As a child, I was raised by native Hawaiian elders -- three old women who took care of me while my parents worked. The year is 1963. We're at the ocean. It's twilight. We're watching the rising of the stars and the shifting of the tides. It's a stretch of beach we know so well. The smooth stones on the sand are familiar to us. If you saw these women on the street in their faded clothes, you might dismiss them as poor and simple. That would be a mistake. These women are descendants of Polynesian navigators, trained in the old ways by their elders, and now they're passing it on to me. They teach me the names of the winds and the rains, of astronomy according to a genealogy of stars. There's a new moon on the horizon. Hawaiians say it's a good night for fishing. They begin to chant.
Dok sam biladete, o meni su brinuli stari izvorni Havajci - tri stare žene koje su brinule o meni dok su moji roditelji radili. Godina je 1963. Nalazimo se na okeanu, u sumrak. Gledamo kako se zvezde pojavljuju, a struje menjaju. To je deo plaže koju tako dobro poznajemo. Nežno kamenje na pesku nam je poznato. Da vidite ove žene na ulici u njihovoj izbledeloj odeći, možda biste mislili da su siromašne i jendostavne. To bi bila greška. Ove žene su potomci polinežanskih moreplovaca, vaspitali su ih njihovi preci na stare načine. I sada to prenose na mene. Uče me nazivima vetrova i kiša - astronomiju na osnovu porekla zvezda. Eno ga novi mesec na horizontu. Havajci kažu da je noć dobra za pecanje. Počinju da pojaju.
[Hawaiian chant]
[havajska pesma]
When they finish, they sit in a circle and ask me to come to join them. They want to teach me about my destiny. I thought every seven-year-old went through this. (Laughter) "Baby girl, someday the world will be in trouble. People will forget their wisdom. It will take elders' voices from the far corners of the world to call the world into balance. You will go far away. It will sometimes be a lonely road. We will not be there. But you will look into the eyes of seeming strangers, and you will recognize your ohana, your family. And it will take all of you. It will take all of you." These words, I hold onto all my life. Because the idea of doing it alone terrifies me.
Kada završe, sednu u krug i zovu me da im se pridružim. Žele da me uče o mojoj sudbini. Mislila sam da to uče sve sedmogodišnjake. (smeh) "Devojčice, jednog dana svet će biti u nevolji. Ljudi će zaboraviti svoju mudrost. Biće im potrebni glasovi starih iz udaljenih krajeva sveta da ga prizovu u ravnotežu. Ti ćeš otići daleko. Ponekad ćeš na tom putu biti usamljena. Nas tamo neće biti. Ali pogledaćeš u oči naizgled strancima, i prepoznaćeš svoju ohanu, svoju porodicu. I celu će te obuzeti. Celu će te obuzeti." Ovih reči se držim, čitavog života. Jer me pomisao da kroz to prolazim sama, užasava.
The year is 2007. I'm on a remote island in Micronesia. Satawal is one half-mile long by one mile wide. It's the home of my mentor. His name is Pius Mau Piailug. Mau is a palu, a navigator priest. He's also considered the greatest wave finder in the world. There are fewer than a handful of palu left on this island. Their tradition is so extraordinary that these mariners sailed three million square miles across the Pacific without the use of instruments. They could synthesize patterns in nature using the rising and setting of stars, the sequence and direction of waves, the flight patterns of certain birds. Even the slightest hint of color on the underbelly of a cloud would inform them and help them navigate with the keenest accuracy.
Godina je 2007. Ja sam na udaljenom ostrvu u Mikroneziji. Sataval je dug oko jedan kilometar a širok 1,7 kilometara. To je dom mog mentora. Ime mu je Pius Piailug. Mau je palu, moreplovac sveštenik. Smatraju ga i za najboljeg nalazača talasa na svetu. Ima ih manje od šačice na ostrvu, palua. Njihova tradicija je toliko neobična da su ovi moreplovci plovili pet miliona kvadratnih kilometara preko Tihog okeana bez upotrebe instrumenata. Mogli su da sintetizuju obrasce u prirodi koristeći izlazak i zalazak zvezda, redosled i pravac talasa, putanje letenja pojedinih ptica. Čak i najmanji nagoveštaj boje na stomaku oblaka bi im pomogao u navigaciji do najveće tačnosti.
When Western scientists would join Mau on the canoe and watch him go into the hull, it appeared that an old man was going to rest. In fact, the hull of the canoe is the womb of the vessel. It is the most accurate place to feel the rhythm and sequence and direction of waves. Mau was, in fact, gathering explicit data using his entire body. It's what he had been trained to do since he was five years old. Now science may dismiss this methodology, but Polynesian navigators use it today because it provides them an accurate determination of the angle and direction of their vessel.
Kada bi se zapadni stručnjaci pridružili Mau u kanuu i videli kako ulazi u brodsko korito, izgledalo je kao da stari čovek odlazi na počinak. Ustvari, korito kanua je utroba broda. To je najbolje mesto da osetite ritam i redosled i pravac talasa. Mau je, ustvari, sakupljao tačne podatke koristeći čitavo svoje telo. Za to su ga obučavali od njegove pete godine. Nauka može odbaciti ovu metodologiju, ali polinežanski moreplovci je danas koriste jer im omogućava tačno određivanje ugla i pravca njihovog plovila.
