[  Back to the Story of Lata  ] ||| [  Back to Table of Contents  ]

THE VAKA TAUMAKO PROJECT
How to Build a Tepuke

Koloso Kaveia, Paramont Chief of Duff Islands

How to Build a Tepuke     by Dr. Mimi George and Paramount Chief of Duff Islands, Koloso Kaveia with translation assistance by Mr. Mostyne Vane. These are the traditional steps for building a tepuke. They include some steps that modern boatbuilders do not speak of. But they are steps that Lata took, and are true for all of us. Step 1) Plant the Gardens. To build a tepuke, first we plant seven to nine large gardens of yams, sweet potatoes and bananas, and we start to really fatten our pigs. The foods will be eaten with fish and breadfruit and other non-garden foods as part of the feasting that marks every workday. Some big pigs will be eaten at the launching. Step 2) Make the Sennit Cordage (Kaha). We bury piles of coconut husks in the tidal sands each week A few weeks later we retrieve them and beat them with small wooden sticks until the blackened, rotten pulp drops off the golden, seasoned fibers. A few at a time, we twist these fibers together and braid the strands into cordage. The pattern of the weave is the same pattern Teube told Lata to copy from the tail of the moko`uli lizard, guardian of the tree that would be selected for the main hull. It took us seven months to make the cordage for Vaka Taumako. Cordage for a tepuke is made of three different diameters: the biggest for lashing the hull, the riser, and the crossbeams together, the middle size for lashing the floats together, and the smallest for sewing and lashing the sail. When four hundred fathoms of sennit cordage is made, enough to lash the tepuke, it is time to fell the tree. Step 3) Fell the Tree. The Teube bird told Lata "Follow me into the forest. When I land on a tree and flutter my wings you will know that that is the tree for your tepuke." Teube pointed out a Mountain, or "True" Tamanu (Callophyllum) tree, and on 16 January, 1997, the community opened the great earth ovens in which they had baked the fruits of the first harvest from the canoe gardens. Hundreds of workers paddled to the other side of the island and climbed three miles into their virgin forest carrying adzes, axes, cooking pots and and baskets of food. Every such work day is a feast day, for teube explained to Lata that if the workers do not eat well, the adze blades will not eat well. The area was cleared and the twenty-five meter tree was felled and barked in one day The steel blades on the adzes (tupa) and axes (tekila) are our sole concession to modernity when we build tepuke. The traditional tridacna clamshell blades such as Lata used, are just as sharp as the steel ones, but they get dull faster. Step 4) Adze the Roughcut. To roughcut a tepuke we first plane the top of the log, and then dig out the heartwood until the sides are about five inches thick and the bottom about eight inches. Holes are made in both ends to tie on the hauling ropes. In five workdays the roughcut of Vaka Taumako was ready to be taken to the sea. Step 5) Make the Hauling Rope. Our community harvests the inner sheath from the bark of hundreds of haumamalu (mallow) trees, tears them into strips, and seasons them in seawater for a week. We dry the strips and then twist them together into three ropes. We braided these into a long, strong rope of about one inch diameter. Step 6) Haul the Tepuke. To the Sea According to the Story of Lata, we haul the roughcut to the sea is aided by a long slow rain which caused the sort of slow, muddy, flooding (tepuke) that naturally eased the tree to down to the sea. We Taumakoans could not use this ancient method in 1997, because that particular part of our weather magic has been lost. Nowadays it seems that when we call rain, it rains too hard. The floods are no longer gentle enough to safely bring the roughcut down without damaging it or endangering our workers. In January, 1997, I, Koloso Kaveia, annointed the hull with coconut water and invoked an ancient blessing. One person began to beat on the tepuke hull with a stick in the manner of a drum and hundreds of voices rose from the surrounding forest giving full throat to the lyrical and haunting hauling chants of Lata. The joyful exuberance and gut wrenching effort of the workers was coordinated and soothed by the chanting. Roughly equal numbers of men, women, and children,alternately pulled or restrained the tepuke using four different lengths of rope tied to it, belayed around convenient trees, and extended out through the forest to the haulers. Some of us handplanted sticks to guide the bow around obstacles and keep it from capsizing, but in some critical turns in steep sections a few `cowboy' pointmen virtually rode the bow down kicking and planting their legs on one side or the other of the bow to steer the careening log. The lines of haulers in the forest often cannot see each other or even the hull itself as they work. The chant keeps us working together. Laughter and tears are constant. The foods and refreshments are superb. It is a party. But there is great risk involved and intense effort required to get a perhaps ten ton log down a very rough and often very steep mountainside. In the end there are no injuries to persons or to the roughcut tepuke hull as it slithers and digs, and sometimes bounces its way down over three (in the case of Vaka Taumako) miles of ravines and crests to the sea. Step 7) Thin the Hull and Ends. We then shape the ends (moumoa) and smooth the outer hull. We adze the inside of the hull to about two to three inches thick, and carve the bow-ends the shape of the top and back of teube birds head. The hardest part is thinning inside the turn of the bilge, which is located at the gunnels just outboard of the narrow hull opening. For this work we lash our adzes so that the heads may be rotated to the side of the handle. Our best carvers do this job. We then haul the hull ashore