In support of indigenous Carolinian and Chamorro culture, 500 Sails and the Marianas Visitors Authority are partnering to provide visitors and residents on free canoe rides in the Marianas at select beachfront properties through Jan. 31, 2024.
500 Sails will use the Marianas Visitors Authority’s funding support to further expand the Beach Canoe Project to other beach sites on Saipan.
(MVA) — To give visitors to the Marianas a chance to engage with the islands’ traditional sailing culture, the Marianas Visitors Authority is partnering with non-profit organization 500 Sails to make canoes and navigational storytelling accessible at major beaches in Saipan.
MVA has pledged $10,000 toward the Beach Canoes Project, which is already providing canoe rides from the beach at Hyatt Regency Saipan.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity for our visitors to learn about and experience one of the fundamental components of indigenous Carolinian and Chamorro culture in the Marianas,” said MVA Managing Director Christopher A. Concepcion. “Beach Canoe Project is a double win, giving visitors an invigorating memory sailing our quiet lagoon and strengthening our community through the preservation of our history and traditional culture as renowned sailing people.”
500 Sails will use MVA’s funding support to further expand the Beach Canoe Project to other beach sites on Saipan through Jan. 31, 2024. The Chamorro people, believed to have sailed to and settled the Marianas from Southeast Asia about 4,000 years ago, were noted upon first Spanish contact for the speed of their “flying proa” outrigger canoes. The Carolinians, who migrated to the Mariana from the Carolinian Islands of Micronesia in the 1800s, are renowned for their traditional navigational skills passed through the generations that use stars and other heavenly bodies, waves, currents, marine life, and other natural phenomena for transpacific voyaging, without modern instruments.
“What the tourists will experience in the Marianas is rare — an intimate and genuine cultural experience with traditional Micronesian canoes and the native people who build and sail them,” said 500 Sails Co-founder Pete Perez. “These canoes of ancient design are beautiful, colorful, and exciting to see in action on the water. Visitors can walk up to them, take pictures, touch them, and sail with local crew who will welcome them and share stories of how these canoes shaped our island culture and society. It is a chance to glimpse the world of our ancestors – to feel the thrill of sailing across the lagoon in a traditional canoe.”
During this introductory period, free canoe rides (donations accepted) are being offered from Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Hyatt Regency beachside. Additional rides will be offered from Nov. 9, 2023, to Jan. 31, 2024, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. from additional hotel beachfront locations to be announced.
For more information, contact 500 Sails at facebook.com/500Sails, info@500sails.org, or call (670) 323-7245.
