Piti Sea Festival celebrates maritime culture, island roots

Guam's maritime culture and roots took center stage at day one of the inaugural Piti Sea Festival Saturday.

Preserving traditions means preserving human connection, according to Master navigator Larry Raigetal.

At the festival, Raigetal and other masters or government and nonprofit officials showcased their efforts to preserve traditional practices and teach them to future generations.

On the importance of preserving navigation in other seafaring traditions, Raigetal said that there is “more to seafaring than just getting on a canoe and voyaging from place to place.â€

“It's a community thing … in a sense that it’s bringing the whole community together to work, whether it’s building the canoe or preparation for voyage. It's a relationship between people, between people to land, people to ocean, people to everything,†Raigetal said.

He said it entails and encompasses a whole lot of skill sets, including navigate, building, and food preparation, which can often require help from others.

That collaboration, he said, is the significance of the practices coming together and bringing the people together as well.

Especially with all the crazy things that happen in the world, Raigetal said people are “losing a lot of what we’ve been taught from ancestral knowledge,†such as the significance of relationships to ensure communities survive.

“How do you become a navigator if you don't have a canoe? How do you become a canoe builder or a navigator if you don’t know about the land? It’s all interrelated,†Raigetal said.

Maritime fun

The opening performers of the event, Guma' Nina'en Acho Latte, included in their bendision an opportunity for residents to pay tribute to the culture.

One of the performers held out a bowl of flowers for people to grab from and place as an offering on a woven raft, which the Guma' then released into the water at Santos Park.

The festival had several events highlighting the ocean, such as mangrove and snorkeling tours and a mini regatta.

The mini regatta is for scale models of traditional galaide built by students from Jose Rios Middle School and Marcial A. Sablan Elementary School, according to Franki Guerrero of the U.S. National Science Foundation Navigating Home Program.

Guerrero said there were 20 canoes entering the race, and festival guests could cast votes for the best designed entries.

She also said participants had the opportunity to learn about canoe building and other traditions under Raigetal.

“It's important that the students learn about what we have to offer. As long as it’s being taught in the classrooms and being taught at home, the students will practice it…then when they get older, they start to put their foot in the door and want to grasp it,†Guerrero said.

Island wisdom

Accompanying Raigetal was Monique Stori, the dean of University of Guam's library and the Micronesian Area Research Center.

Raigetal said Stori pioneered “island wisdom,†how traditional practices can survive and contribute to the modern world.

Stori said islanders have demonstrated for at least the last 100 years that it’s never one way or the other.

“There are places and opportunities for us to always be able to practice our weaving, carving, seafaring, and navigation by the stars. All of that is a lifestyle, rather than just knowledge that has to be learned,†Stori said.

The idea behind island wisdom, Stori added, is that people get to be both, exercise traditional practices and use modern technology.

“We learn both so that we know whenever we have a problem to solve or a challenge to overcome, that we have two different sets of knowledge that we can draw from, and then make the best decision based for our community,†Stori said.

Doing more

Piti Mayor Jesse Alig attributed the inspiration for the festival to his senior class advisor at John F. Kennedy High School, Manny Duenas.

When Alig became mayor, he said his old advisor would message him about both the good and the horrible things he was doing.

The mayor said Manny Duenas was an advocate for the ocean and for local fishermen and helped him realize he could do more for both before he passed away.

“I'll always remember him for that and I'm going to miss him. He made me think about how this would happen, [so] without him, I would not have thought this would work, but it's going to work because you're all here,†Alig said.

Alig also highlighted several agencies contributing to the event, including Department of Agriculture's Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources, Guam Preservation Trust, “and more that we don't share enough of … agencies we think might be boring [but] they're not.â€

Leilani Duenas, DAWR aquatic education and outreach biologist, said it is important to bridge kids with their culture and traditions that help them reconnect with the land, “especially when they're stuck on electronics.â€

“The intent is if they're connected, they begin to care and want to be stewards,†Duenas said.

Another aspect of the mission is sustainability. Duenas said promoting functional practices, such as fishing, can create a solution for a gap before it opens.

“It's been part of our traditions for thousands of years. Because we're so separated, it is so important to know these skills in case the ships don't come, and we need to fend for ourselves,†Duenas said.

Guam WAVE Club Administrator Heidi Ballendorf said it goes without saying that “if we don’t teach the kids or if the older generation doesn’t teach the kids, we’re going lose it.â€

She added that tourists have also said they want to experience what is it “true CHamoru traditions†they cannot get anywhere else.

“You can go to a beach anywhere and anywhere for shopping, but only can you experience Guam here in Guam. The Marianas are the oldest settled island chain in the Pacific. We’re older than Hawaii, Polynesia, even Melanesia. I think it’s important for kids to learn that,†Ballendorf said.

The festival continues from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.