True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

The Navigators
Once upon a time Polynesian sailors could cross 6,000
miles of open ocean and land on a tiny pinpoint of an
island using only the stars and waves as guides. Most of
those navigators have died, and their secret knowledge
with them. This film records one of the last navigators as
he teaches his art to fairly clueless students. To demonstrate
his skill for the benefit of the students and skeptical
Westerners, he navigates across the Pacific with a film
crew. The last navigator uses an oral ballad handed down
through generations and encoded with instructions as
the compass, and without sleeping much he watches the
complex interactions of the waves to gauge speed and
direction. At the end of weeks he arrives in Hawaii on
schedule. A simple film showing what the human mind
can do. It also honors the sophistication of supposedly
simple societies.
By Sanford Low
1983, 59 min.
Available from Documentary
Educational
Resources
der.org
Student navigators are taught the
patterns of waves using a model of an
outrigger boat in a circle of water spirits
(top). Rope is braided by hand (right
above) in preparation for the long trip.
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