Marshallese Wave Navigation

The Marshallese are heirs to one of the most sophisticated navigation traditions in human history. Long before instruments, their master navigators crossed hundreds of kilometres of open, featureless Pacific ocean between tiny atolls by reading the sea itself, feeling in the motion of their canoes the subtle patterns of ocean swells as they bent, reflected and interacted around distant, unseen islands. This profound knowledge was encoded in the unique stick charts, or mattang and meddo, lattices of palm ribs and shells that mapped not coastlines but the behaviour of the waves. Along with traditional canoe-building and outrigger sailing, this extraordinary wave-piloting is a proud and remarkable cultural heritage, kept alive and honoured today.

What you actually see

• The stick charts - the unique lattice wave-navigation charts.
• The navigation heritage - the story of reading the ocean swells.
• The traditional canoes - the fast outrigger sailing canoes.
• The Alele Museum - the exhibits on Marshallese seafaring.

When to go

Year-round; the Alele Museum on Majuro is the place to see stick charts and learn about the navigation tradition, and cultural events and canoe races, when held, showcase traditional sailing and craft. The heritage is a source of great pride, and efforts to revive traditional navigation and canoe-building are ongoing.

Honest expectations

The great days of long-distance wave navigation have largely passed, so today the tradition is encountered mainly through museums, stick charts, cultural events and revival efforts rather than as living everyday practice, and the Marshalls are remote with limited facilities. As a window into one of the most extraordinary feats of human knowledge and seafaring, though, the reading of ocean swells to cross vast open ocean, encoded in the unique stick charts, Marshallese navigation is a genuinely remarkable and inspiring cultural heritage.

Nearby

The Alele Museum on Majuro and the atolls of the nation are the places.