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Smithsonian to honor
By Susan Kreifels
celestial navigator
Star-BulletinMau Piailug, the grand master navigator from Satawal who taught Hawaiians how to sail by the stars, will be honored at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History on May 9.
"He's very excited," said Mason Fritz, a fellow Micronesian who lives in Hawaii and who will travel with Piailug to Washington, D.C. "We look at it just as voyaging. (But) It's all about the human being, the world. There's lots we can learn. It's the beginning of a new era."
Guests include Smithsonian officials, the ambassador of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Hawaii congressional delegation.
Clay Bertelmann, a Big Island star navigator who sailed Piailug back to Satawal last year on the voyaging canoe Makali'i, will also attend.
Piailug will speak at the program. Fritz said Smithsonian officials have also shown interest in doing exhibits and projects with the master navigator.
The program is scheduled in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May. The Smithsonian will also show "Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey," on May 20, said Sebia Hawkins, media advisor to the ongoing Joint Committee on Compact Economic Negotiations for the Federated States of Micronesia. The video documents the resurgence of traditional voyaging among Hawaiians and other Polynesian people in the last 25 years.
Other programs on Hawaiian culture are also in the making in the capital.
The National Geographic Society hopes to present a five-part program this fall on Hawaiian history, culture and the living legacies of the islands, according to Lori Dynan, media manager of marketing and promotions for the society's Lecture and Public Programs Department.
The series, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian, will explore "beyond the tourist spots," said Dynan, who graduated from Kailua High School.
November is National American Heritage Month, and one of the five parts in the Hawaii series would be featured on the National Mall, Dynan said.
The series will focus on traditional Polynesian navigation, archaeological sites, cultural diversity, Hawaiian cowboys, traditional music and dance, Hawaii's pre- and post-contact with the outside world, and native Hawaiian culture.
Dynan said the series will be "richly illustrated" through films and musical performance. People from Hawaii will be invited to be part of the series.
