Red Rice & Fina'denne'

Taotao Tåsi: Part 6 In the Deep

Jaybyrd Castro Season 1 Episode 10

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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)

Jaybyrd Castro:

Welcome to , people of the ocean. Breathe the air, feel the motion. We made it through the storm, our wa'a canoe, each of us, all of you. My storm was about feelings brewing, then releasing them like lava spewing. Feeling mad, bad, and finally accepting that I'm just hella sad. I got real with myself and my family. So just know that you're not alone. Whatever the storm was, is or maybe, someone's out there to guide you like a Pwo master navigator at sea. Welcome to Taotao Tåsi, si Yu'us ma'åse.

Sabyu:

H afa adai! This is Sabyu. This is a track called Flametree Skyland off of my 2016 project Navigator EP.

Jaybyrd Castro:

And like any good Netflix show, you want to start from the beginning. So if you're new to Taot ao Tàsi series, thank you, I appreciate you being here, but go start back at part 1, on the beach. This is part 6 in the deep.

Palu Larry Raigetal:

I had moments today where I had talked with Mario, spent some time with him.

Jaybyrd Castro:

Who you're hearing is our Pwo Master Navigator Palu Larry Raigatel, from the traditional Carolinian school of navigation called Weriyang . He was referring to a conversation he had with a Chamorro carver and navigator named Señot Mario Borja, who built and sailed the Sakman named Che'lu, currently in Saipan.

Palu Larry Raigetal:

A lot of what we were conversing on was always affirmation of the fact that perhaps, despite differences in languages and appearance of our canoe's style and applications, we have the same fundamental principles of seafaring. That we may be different branches of the same tree, with the same root. The same tree talks to us. In that sense we are the same.

Jaybyrd Castro:

I agree with Larry, we are the same. His message reminds us that his people from Lamotrek and Mario's people from Guam come from the deepest part of the world, the same part of the world, the Marianas Trench. That's some deep roots. Those are the same roots that are shared underneath every island across the Pacific Ocean.

Palu Larry Raigetal:

I mean, if you put 4,000 years of history of the Chamorro and 2,000 year history of the Carolinians, the Chamorro came in much earlier than we did. In that case, you came before me, your ancestors came before me. And it continues into our cultures of respecting the elders, those who came before us. That's the key thing here is that, you know, we've always had part of our culture has always been that of recognizing those who came before.

Jaybyrd Castro:

It doesn't matter if we're Micronesian, Polynesian, Melanesian, we're one Pacific, we're Pacific Islanders. And we're also like our relatives across the thousands of tribes on Turtle Island. Our deep roots share way more commonalities than they do differences.

Jaybyrd Castro:

When I started this Taotao Tåsi journey, I was expecting it to be about me; my learning journey of reconnecting to my navigating ancestry. But it hasn't. What I recently learned from my trip to Phoenix, Arizona last month, to celebrate Indigenous People Day 2024 is that this journey has connected me to the land and the original caretakers of it. It's helped me connect to people all over the world: other Indigenous podcasters and storytellers and people with mixed heritage identity issues, just like me.

Jaybyrd Castro:

While at that event, I met a group of dope and very talented Native artists, and one of them came up to me and told me that this series inspired her to pick up the paintbrush and create again. Say what? I was speechless!.

Jaybyrd Castro:

And then there's the posse of the inspired youngsters who live on Navajo reservation. Their unwavering tenacity to life is what inspires me! Especially young Jared Tso from the Navajo Nation. Thank you for reminding me of my purpose of doing this.

Jaybyrd Castro:

So I dedicate this journey to you: the next generation of change makers, the first to reclaim our right as the first, the first engineers, the first designers, the first mathematicians, the first doctors, the first everything. The first to graduate college, the first to live their dream, the first to choose life over death. Choose life. And all those people that told you you were meant to be here for a reason. They're right.

Jaybyrd Castro:

You know, I lost my Grandma at a young age, so I turned on my community and the internet to help educate me and inspire me, like a Grandma or a Nåna would. This is Rita Pangelinan Nauta from Guampedia. com. I call them my digital Nåna.

Rita Pangelinan Nauta:

It's so important, it's how we do. And for all of you to be alive today. You have 150 generations of shoulders that you're standing on and that you actually have about 4,000 ancestors. You start with your grandma, your grandpa, grandpa and their àour grandmas, and your grandpas grandpa. There's there's ancestral mathematics, there's about 4,900 people that came before that you.. Isn't that amazing? So with that, let us start.

Jaybyrd Castro:

standing on the shoulders of 4,000 ancestors.? They lift us higher. So when it hurts, remember that you have 150 generations of healers to watch over you. And when your shit hits the fans, don't forget forget, you have 150 generations of collective wisdom to tap into. And when you think you've given it your all all and you're at the end of the road, consider that you have 150 generations of wounded warrior blood to keep on fighting. Don't give up,. thank

Jaybyrd Castro:

you for listening to the Red Rice and Infinity Fina'denn'e Podcast. It's produced by me, j Jaybyrd Castro, filming familian in Jeju Jeje yan Piyu This was Tao Taot ao Tasi Tàsi part 6, in the Deep . and And

Jaybyrd Castro:

now peeping out from the horizon is a flame tree skyline. We're close. Our navigator has led us to Guajan Guahån I can see her smiling, . And canoe we sailed on on, something I have tons of pride in. But I'll catch you next time on Tau Taotao, Tåsi part 7, on the Island. Si

Jaybyrd Castro:

Si Yu'us ma'åse.

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