We the Voyagers: Life As Lata’s Crew

You are cordially invited to a sneak preview of part one of We the Voyagers: Life As Lata’s Crew, a three-part (57 minutes each) documentary film series. There will be an introduction by the filmmakers, Mimi and Meph, and an opportunity to give feedback.

Logline

Members of a remote island community join the crew of their Polynesian culture-hero, Lata, who built the first voyaging canoe and navigated to distant islands. They use only ancient designs, materials, and methods, and invite everyone to reconnect with traditional partners, ancestors, and sustainable lifeways. It's the real Moana!

Part one - We, the Voyagers: Our Vaka

Polynesian people of Taumako, Solomon Islands, share their history, motivations, and skills, through story-telling, canoe building, and wayfinding. They recall how their ancestors made the greatest of human migrations, but modern technology isolates them, and makes their lives unsustainable. They decide to follow the ways of their ancestral culture-hero, Lata, who built a voyaging canoe (vaka) and navigated to distant islands using ancient designs, materials and methods. Recalling what others have now forgotten, women, men, and children plant gardens, feed the workers, make rope from plants, weave and sew sails, fell a tree, adze a hull, and lash it all together. They try to avoid making bad mistakes that Lata made. When their most experienced navigator dies, they face their fears and prepare to test themselves and their new vaka on an open ocean voyage to reconnect with long-lost family.  Everyone is welcome to join this crew of Lata.  

BYO lunch, coffee and tea will be available.