Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Wayfinding Week in Utah, which goes through May 30, puts the spotlight on Pacific Islanders' navigational traditions.
- The varied activities include talks focused on traditional navigation, ecology and how seafaring techniques of yore are relevant today.
- Organizers aim to reconnect Pacific Islanders in Utah with their traditional heritage.
SALT LAKE CITY — Pacific Islanders of yore developed elaborate navigational techniques centered on nature, and a week of activities aims to tap into that tradition to connect Pacific Islanders now in Utah with their seafaring roots.
Wayfinding Week, the first event of its type in Utah, launched Friday with a presentation on an oral history project focused on Utah's Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. It continues with several events through May 30 that tap into the navigational traditions of Pacific Islander communities and apply the knowledge to modern-day life.
Living "so far inland, we often feel separated from the ocean where our ancestors, language, culture and identities came from," said Jake Fitisemanu, now living in West Valley City but born in New Zealand and raised in Hawaii. "A lot of this knowledge is ancient but also so relevant and practical in our modern, urban lives today."
The Samoana Integrated Learning Initiative, founded by Fitisemanu — also a member of the Utah House of Representatives — is the main organizer of Wayfinding Week. It's also sponsored by the University of Utah's Center for Pasifika Indigenous Knowledges, the Utah Pacific Islander Health Coalition and other organizations.
Next week, varied speakers will offer historical, metaphorical and personal presentations centered on the seafaring traditions of Pacific Islanders, though speakers will also touch on ecological matters.
"Wayfinding is a central core of Pacific Islander cultures reflected today in our languages, proverbs, customs and practices, and even how our families and community organizations are structured," said Laneta Fitisemanu, Jacob Fitisemanu's sister and another event organizer. The ocean "connects all of us across the Pacific, and even for those of us born and living in the diaspora, that connection still holds us together and ties us to where we come from."
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Multicultural Utah
Looking for more news about the different cultures that call Utah home? Visit our Multicultural Utah section for more stories, events and features.Pacific Island navigational techniques "are rooted in stars, winds, ocean currents and ancestral knowledge," according to a press release for the event, and presenters from Hawaii, Samoa and New Zealand will offer lessons about the traditions.
The keynote speaker at a presentation on Tuesday, May 27, "Voyaging by Land and Sea: Utah Roots and Oceanic Roots," will be Fani Bruun, captain of Gaualofa, a traditional Samoan ocean voyaging canoe. "Drawing from her experiences voyaging across Pasifika and beyond, she explores how wayfinding teaches us to live in balance with the ocean and land, reminding us that caring for the earth is inseparable from honoring who we are," reads a synopsis of the event.
Celeste Manuia Haʻo, an educator from Hilo, Hawaii, will offer a talk on Wednesday, May 28, blending "wayfinding, cultural revitalization and the sacred responsibilities of a taupou living in diaspora into a powerful story of return, resilience and renewal." A taupou is a type of ceremonial hostess in Samoan culture.
An event Thursday, May 29, at Clark Planetarium will feature the Samoan "star compass" while a storytelling event is set for Friday, May 30.
Traditional wayfinding went through a period of decline with the advent of western navigational technology, said Laneta Fitisemanu. But it's now going through a period of revival, in part as a means of asserting the Pacific Islander identity and reconnecting Pacific Islanders living outside the region with traditional culture.
Events like Wayfinding Week "remind them that our people were scientists, mathematicians and engineers and that they, too, can pursue these fields where we still need more representation," she said. Organizers "want more islander families in Utah to have similar experiences of reconnecting with the oceanic core of who we are."
