The Vaka Taumako Project- Solomon Islands

 

The Vaka Taumako Project has recently announced that it has made a documentary titled, We, The Voyagers, which is represented in three parts:

Part 1: We, The Voyagers: Our Vaka

Part 2: We the Voyagers: Our Moana

Part 3: They are fundraising for Vaka Valo Association filmmaker Daisy Mahai to make Part 3 during August, 2020 – December, 2021.

According to the Pacific Traditions Society Website: 

Pacific Traditions Society (PTS) is a small non-profit organization with educational purpose, based in the USA. The Vaka Taumako Project (VTP) was the idea of Te Aliki Koloso Kaveia of Taumako. He needed outside help, so he asked Mimi George. In 1996 the VTP started, as a research project permitted by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources of Solomon Islands. PTS was the responsible non-governmental organization (NGO), and Mimi George was Principal Investigator. The VTP was led by Koloso Kaveia, with support of PTS.

After Te Aliki Kaveia died in 2009, Te Aliki Jonas Holani led the Vaka Valo Group of Taumako to keep on training young people in voyaging arts. The VTP of PTS then gave support to Vaka Valo Group.  In 2014 Dr Simon Salopuka helped Holani to register the Vaka Valo Association Trust Board (VVA) in Solomon Islands as a charitable organization, with Simon Salopuka as Executive Director, and Mimi George as non-voting International Director. VVA charter includes the mission and goals of VTP, but is a completely independent NGO. In 2017 the VTP ended in Solomon Islands. Since then the VTP of PTS works only by request of, and in support of, VVA. 

Help Vaka Valo Association efforts to:

• Train new generations to build, sail, and navigate using ancestral designs, methods, materials & tools

• Document and publish ancient knowledge​

• Become a self-supporting organisation by 09/22

Here is the 2020 trailer for the We, the Voyagers film series.