for assembly with other parts. Step 8) Start Making the Sail (Laula). There are eight panels that make up a sail. Each of eight groups of women and girls undertake to make each of the eight panels. First they pick pandanus leaves, peel off the thorns, and twist each leaf to soften it. They then singe the leaves in a fire, and, when they are dry, deftly using a few inches of twisted sennit fibers held between their forefingers and thumb, to slice the leaves into quarter inch strips. The strips were woven into eight mats about one meter wide. Two of the panels were made in each of four different lengths, with the longest panels allocated to the outer edges, and the shortest panels in the center. The height of the sail must be the same length as the hull of the tepuke. The shortest panels are joined to eachother in a zigzag pattern to make the belly of the sail. Each panel is woven as a single-weave except for double-woven "belts" about three inches wide on the outer edges and right up the middle of the panels. This process takes months. Step 9) Paint (Limu). Our children gather many baskets of a particular seaweed from the reef, clean it, and pile it into a very large tridacna shell. Several of them pound the seaweed with stone pestles until it was crushed into a milky white soupy paste. Then older people use fragments of seaweed as rags to rub the paste into the tepuke hull as protective paint against insects. Each coat is allowed to dry and three coats are applied. More will be made and applied to all the structures and cordage under the platform once they are made and lashed together. Step 10) Build a Shed. We build a shed around the tepuke to protect it and the workers from sun and rain. A temporary building of coconut leaf thatch is usually adequate, since normally a newly built tepuke is delivered to the island of the person who ordered it very soon after it is finished. Step 11) The Crossbeams (Lakahalava). We cut the massive crossbeams from a light, strong, hardwood named gnaignai. We adze the beams to shape, and along the section near the ama end, we carve pyramidal serrations to represent the tail of Tuna, the eelfish. This may be a reference to the holding power of the tail of a saltwater eel if one is hooked by the head rather than the middle of the body, as Polynesian fishermen and women well know. The very ends of the crossbeams have the stylized carved icon of a pigs head, because when we take pigs as cargo we hang them in cages from these crossbeams. Step 12) The End Risers (Taupou). We adze the end risers from viaka talinge, a somewhat heavier hardwood, timber. We fashion a dovetail key between each riser and the crossbeam, so that they fit and stay perfectly in place. We shape the bottom plane of each end riser to fit down inside the gunnel flanges, and we shape a "leg" at each of the four corners of the box to hook the outside of the gunnel flanges. We lash the crossbeam in position with windlasses or tourniquet sticks (li'i) that are internal to the crossbeam, riser box, and hull structure (see step 23). Step 13a and 13b) The Side Risers (Papa or Papa Lova and Matai or Papa Matai). The Papa is the side-panel on the riser box which forms the opening into the hullon the outrigger (windward) side. The papa and the matai (below) are joined to the vertical edges of the end risers. The Matai is the side-panel that forms the leeward wall of the riser box. For both these pieces buttresses we cut buttresses from the Viaka Ina or Na tree, which is a heavy timber strong enough to not break either from the flexing of the outrigger or at the holes where they are lashed to the risers (taupou). Step 14) The Outrigger Platforms (Katea and Haihale). We make platforms over the outrigger (haihale) and over the hull (katea) . We lash long strips of betel nut palm to frames that are lashed to top of the superstructure. The platforms on a tepuke must be one and a half to two meters above the water. Step 15) The Primary Connectives (Hakatu). The hakatu are two pairs of sticks made of mallow saplings called ike. A man drives the ends of each hakatu into holes underneath each crossbeam in the midsection of the internal or primary floats (see step 17). We lash the upper ends of the hakatu to the crossbeams where they cross over them. Step 16) The Crossbeams-to-Floatends Strut (Lou). We use kau kupenga trees for these robust, curved struts that serve to brace the ends of the floats outboard. Step 17) The Secondary Connectives (Kaukaui). We lash sticks made of noa saplings from the primaries, or from the same hole in the floats that the primaries are driven into, to the ends of the longitudinal poles of the lath platform, and extend as far as the outrigger platform. We lash two kaukaui that on the outboard ends to a vertical pole that is driven into the primary float (utongi) in the manner of the primary connectives (hakatu), and we lash the inboard end to the outside frames of the outrigger platform (katea). Step 18) The Primary Floats (Utongi). The utongi are the middle or primary floats (ama) into which the primary connectives (hakatu) are driven and lashed. We lash any other floats, depending on the buoyancy desired, to the utongi in the same places where the crossbeams-to-floatends strut (lou) and the secondary connectives (kaukaui) are lashed to the floats. We refer to the ends of the utongi as the Tuna, though they cannot be serrated like the ends of the crossbeams because of the lashing that must by done near the ends of the utongi. We adze the utongi from breadfruit trees of the right diameter. Step 19) The Horizontal Stringer (Opoalu). We lash a horizontal member, the opoalu, to all the connectors to the floats. We then connect that to the crossbeam-to- floatends strut (lou) by rattan lashings that we serve with rattan. We also connect the lou to the opoalu with two more sets of served rattan lashings. Step 20) Cut The Holes for the Lashings between End-Risers, Matai, and