The palu also had an uncanny ability to forecast weather conditions days in advance. Sometimes I'd be with Mau on a cloud-covered night and we'd sit at the easternmost coast of the island, and he would look out, and then he would say, "Okay, we go." He saw that first glint of light -- he knew what the weather was going to be three days from now.
Palu je takođe imao neverovatnu sposobnost da predvidi vremenske prilike danima unapred. Ponekad bih sedela sa njim u oblačnoj noći na najistočnijem delu ostrva, a on bi osmatrao. I onda bi rekao: "Okej, idemo." Video bi prvi nagoveštaj svetla - znao bi kakvo će vreme biti za tri dana.
Their achievements, intellectually and scientifically, are extraordinary, and they are so relevant for these times that we are in when we are riding out storms. We are in such a critical moment of our collective history. They have been compared to astronauts -- these elder navigators who sail vast open oceans in double-hulled canoes thousands of miles from a small island. Their canoes, our rockets; their sea, our space. The wisdom of these elders is not a mere collection of stories about old people in some remote spot. This is part of our collective narrative. It's humanity's DNA. We cannot afford to lose it.
Njihova postignuća, intelektualna i naučna, su sjajna, i toliko su značajna za vremena u kojima smo, kada bežimo iz oluja. Nalazimo se u tako kritičnom momentu naše kolektivne istorije. Poredili su ih sa astronautima - ove starije moreplovce koji plove na široko otvorenim okeanima u dvostrukim kanuima, hiljade kilometara od malog ostrva. Njihovi kanui, naše rakete, njihovo more, naš svemir. Mudrost ovih starih nije samo kolekcija priča o starim ljudima na nekom udaljenom mestu. To je deo naše kolektivne priče. To je DNK čovečanstva. Ne možemo priuštiti da je izgubimo.
The year is 2010. Just as the women in Hawaii that raised me predicted, the world is in trouble. We live in a society bloated with data, yet starved for wisdom. We're connected 24/7, yet anxiety, fear, depression and loneliness is at an all-time high. We must course-correct. An African shaman said, "Your society worships the jester while the king stands in plain clothes." The link between the past and the future is fragile. This I know intimately, because even as I travel throughout the world to listen to these stories and record them, I struggle. I am haunted by the fact that I no longer remember the names of the winds and the rains.
Godina je 2010. Baš kao što su žene sa Havaja koje su me odgajile, predvidele svet je u nevolji. Živimo u društvu preplavljenom podacima, a željnom mudrosti. Povezani smo 24h 7 dana u nedelji, ali anksioznost, strah, depresija i usamljenost su ipak sve vreme prisutni. Moramo ispraviti kurs. Jedan afrički šaman je rekao: "Vaše društvo veliča ludu dok kralj stoji među seljanima." Veza između prošlosti i budućnosti je krhka. Ovo dobro znam, jer iako putujem širom sveta da čujem i zabeležim ove priče, ja se borim. Progoni me činjenica da se više ne sećam imena vetrova i kiša.
Mau passed away five months ago, but his legacy and lessons live on. And I am reminded that throughout the world there are cultures with vast sums of knowledge in them, as potent as the Micronesian navigators, that are going dismissed, that this is a testament to brilliant, brilliant technology and science and wisdom that is vanishing rapidly. Because when an elder dies a library is burned, and throughout the world, libraries are ablaze.
Mau je umro pre pet meseci, ali njegovo nasleđe i učenje žive. A ja se podsećam da širom sveta postoje kulture sa količinama znanja u sebi, moćnim kao znanja mikronezijskih mornara, koja bivaju zaboravljena, i to je zaveštanje sjajnoj, sjajnoj tehnologiji i nauci i mudrosti koja brzo nestaje. Jer kada starac umre, biblioteka je spaljena. I širom sveta, biblioteke su u plamenu.
I am grateful for the fact that I had a mentor like Mau who taught me how to navigate. And I realize through a lesson that he shared that we continue to find our way. And this is what he said: "The island is the canoe; the canoe, the island." And what he meant was, if you are voyaging and far from home, your very survival depends on everyone aboard. You cannot make the voyage alone, you were never meant to. This whole notion of every man for himself is completely unsustainable. It always was.
Zahvalna sam na činjenici da sam imala mentora kao Mau koji me je naučio kako da plovim. I shvatam, kroz jednu lekciju koju je podelio, da nastavljamo da tražimo put. Evo šta je rekao: "Ostrvo je kanu; kanu, ostrvo." A mislio je da, ako putujete i daleko ste od kuće, vaše preživljavanje zavisi od svih putnika. Ne možete sami putovati, nikada nije ni trebalo. Čitava ta ideja, svaki čovek za sebe, je potpuno neodrživa. Uvek je bila.
So in closing I would offer you this: The planet is our canoe, and we are the voyagers. True navigation begins in the human heart. It's the most important map of all. Together, may we journey well.
I na kraju, volela bih da vam ovo ponudim: Planeta je naš kanu, a mi smo putnici. Prava plovidba počinje u ljudskom srcu. To je najvažnija mapa od svih. Neka zajedno putujemo dobro.
(Applause)
(aplauz)