffman here.

Share

Charlene earned both a certificate for "second honors" as the result of her high grades as well as a certificate recognizing her perfect attendance throughout the first semester.

Habele Board Director Neil Mellen was quick to make a connection. "There is an obvious link between Miss Regalishyei's excellent attendance and her great grades. Being in class ready to learn each day is key, Mellen continued. "That's why we are supporting the Waa'gey Arts and Crafts programs and the High School Robotics Teams; extracurricular programs that engage students drive better classroom attendance and higher grades."

Charlene is one of twenty five students across Micronesia (FSM) who will be reporting their progress to Habele as part of their tuition scholarship agreement this month.

Learn more about the Habele scholarship program, as well as the literacy and extracurricular projects, at www.habele.org.

Share

Master toolsmith Jim Wester of Waldron Island, Washington is teaming up with the traditional carvers of the Waa'gey arts and crafts project in Yap State, Micronesia

Wester has spent over two and half decades creating high quality custom tools and blades in the Pacific Northwest. He is now crafting specialized Adze blades for the Waa'gey carvers in order to improve the speed and safety of their work.

Adzes are a traditional tool used for carving or smoothing rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. They are most often used for squaring up logs, or for hollowing out timber. Long ago islanders in the Central Pacific used shell, coral, and sometimes even stones, for the blades of their woodened handled adzes.

Contact with the Spanish in the sixteenth century saw the introduction of metal blades. Still, the specific size, shape, and material requirements for blades that would work within the handle and use parameters set by the islanders necessitated local modifications and re-configuration of the metal.

Carvers in the Waa'gey canoe project still employ scrap metal -such as old truck suspension springs- to make the blades, but are strictly limited by the limitations of these materials. Wester, who has been making customized blades for traditional and modern carvers around the world since 1987, is helping to change that.

Late in 2012, the US-based charity Habele ordered several large adze blades from Wester's North Bay Forge and donated them to the Waa'gey program. "The blade are by far the best quality the guys here have ever seen," explained Larry Raigetal who organizes the Waa'gey sailing canoe operation in Yap.

Working with Waa'gey and the Habele donors, Wester is now embarking on a much larger work order. He is special ordering high quality steel as the carvers in Yap provide him with exact details of the size, shape, curvature and weight they need for their adze blades to sync with the handles they'll create for them.

"This is pretty exciting," said Wester about the partnership with Waa'gey Canoe Carvers. "Boat building [here in the Pacific Northwest] is actually what got me started in blacksmithing."
Share

Loom weaving of traditional skirts is a labor-intensive process that holds special significance for women in the Caroline Islands (Micronesia).

While modern materials have mostly replaced the traditional banana and pandanus threads, the basic process persists unchanged. It requires skillful use of one’s body weight to tense the loom through a back strap and stretch delicate threads between a pair of bars.

Volunteers with Habele, a US-based charity, have provided spools of cotton and polyester thread to a consortium of women’s groups in Yap State Micronesia, hoping to help them pass those specialized skills and sense of heritage to a new generation.


The gift was presented through Regina Raigetal. She serves both as a Habele Director as well as with the Yap-based “Waa’gey.” Attending the presentation was Nils Winkler, CEO of Yapital, a European-based electronic payments company. Yapital donated the polyester and cotton fabric, as part of its ongoing partnership with Habele to support K-12 students across Yap State. The materials will help master weavers partner with high school aged young women who are themselves seeking to master the loom techniques.

Project coordinator Waa’gey is a community-based organization that uses traditional skills to confront the social, economic and environmental challenges faced by the people of Micronesia’s most remote Outer Islands. Waa’gey has made headlines for its revival of dugout sailing canoes in Yap State, but the group also pursues projects centered on skills traditionally practiced by women.


Ongoing efforts include preservation of weaving of so-called “every day” lava lavas, as well as the revival of the highly specialized loom weaving of “Machi” skirts, a specialized type of lava-lava that serves as an important ceremonial textile.

