A team of boat builders and navigators from the Pacific Micronesian islands will paddle a dug-out wooden canoe to Derry today, which they built on the banks of the Foyle.
Using timber from the Brook Hall estate, the master carvers applied contemporary and traditional Micronesian techniques and tools to build the craft.
Named Ilepiyolo, the canoe was blessed at a ceremony yesterday in Co Derry.
The Pacific Micronesian islands Crew group with log (L-R) Apprentice Carvers Tanner Gilliland-Swetland and Lex Haleyaluo, Master Navigator Melissa Taitano, Master Carver James Beiuweilish, Master Navigator Larry Raigetal, David Gilliland, and Master Carver Willison Yarofaitir with the Macedonian pine used to build the dug-out canoe on the banks of the Foyle Photo: Mark Patterson
“I think it is the first time a Micronesian canoe has been built in this part of the world,” one of the group’s leaders, Melissa Taitano of the University of Guam explained.
“We used a Macedonian pine which had fallen in a storm last year on the estate,” she said.
“We normally use breadfruit timber to build these boats which are traditional to the Micronesian islands,” she said.
She said the aim of the project was to promote world peace, environmental resiliency, and closer maritime ties between the people of the city of Derry and the islands of Micronesia.
Micronesia is a region in the north-west Pacific covering about 2100 islands, the largest of which is Guam. Many of the low-lying islands are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate breakdown.
Taitano explained that the University of Guam Island Wisdom Micronesian Seafaring Programme aims to ensure the navigational and boatbuilding skills on which trade routes between the Micronesian islands relied for millennia are maintained.
The university is sponsoring the canoe building project in partnership with Brook Hall Outreach Community Interest Company, a non-profit social enterprise involving the director, David Gilliland.
Taitano explained that she had come into contact with David’s cousin, Prof Anne Gilliland, an archivist at the University of California, and Tanner Gilliland-Swetland of the School of Art at California State University Long Beach.
“The stars aligned and now we find ourselves on the edge of the Atlantic, building one of our boats,”she said.
Taitano, along with master canoe carvers Larry Raigetal, James Beiuweilish, Willison Yarofaitir and Lextigwemale Haleyaluo travelled late last month to the Brook Hall estate on the Foyle.
Brook Hall and its world-famous arboretum have a long history of boatbuilding, and the estate has been in the hands of the Gilliland family since 1856.
Commander Frank Gilliland (1884-1957), whose interest in trees and plants helped to create the arboretum, was a well-known sailor and navigator and served in the British navy during the first world war.
Once the canoe reaches Derry at lunchtime today, the paddlers and builders will be met by the Mayor of Derry, Councillor Ruairí McHugh, outside the Guildhall, and the vessel will be available to view.
A film of the project is being made by Conal and Cara Gilliland and Julia Gilmore of Yale University, among a number of related events.
