Transcript
FISA PIHIGIA: To me it's important for the young people in the village not only to know how to make a canoe but to use the canoe also for fishing.
SALLY ROUND: Was the art of canoe-making being lost?
FP: It is a big loss and if we're not careful, it (will) vanish because the mature people or the elderly people, who know how to ... because not everyone knows how to make canoes. There are special people who know how to make canoes, how to cut the tree and shape it to the shape of a canoe and then make it into a canoe. Not many people can do that, so one reason is to try and introduce them to the new generation otherwise once they're gone, it's gone also with them. So I'm happy to see that they now know how to make a canoe. That's important. Fishing, yes, you can always learn how to fish later on but making canoe is the priority or the first thing.
SR: And the Niuean canoes are different from other canoes in Polynesia.
FP: It is, it is different because we want to retain the uniqueness of a Niuean canoe but now we have introduced some new additional, modern things to the canoe so it's not really 100 percent Niue canoe, as built by our forefathers, but it's a mixture.
SR: What are the changes you've made?
FP: The change to the outrigger, they are aluminium. Aluminium lasts longer and (it's) lighter whereas the timber we use for those outriggers, it's heavy. So just imagine carrying those heavy ... going down and coming back again.
SR: Because in Niue you have a special geological feature of having to carry your canoes quite a way don't you?
FP: Yes.
SR: And is it boys mainly involved in the canoe-making?
FP: Yes, boys. Because that's part of their growing up. It's traditional that girls and women do not use the canoe and that still happens (up) to now. They can use canoes for racing but as for the aspect of fishing, that's always reserved for the men and the boys to do it.
SR: Do you have a workshop in the village for the canoes-making?
FP: Not in the format of a workshop, you know, you sit down, but it's a hands on ... you instruct them and you watch them, teach them how to do it and you watch them doing it. If they make some mistake, you correct the mistake, so it's a matter of measuring the length of the canoe and the width and also the outrigger in order to balance because if it's not balanced, you'll tip over the side and into the sea.
SR: So does each boy get to make his own canoe?
FP: Preferably yes but in many cases, fathers make canoes for their son and taught them the way to make canoes.
