KUAM News reported live from the Pacific Ocean at FestPAC’s traditional voyaging festival over the weekend. We joined 500 sails all-female crew as they brought four canoes from Saipan to the event.
Crew member Marjorie Atalig Daria is from Tinian.
“We have Che’lu in the distance…she is also done in a Chamorro design. We have I Ladahao who is not in the waters right now and we have Mika’ela, which is a Carolinian canoe, sailed by the guidance of Master Navigator Mario Benito and we have Auntie Oba, under Andrea Carr’s guidance,” said Daria.
Daria was joined by magas Andrea Carr and other crewmembers April Repeki, Sophia Perez, Jenny Chhea with delegates Franceska De Oro and Eva Aguon Cruz at the traditional canoe’s opening ceremony at the start of FestPAC.
“I think we made history. This is the first time CNMI has joined FestPAC with canoes for one thing and then to have a canoe dedicated to an all female crew is historic. We were the first to land and arrive onto Hawai’is’ shores,” she added.
KUAM also spoke to some of those history-making crew members.
“I feel that we are not just representing the fama’loan of the CNMI but we're also representing the Marianas. We're representing Hawaii. I had so many Hawaiian ladies come and give their support, encouragement, and how much they are proud of us for being here as females. And so I really feel that we're we're not just a small CNMI representation, but we are representing half of the population of the Earth,” said Crew member Andrea Carr.
“I think it's important because when I think about how isolated each of our island nations are, it's the canoes that bring us together, you know, and that just traces back to thousands of years ago,” Daria said.
“It took a lot of work from a lot of different people to get us here,” said Crew member Sophia Perez.
Master Navigator Mario Benito said it is an honor to bring a Carolinian canoe to join the celebration.
“Sailing with the flying proa together, we're we're showing people that we're, you know, like one family. We're seafarers from Micronesia. It doesn't matter if you're, from Tuvalu or from Guam or Yap, we have the same, interest, you know, like in seafaring and and that's why, you know, like, I really want to do this for the young generation to learn,” said Benito.
The event made history in more ways than one.
Just to be amongst all these different canoes, the organizer was just saying that she thinks this may have been the most canoes that have been here in over 100 years at one time,” said 500 Sails Executive Director Milton Coleman Jr.
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