By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

HATIHEU, Nuku Hiva — Few people in the remote Marquesas Islands have heard about Hokule'a but I found more people who remember long-distance voyaging stories passed down to them, and who retain ancient navigation knowledge, than anywhere else I've been in Polynesia.

Three people told me stories of canoe voyages to Hawai'i. Solid information about the Polynesian navigation system still exists in the Marquesas. For the first time, I heard about bamboo canoes.

Much credit for these discoveries goes to Peperu and Sabrina Heitaa, whom we engaged as interpreters at Atuona, Hiva Oa.

They speak Marquesan and French as well as English. Pepe is a minister and scholar. Sabrina has family connections all over the Marquesas. Through them, we had access to the most knowledgeable old-timers on each island.

Mateo Matueiti, 79, at Hatiheu, Nuku Hiva, said his father was a house- and canoe- builder. He said a canoe named Vanakanui sailed from Hatiheu to Hawai'i, another named Tunau ended up in the Tuamotus. From an old man named Taipee, Mateo learned four navigational stars. He named them and told what time they rise.

Then he added, "In the morning, they have to see which way the waves come." Obviously, Marquesans steered on the swells as Mau Piailug taught the Hawaiians on the Hokule'a.

Pepe's father built and sailed canoes. In 1964, at age 8, Pepe sailed with the family in a single outrigger canoe from Nuku Hiva to Atuona, Hiva Oa, from 8 a.m. to 5 a.m. the next morning. It's like sailing a canoe upwind to Maui.

Pepe's father steered by islands in view during the day, by the stars at night until it clouded over, then "by the motion of the canoe." That means he steered on the swells. They approached their destination in total darkness. Pepe said his father told him he could tell they were at Atuona by "the way the waves change." In other words, he sensed the approach of the island by detecting the counterswell it caused.

At Hiva Oa, Rico Tauira, 76, told of a tribe that sailed to Hawai'i in bamboo canoes to avoid having its children eaten by an enemy tribe. What is a bamboo canoe?

According to 87-year-old Matuu Teheipauaotiu at Puamau, Hiva Oa, bamboo canoes were made of bundles of dried, lightweight bamboo tied together into a boat or canoe shape. The canoe could have a sail and be paddled.

Such canoes were used for interisland transportation according to Toua Tetuanui, a drum maker and historian on Fatu Hiva. He said a tribe tried to escape in bamboo canoes to the Tuamotus but most of them perished.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.