PapaLova. We cut two or three smooth-edged rectangular holes along each vertical edge of the end-risers. We cut corresponding holes into the side panels of the riser box (matai and papa). Step 21) The Riser-Box to Crossbeam (Umu) Lashings. These sennit lashings hold the crossbeam to the riser-box. These lashings cannot be relashed at sea. When these began to fail on Vaka Taumako, we added rattan lashings on top of them to bind together the outside of all the structures involved. We call the patterns made in these lashings the fishtail and the earth oven (umu). Step 22) Lash the Floats (Ama). We use the umu pattern and sennit cordage to lash the top end of the hakatu where they are joined to the crossbeam (lakahalava). Step 23) Make the House (Hale). We lash a frame of betel nut palm timbers together into rectangular based house with a rounded, lean-to roof. We sew sego palm leaves over basts and lash these to the frame, making the entire structure watertight. We lash this house to the outrigger platform (katea) to make a streamlined and secure shelter. Step 24) The Windlasses or Tourniquet Sticks (Li'i). Four big windlasses hold the crossbeams to the hull, three at each end of the riser box. We make the windlasses with a stick turned in rattan lashings until they are drum tight, and then we brace the stick against the inner walls formed by each riser and the matai and papa adjoining it. We make two smaller windlasses span the two crossbeams outboard of the hull and under the platforms. These prevent the crossbeams from changing their relationship to eachother. Step 25) The Waterproof Boards (Tetau). The hull opening is sealed from the moumoa to the riser-box by boards called the tetau. We carve the tetau from Ngaingai, and lash it down with several small toggles that are braced against the inner walls of the gunnel flanges. The tetau has a carved ledge inside the longitudinal edges, so that our coconut husk caulking will compress against it. Once the edges of the tetau are well caulked, we seal the seam with a putty we make from mixing breadfruit sap and some finely shredded bark of a potu (mallow) tree. Step 26) The Manumoumoa. We carve the Teube bird with a socket between it's wings, into which we step the spar of the sail. We mount the carving of Teube and lash it into a special board with a hole called the "mouth of Lata" which adjoins the end of the tetau (above). The mouth of Lata is part of the face of Teube that stares upwards from each moumoa. While the Teube grips the moumoa with its feet the mouth of Lata grips Teube with its teeth. When tepuke set sail, our crewmembers become teube birds, as represented in this artful fitting. Step 27) Sew the Sail (Laula). Lata learned to "Make the sail like a man with his arms curved over his head." We lay the eight lengths of pandanus matting out into the crab claw shape, the extra matting cut and the edges folded over and sewn using either mallow bark twisted cordage or sennit. We sew the seams between the panels and then tie the tip of the crab claw to the spar is shaped very slightly more straight than the tip of the edge that we tie to the boom. We tie and serve the tack and the tips with sennit, and then When we bend the sail on, we tie the tack to both the spar and boom, and the tips of the sail to the boom and spar ends. We make long, tasseled, ties along the feet of the sails (the edges tied to the boom and spar) of sennit, and when we reefi we loosen these ties from the spar and boom at the `crab claw' tip ends. Step 28) Make the Rig. We cut the mast and reaching pole from a certain type of mallow or other light, bug resistent tree. We make the running rigging from three part twisted mallow bark cordage or fifteen part sennit braided to be oval shaped for easy handling. There are two shroud/halyards (lele kiama and lele katea) and two ends to the long, two-ended sheet. One of these is handled (haha kiama), and the other one is wrapped round the mast and round the lele ama and made fast to the mast (haha katea). The lazy end of the rope called haha katea is used to tighten the lele katea. This is called the tonga lele. Step 29) Make the Steering Blades (Foe Vaka and Foe Ama). There are two long handled steering blades. We use the smaller one (foe ama) on the float side of the hull and the larger one (foe vaka) on the leeward side of the hull. We use brine seasoned and dried Callophylum timber for the blades. Step 30) Test and Deliver. We must deliver the trpuke to the island of the person who ordered it. Before we do this we sail right out into stormy seas and we go out by way of a passage that is as rough as it gets. We want to know if anything is going to break. Once we know the tepuke is seaworthy we carefully prepare and load the cargo, do our weather control work, and, when the sun is about twenty degrees off the water (about 16:45) we depart Taumako. When we arrive at our destination we blow our conch shell and listen for a reply. When the hosts blow their shell we know that they are ready to receive us and we go ashore to the valuables and feast they have prepared for us. When they are ready they will sail us back to our island and depart as proud owners of their new tepuke. 'I share this knowledge on behalf of my people, the direct heirs of Lata. It is our hope that sailors and boatbuilders who are interested in authentic voyaging knowledge will lend support to the Vaka Taumako Project. Now our community aspires to build a large tealolili to use for training of novices, and sail it to New Caledonia for the Pacific Arts Festival in 2000. Also we need modern building materials to build a "Canoe House" that will shelter our various vaka, provide a place for training and maintenance activities, and accomodate a research archive and resthouse for foreign visitors. We think that some of our supporters may wish to participate in the building and sailing programs and personally experience `the return of Lata.'