Acclaimed anthropologist Dr. Donald Rubinstein has explained the significance of this art form:

“… the machi holds a unique place, as the only textile which is never worn as everyday dress, but serves exclusively ceremonial functions, and has a special relationship to traditional island chieftainship... Although no longer used as regular chiefly tribute, nor at the inauguration of the island chief or the coming-of-age ceremony for young men, the Fais machi today retains two important cultural functions, as a burial shroud for senior men, and as the highest form of gift.  Both of these functions rest on the preeminent status of the machi as the most valuable object of local manufacture.”

A photo blog documenting of Waag’ey’s progress is here and more information on the Habele Listening Tour can be found here.

Share

A Midwestern family has renewed their support for a Micronesian girl attending a small private school thousands of miles away in the State of Yap.

Orpha Hapdei is a seventh grade student at Saint Mary's School in Colonia. Her family is from the Atoll of Ulithi, a remote outer island of Yap, Micronesia.

Orpha began attending St. Mary’s in 2011, through the Leona Peterson (1926-2011) Memorial K-12 Scholarship. The scholarship pays for three-fourths of her tuition and expenses at the private school in Yap’s capitol city “Colonia.” The money was raised entirely by the descendants of Mrs. Peterson. This last Christmas, the family committed to do the same for the 2012-13 school year.

Leona Peterson was native of Waterloo, Iowa. She led the Department of Aging in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) during the late 1970s and early 80s. At that time Micronesia was one part of the larger US-administered TTPI which spanned the Central Pacific. In the 1980s, the region transitioned to political independence. Today, Yap and its outer islands comprise one of the four Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

Following her death, Leona's son Paul Peterson sought a way to remember his mother's legacy by supporting the islanders whom she spoke so lovingly of. He reached out to Habele, a small US-based charity that provides scholarships to low-income children across Micronesia The group also funds after school projects and donates books to students and classroom teachers.

Peterson gathered financial commitments from family members living across Missouri and Iowa. "As the holidays approach this year I was struck with a notion. I would like to keep the named scholarship going year over year,' says Peterson. "To that end instead of sending out gift baskets to family and friends I'll make a donation to Habele in their name for the Leona Peterson scholarship fund."

Habele worked with educators and local volunteers in Yap to select Orpha as the initial recipient of the Peterson Scholarship. According to her sixth grade teacher, Molly Walag, Orpha earned a GPA of 3.57 for the 2011-12 school year. Her mother proudly mailed a copy of the girl's honor roll certificate to Habele and the Petersons, who've sent a post-Christmas check to Habele for next school year’s tuition.


Share

A high tide, calm waters and a light wind made for a beautiful scene as the “Rose of Lima” slipped into waters of the Pacific for the first time.

A team of master carvers and the young men they are mentoring crafted the canoe, a traditional hand-carved dugout outrigger. The work was organized by Waa’gey, a community-based organization that utilizes traditional skills to confront the social, economic and environmental challenges faced by the people of Micronesia’s most remote Outer Islands. This is Waa’gey’s second large sailing canoe in the last twelve months, and only the second Outer Island style canoe ever carved on Yap Proper.

Among those at the shore for the launch were members of the Habele 2012 Listening Tour. Habele Directors Regina Raigetal and Neil Mellen explained that their organization had provided financial and material support for Waa’gey. They relayed how parents of participating students reported a positive impact on classroom achievement and the students’ self worth.


Raigetal further noted that Waa’gey had been partnering with both independent and public schools on Yap to provide instruction on cultural skills and traditional technologies to a larger pool of children through hands-on tours and lectures.


Also on the Listening Tour, and observing the canoe launch, was Nils Winkler, CEO of Yapital, a European-based electronic payments company. Yapital helped to provide fuel and tools for the carvers, as part of its ongoing partnership with Habele to support K-12 students across Yap State.

Share