WAKALLE

Find Arno Atoll

  A long time ago, on the island of Arno lived a greedy man called Wakalle. When he was just a boy, people wondered his rapid growth. He was over 3 feet tall when he was just 3 years old, and by the time he was a man, he was tall as a 5 year old coconut tree and wide as a 20 year old fruit-bearing breadfruit tree. Although Wakulla was a giant, he had a brain of a 10 year old child.
         

WAKKALLE

  Wakalle was a lazy man, and he spent most of his time wondering from one village to another, in search of food. He had a peculiar way of looking for food; he sniffed the air and when he smelled food cooking, he went straight to the source. He chased the cookers and ate all of it, leaving nothing but bones and the uneatable parts. Then he sniffed the air again, and if he could not smell anything, he looked for the tell-tale signs of smoke. No matter how far or whatever the obstacle was, he would make every effort to reach that cooking fire. Sometimes he could be seen swimming across the lagoon from island to island, eating from one fireplace to another.

One day a group of men fishing on a remote coral reef on the upper north eastern side of the atoll know as “Wod ko lik”. Wakalle heard from a far off distant that those men had caught a lot of fish, so he swam all the way from “Matolen” in the south eastern part of the Arno, to the fishing ground. The fishermen spotted him a couple of miles away. They shouted aloud out a warning, “Here comes the greedy man, let’s take out the fish cuts to attract the sharks.
The fishermen quickly cleaned out their catch, and it was not long before a lot of sharks could be seen fighting for food. By the time, Wakalle was selecting the biggest and best fish from the nearest canoe; the sharks had finished all of the bait. The sharks saw La-wakalle in the water, and attacked him. La-wakalle fought with the sharks, but there were too many of them and so was killed and eaten with nothing left but one ‘part’ left.
The passage he was killed, was named after him as a reminder that greed is not a good thing. To this day, the people of Arno always refer to Wakalle if someone did not want to share their food. The islanders are well known for their generosity and kindness especially to strangers or outsiders.

All Men who Kill Wakalle

Traditional Canoes

The double-hull canoe was never in use in the Marshall Islands, nor the Micronesian. The typical fast sailing craft of the region had a double-ended hull with asymmetric sides and a sharp, very narrow, keel, passengers and goods are being carried on a transverse platform. The canoes of the past could reach a length of 100 feet and carry up to 40 people; with supplies for open-sea voyages that lasted well over a month since these large vessels, called Walap, were not fast. Tipnol is a smaller type of canoe and speedier. It is used mainly for fishing inside the lagoon. It could still carry 10 or more and be serviceable for ocean voyaging. Korkor is a small paddling outrigger, sometimes fitted with sail, and it is also used for lagoon work. The sails of a korkor are triangular and often extremely large, with a yard and boom on two sides. They are woven in matting strips from the strongest pandanus leaves; they were sewn together most securely. The hulls were made of breadfruit tree, the best wood available but far from ideal. A nineteenth century sailor left a vivid description of a trip:

“Up went the huge sail, down went the great steer oars and away we shot like a horserace. The mast bent like a reed, and at the great rate at which we were going the sea was like a hissing cauldron on either side of our course.”

Moons Ago

               Moons ago, forgotten and gone

                Along the currents of dawn

                 Rolling, tossing, bouncing, listing

                 Sturdy ‘Tebnol’ kept on sailing

                 Helm man held Capella port side

                 Arts of currents in skipper’s sight

                 Led ‘inej’ in shouts acclaiming’

                Land O! Land of mine ‘iin’

                Isles of sea, Isles of peace

                Shinning sands for me to kiss

               Land of mine under the sun

               Adorn with green lustrous palm

               Never will I ever forget

               Dreams of my forefathers ago

               Sailed and won just for me, moons ago

                              ( ‘tebnol’- big canoe, ‘inej’- fleet, ‘iin’- yes!)

Long ago, the people of the Marshall Islands sailed in big ocean going canoes called ‘Tebnol’ to go from island to island. They sailed with only the stars, the sun and the ocean currents to guide them. Their traditional navigation knowledge was unique because they could give an exact course to an island with their eyes closed! As long as they felt the movements of the currents under their canoes, they knew exactly where they were. The technique they used was known as ‘meto’.

Meto has two meanings in a Marshallese language: an open water sailing technique and a stick chart used for training young boys to memorize all the ocean currents in the Marshall Islands water. According to one local captain, every current has a land somewhere along its path.

The last traditional 'meto journey was more than two years ago. The 'WAM' program sponsored this amazing journey with the help of an old local captain from the island of Ujae. A 'tebnol' was built at WAM located in Majuro, and the crew was Alson Kellen and some boys studying there. The journey went from Majuro to Aur and was under Captain Thomas Bokin’s command.

Yokwe and Welcome to Our Blog

Lolelaplap was the name of the Marshall Islands before European travelers came exploring our country. Yokwe (which means ‘hello’ in our native language) and welcome to our blog.  We are a group of English students from the College of the Marshall Islands who have decided to blog information and stories about the Marshall Islands.

Our blog entries show individual voices discussing four different topics: our legends, environment, stories and everyday life. This blog is very important to us because it reflects our voice and our views about the Marshall Islands. We also chose to blog about these four different areas because it reflects our many interests, and we hope you find it as enjoyable and interesting as we do.