The Northern Marianas Seafaring Traditions Programme has completed its first canoe house, ensuring the islands' renewed interest in building traditional canoes continues.
CNMI traditional canoe house Photo: RNZI/Mark Rabago
The canoe house took five months to build and is modeled on traditional architecture of ancient Chamorro huts and made of the same materials.
The governor Ralph Torres said the cultural significance of the canoe house and the traditional canoes that would be built there will help promote the CNMI to tourists.
He said it is always important to continue to promote Chamorro and Refaluwasch or Carolinian culture.
The Seafaring Traditions Programme is focused on ensuring traditional skills are not lost.
These include canoe building and canoe house making and all of the skills that this entails, rope-making, weaving, carving, tool-building and traditional methods of celestial navigation.
The Seafaring Traditions Programme will now focus on building canoes to sail to the 2020 Festival of Pacific Arts in Hawaii.
