Mau Piailug: Master Navigator Who Revived Pacific Wayfinding

Pius “Mau” Piailug (1932-2010) was a master navigator and teacher who was instrumental in reviving traditional Pacific Island navigational knowledge and practices throughout Oceania. When plans were being made for the construction of the Hokule‘a and its voyage from Hawai‘i to Tahiti in the 1970s, Piailug helped those involved by navigating the canoe and teaching the crew. By doing so, Piailug helped spark a cultural renaissance in the Hawaiian Islands while strengthening connections between Pacific Islanders and Pacific Island nations across Oceania.

Mau Piailug was a ppalu (initiated navigator) from Satawal. Satawal is located in the eastern region of the state of Yap in the Caroline Islands in the Federated States of Micronesia. Piailug was initiated as a master navigator in the Pwo ceremony in Satawal in 1950 when he was eighteen years old. Piailug and others trained in traditional Carolinian navigation use the etak (segments) system, a star compass, and knowledge and observation of natural signs such as the patterns of winds, swells, the sun, stars, and constellations to navigate canoes.

The etak system is the method by which a navigator records their progress on a trip from one island to another. The navigator visualizes an island off course and out of sight as a reference island and measures the etak of the journey by observing the different stars over the reference island as the navigator sails closer to their destination. By using this technique, the navigator knows how many etak it will take to reach different islands. A star compass is a map visualized in the navigator’s mind of the rising and setting of stars and constellations at specific points on the horizon.

Piailug was able to use these skills to navigate the Hokule‘a in her first voyage to Tahiti from the Hawaiian Islands in 1976. Although Piailug’s navigational knowledge was based in a different part of the Pacific Ocean, he was able to adapt his knowledge and skills to the regionally specific patterns of the winds, swells, stars, constellations, and other natural signs along the route between Hawai‘i and Tahiti with assistance from other crew members on the Hokule‘a who had knowledge of the region and helped prepare Piailug for the trip. Piailug developed the course and strategy for the voyage to Tahiti and taught crew members about the swell patterns, stars, constellations, and star compass that would help them on the journey. At the time Piailug began helping the crew of the Hokule‘a, he was the youngest of the traditional navigators on Satawal and was deeply committed to passing on his knowledge of Carolinian navigation to future generations of Pacific Islander navigators, even those from outside of Satawal.

Piailug returned to Hawai‘i in 1979 to teach navigational skills to the future Hawaiian navigator of the Hokule‘a, Nainoa Thompson. Piailug first instructed Thompson on land before moving to the sea. When teaching, Piailug used visual aids such as rocks and sticks arranged in a circle to illustrate a star compass. After studying under Piailug, Thompson navigated the Hokule‘a from Hawai‘i to Tahiti and back in 1980 with Piailug on board to assist. Piailug was also on board for multiple legs of the 1985-7 round-trip voyage of the Hokule‘a from Hawai‘i to Aotearoa (New Zealand). This trip inspired Pacific Islanders throughout Oceania to learn traditional navigational skills and construct canoes similar to those sailed by their ancestors. Heke Nukumaingaiwi Puhipa Busby, a Maori navigator from Aotearoa, was inspired to learn from Thompson and build a waka hourua (double-hulled canoe) named Te Aurere. With help from Piailug, Te Aurere was sailed to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, where other Pacific Islanders from Tahiti, Hawai‘i, and the Cook Islands sailed their canoes for the Pacific Festival of the Arts in 1992.

Piailug continued to assist on voyages, play a role in the growth of navigational knowledge, and connect Pacific Islanders and islands throughout the Pacific. In 1999, he sailed on board the Makali'i from Hawai‘i to Satawal. In 2007, his contributions to reviving Pacific Island navigation were honored by the presentation of the canoe Alingano Maisu as a gift from Hawaiians who sailed the canoe to Satawal, escorted by the Hokule‘a. Piailug had been the last navigator to be initiated in the Pwo ceremony until 2007, when he presided over the ceremony on Satawal. Piailug initiated a new generation of master navigators, including eleven men from Satawal, including his son, Sesario Sewralur, and five men from Hawai‘i, including Nainoa Thompson. Piailug also conducted the Pwo ceremony in 2008 to initiate Heke Nukumaingaiwi Puhipa Busby.

FURTHER READING: Finney, Ben. 1994. Voyage of Rediscovery: A Cultural Odyssey through Polynesia. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Finney, Ben. 2003. Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors: Reviving Polynesian Voyaging. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press.

Lewis, David. 1994. We the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific, 2nd ed. Edited by Derek Oulton. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.

Low, Sam. 2013. Hawaiki Rising: Hokule‘a, Nainoa Thompson, and the Hawaiian Renaissance. Waipahu, Hawai‘i: Island Heritage Publishing.

Polynesian Voyaging Society. 2016. Hokule‘a. http://www.hokulea.com/. Accessed April 5, 2004.