After nearly 500 years, a Saipan-built Chamorro sakman returned to Marianas waters Saturday morning as the traditional outrigger canoe Chamorro Lelek completed its maiden voyage from Susupe to Micro Beach with hundreds of spectators gathered along the shoreline.
Community members, cultural practitioners, traditional navigators, elected officials and government leaders joined the Marianas Visitors Authority's Seafaring Traditions Program and the Commonwealth Council for Arts and Culture in celebrating the historic launch, which organizers said marked the first time in centuries that a Chamorro sakman built on Saipan had sailed in local waters.
The vessel's arrival at Micro Beach was greeted with cheers as crew members brought the canoe ashore during the Matatpanggen I Lelik/Afaifai launching ceremony honoring the maritime traditions of the Chamorro and Refaluwasch people.
John Castro, who helped lead the project through MVA's Seafaring Traditions Program, said the launch was as much about the future as it was about the past.
"So this canoe is finished, but we're not done," Castro said. "We want to keep sailing, and most importantly, we hope to inspire the next generation so it continues on. The only way we can keep our culture alive is to keep the practice going."
Castro said the project took more than eight years to complete after builders were forced to start over when an earlier canoe, carved from a log donated from Rota, was destroyed in a fire. Funding challenges, storms and limited manpower also slowed progress.
Despite the setbacks, Castro said the team remained committed to completing the canoe. "It looks like a canoe until we try it in the water," he said. "Then we can confirm if it is. Today, it is a canoe."
Among those aboard the sakman was master navigator Antonio "Tony" Piailug, son of legendary Micronesian navigator Mau Piailug. Piailug has spent the past several months training members of the Saipan seafaring group in traditional navigation and voyaging practices.
Piailug said the launch demonstrates that indigenous seafaring traditions remain alive and relevant today.
"If they want to continue, it's up to them," Piailug said of younger generations. "We try. If they want to learn, well, it's nice. For me, it's nice."
He emphasized that traditional navigation is inseparable from cultural identity.
"What we're doing is our culture. That's our identity," Piailug said. "If you know your culture, you know where you are from."
Piailug also said the sakman is designed as a voyaging canoe capable of traveling between islands, with the group hoping to attempt a voyage to Guam next year.
For organizers, the successful voyage of Chamorro Lelek represented more than the completion of a canoe project years in the making. It marked the revival of an ancient tradition that once connected the islands of the Marianas and signaled the beginning of a new generation of canoe builders, navigators and cultural practitioners dedicated to keeping that knowledge alive.
