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.
作為一個孩子, 我由夏威夷原住民長老-- 三個年老的女人 她們因為我的父母工作而照顧了我。 這一年是1963年。 我們在 黃昏的海洋。 我們正在注視著上升的明星 與潮汐的轉變。 在這一個綿延的海灘上我們感覺很好。 沙灘上光滑的石頭 都是我們熟悉的。 如果你在街上看到這些婦女 穿著褪了色的衣服, 你可能會因為她們窮困愚蠢 而打發她們. 那將是一個錯誤。 這些婦女是 波利尼西亞航海家的後裔, 由長輩的舊方式 所培育。 現在他們正在將它傳遞給我。 他們教我風和雨-- 根據天文學恆星的家譜。 當地平線上有一灣新月。 夏威夷人說這是一個美好的捕魚夜。 他們開始誦詠。
[Hawaiian chant]
[夏威夷詠]
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.
當他們完成後, 他們坐成一個圓圈 並請我和他們一起。 他們想教我一些關於我命運的事情。 我想我七歲已經歷了這一點。 (笑聲) “親愛的女孩, 世界將有一天陷入困境。 人們會忘記自己的智慧。 這將需要長者的聲音 從遙遠的角落 呼籲世界進入平衡。 你會去很遠的地方。 在孤獨的路上。 我們不會在那裡。 但你表面上 是陌生人, 你會識別您的"奧哈納", 你的家庭. 和它將帶走你的一切。 它將帶走你的一切。" 這些話,我緊握 於我的一生. 因為獨自這樣做的想法 使我驚恐萬分。
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.
這一年是2007年。 我在密克羅尼西亞的一個偏遠的島嶼. 薩塔瓦爾島是半英里長 一英里寬的地方。 這是我導師的家。 他的名字叫Pius Piailug. 茂 是一個"帕盧", 一位航海家牧師。 他也被認為 是世界上最大波濤的發現者。 現在只有很少 "帕盧"留在這個島。 他們的傳統是如此平凡, 這些水手航行 三百萬平方公里渡過太平洋彼岸 而無需使用工具。 他們可以協同自然界的模式 用星星的起落, 波浪的序列和方向, 某些鳥類的飛行模式。 甚至是雲底最淡淡的 顏色的一點提示 會使他們知道 並幫助他們以最大精度導航。
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.
當西方的科學家乘坐 茂 的獨木舟 看著他走進了船身, 他似乎像一位老人 正在休息。 事實上,獨木舟的船身 是該船隻的孕育處。 這是感受波浪的方向 的節奏和序列 最準確的地方. 茂,事實上, 用他的整個身體 收集明確的數據。 他五歲開始 就一直被訓練這樣做。 現在科學可能摒棄這個方法, 但今天波利尼西亞航海家正利用這方法 因為它可以為 他們的船隻 準確測定 角度和方向.
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.
"帕盧"也有 一種非同尋常的 能對天氣情況 提前幾天的預測能力。 有時候,我會與 茂 在有雲蓋的晚上 我們會坐在島嶼最東面的海岸, 而他會向外望。 然後他會說, “好吧,我們走。“ 他看到第一次反射的光-- 他會知道現在到三天後的天氣情況。
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.
他們的成就、智慧上和科學上, 都是非凡的, 這跟我們在 度過風暴的時候 非常相關。 我們集體的歷史 正處在這樣一個關鍵時刻。 他們跟宇航員 進行了比較- 這些老航海家 在廣大的公海 以雙殼獨木舟 從一個小島嶼 航行千里。 他們的獨木舟,是我們的火箭, 他們的海,是我們的宇宙。 這些長者的智慧 不是一個單純的收集 在一些偏遠地方 有關老人的故事。 這是我們的集體敘事的一部分。 這是人類的DNA。 我們不能失去它。
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.
這一年是2010年。 正如夏威夷的婦女 提出我的預測, 世界正陷入困境。 我們生活在一個 資料膨脹的社會, 然而缺乏智慧。 我們24/7的相互聯繫, 但焦慮、 恐懼、抑鬱和孤獨 是一個歷史新高。 我們必須方向正確。 一個非洲巫師說, "你的社會崇拜小丑 而國王則站在 便衣之中。" 過去與未來之間的聯繫 是脆弱的。 這是我熟知的, 因為即使當我在 世界各地旅行 去聽這些故事和記錄下來, 我掙扎。 我感到困擾 因為事實上我不再記得 風和雨的名稱。
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.
茂 於五個月前 去世, 但他的遺產和經驗依然健在。 而我被提醒說, 在整個世界上 大量的文化 蘊藏大量的知識, 像密克羅尼西亞的航海家一樣強有力的, 將會被摒棄, 這是一個 對卓越,卓越的 技術和科學和智慧 迅速的消失的見證。 因為當一個長輩去世,有如一個圖書館被焚毀。 與之世界各地,圖書館都猛烈燃燒起來了。
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.
我很感謝事實上 我曾經有一個像 茂 的導師 教我如何航海。 我意識到 通過一個他的教訓 使我們繼續尋找道路。 這是他說: “這島是獨木舟; 獨木舟,島。“ 而他的意思是, 如果你航行 和遠離家鄉, 你的生存依賴 船上的每個人. 你不能孤獨航行, 你從未想過。 這個人各為己的整體概念 是完全不可持續的。 它始終是。
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.
因此最後我會給你這些: 地球是我們的獨木舟, 而我們是旅行者。 真正的導航 從心出發。 這是最重要的地圖。 在一起,願我們的旅途愉快。
(Applause)
(掌聲)