Taotao Tåsi: Part 6 In the Deep

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Hafa adai and welcome to Taotao Tåsi 🌅 People of the Ocean 👋🤙

This is Part 6 In the Deep 🌊▼. If you're new here, start at Part 1 On the Beach 🏝️

The Taotao Tåsi series takes us on a voyage through the Pacific Ocean with Palu Larry Raigetal, a traditional master navigator of the sea. This journey isn't just about exploring landscapes; it's about celebrating the unity and legacy of our ancestors, paving the way for stories yet to unfold.

So, come aboard our sakman (canoe), and voyage the open ocean with a Master Navigator and your host, Jaybyrd Castro. In this episode, we sail through the deepest part of the world and find connection with relatives from Turtle Island. Our voyage nears a magnificent flame tree skyline. With immense pride in the canoe that has carries us, guided by our navigator's calming assurance, we edge closer to our destination— the cherished shores of Guahån.

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Tracks provided by Sabyu, from the Navigator EP

Support Palu Larry's nonprofit organization Waa'gey

Read more about Micronesian cultures at Guampedia.com

Check out the Sea Grant program that supports Palu Larry teaches at the University of Guahån (Guam)

Episode Transcript

Jaybyrd Castro (00:04):
Welcome to , people of the ocean.
Breathe the air, feel themotion.
We made it through the storm,our wa'a canoe, each of us, all
of you.
My storm was about feelingsbrewing, then releasing them
like lava spewing.
Feeling mad, bad, and finallyaccepting that I'm just hella

(00:28):
sad.
I got real with myself and myfamily.
So just know that you're notalone.
Whatever the storm was, is ormaybe, someone's out there to
guide you like a Pwo masternavigator at sea.
Welcome to Taotao Tåsi, siYu'us ma'åse.

Sabyu (01:09):
H afa adai! This is Sabyu .
This is a track calledFlametree Skyland off of my 2016
project Navigator EP.

Jaybyrd Castro (02:01):
And like any good Netflix show, you want to
start from the beginning.
So if you're new to Taot aoTàsi series, thank you, I
appreciate you being here, butgo start back at part 1, on the
beach.
This is part 6 in the deep.

Palu Larry Raigetal (02:33):
I had moments today where I had talked
with Mario, spent some timewith him.

Jaybyrd Castro (02:35):
Who you're hearing is our Pwo Master
Navigator Palu Larry Raigatel,from the traditional Carolinian
school of navigation calledWeriyang .
He was referring to aconversation he had with a
Chamorro carver and navigatornamed Señot Mario Borja, who
built and sailed the Sakmannamed Che'lu, currently in
Saipan.

Palu Larry Raigetal (02:54):
A lot of what we were conversing on was
always affirmation of the factthat perhaps, despite
differences in languages andappearance of our canoe's style
and applications, we have thesame fundamental principles of
seafaring.
That we may be differentbranches of the same tree, with

(03:14):
the same root.
The same tree talks to us.
In that sense we are the same.

Jaybyrd Castro (03:24):
I agree with Larry, we are the same.
His message reminds us that hispeople from Lamotrek and
Mario's people from Guam comefrom the deepest part of the
world, the same part of theworld, the Marianas Trench.
That's some deep roots.
Those are the same roots thatare shared underneath every
island across the Pacific Ocean.

Palu Larry Raigetal (03:43):
I mean, if you put 4,000 years of history
of the Chamorro and 2,000 yearhistory of the Carolinians, the
Chamorro came in much earlierthan we did.
In that case, you came beforeme, your ancestors came before
me.
And it continues into ourcultures of respecting the

(04:06):
elders, those who came before us.
That's the key thing here isthat, you know, we've always had
part of our culture has alwaysbeen that of recognizing those
who came before.

Jaybyrd Castro (04:28):
It doesn't matter if we're Micronesian,
Polynesian, Melanesian, we'reone Pacific, we're Pacific
Islanders.
And we're also like ourrelatives across the thousands
of tribes on Turtle Island.
Our deep roots share way morecommonalities than they do
differences.
When I started this Taotao Tåsijourney, I was expecting it to

(04:50):
be about me; my learning journeyof reconnecting to my
navigating ancestry.
But it hasn't.
What I recently learned from mytrip to Phoenix, Arizona last
month, to celebrate IndigenousPeople Day 2024 is that this
journey has connected me to theland and the original caretakers
of it.
It's helped me connect topeople all over the world: other

(05:12):
Indigenous podcasters andstorytellers and people with
mixed heritage identity issues,just like me.
While at that event, I met agroup of dope and very talented
Native artists, and one of themcame up to me and told me that
this series inspired her to pickup the paintbrush and create
again.
Say what?
I was speechless!.

(05:33):
And then there's the posse ofthe inspired youngsters who live
on Navajo reservation.
Their unwavering tenacity tolife is what inspires me!
Especially young Jared Tso fromthe Navajo Nation.
Thank you for reminding me ofmy purpose of doing this.
So I dedicate this journey toyou: the next generation of

(05:54):
change makers, the first toreclaim our right as the first,
the first engineers, the firstdesigners, the first
mathematicians, the firstdoctors, the first everything.
The first to graduate college,the first to live their dream,
the first to choose life overdeath.
Choose life.
And all those people that toldyou you were meant to be here
for a reason.
They're right.

(06:15):
You know, I lost my Grandma at ayoung age, so I turned on my
community and the internet tohelp educate me and inspire me,
like a Grandma or a Nåna would.
This is Rita Pangelinan Nautafrom Guampedia.
com.
I call them my digital Nåna.

Rita Pangelinan Nauta (06:29):
It's so important, it's how we do.
And for all of you to be alivetoday.
You have 150 generations ofshoulders that you're standing
on and that you actually haveabout 4,000 ancestors.
You start with your grandma,your grandpa, grandpa and their
àour grandmas, and your grandpasgrandpa.
There's there's ancestralmathematics, there's about 4,900

(06:53):
people that came before thatyou.
.
Isn't that amazing?
So with that, let us start.
standing on the shoulders of4,000 ancestors.
?
They lift us higher.
So when it hurts, remember thatyou have 150 generations of

(07:14):
healers to watch over you.
And when your shit hits thefans, don't forget forget, you
have 150 generations ofcollective wisdom to tap into.
And when you think you've givenit your all all and you're at
the end of the road, considerthat you have 150 generations of
wounded warrior blood to keepon fighting.

(07:34):
Don't give up,.
thankyou for listening to the Red

(08:38):
Rice and Infinity Fina'denn'ePodcast.
It's produced by me, j JaybyrdCastro, filming familian in Jeju
Jeje yan Piyu This was Tao Taotao Tasi Tàsi part 6, in the Deep
.
and Andnow peeping out from the horizon
is a flame tree skyline.
We're close.
Our navigator has led us toGuajan Guahån I can see her

(09:01):
smiling, .
And canoe we sailed on on,something I have tons of pride
in.
But I'll catch you next time onTau Taotao, Tåsi part 7, on the
Island.
SiSi Yu'us ma'åse.