2025-4-22

A Palauan sailing boat named Alingano Maisu is en route to Taitung County in eastern Taiwan as part of an Austronesian cultural seafaring exchange activity organized by Taitung County Government and Palau’s Micronesian Voyaging Society, with the support of the Ocean Affairs Council, the latter said April 21.

According to the OAC, departing Palau April 20, the Polynesian vessel uses traditional navigation and will pass islands off the Philippines and Batan Islands and expects to berth at Taiwan’s Orchid Island off Taiwan’s southeastern coast on May 8. After meeting and chatting with local Indigenous Tao people, the 10-crew members, including Syaman Manazang from Taiwan, will set off again and arrive at Taitung’s Fudafudak tribal village May 10.

The council said the boat will be companied by two ten-people Tao vessels when arriving at Orchid Island and will be welcomed by the Indigenous Amis on Taitung’s coast. Elders of the two tribes will pray for blessings for the venture, it added.

Named by late leading navigator Mau Piailug, encompassing the meaning of selfless sharing and we are from the same island, Alingano Maisu is an 18-year-old single-masted boat, with a hull length of 17 meters and a deck width of 5 meters.

In addition to the Austronesian seafaring cultural exchange, Taitung County government also launched a project to cultivate personnel in Indigenous peoples’ traditional shipbuilding and navigation skills to echo the OAC initiative on revitalizing maritime cultures, the council said.

The initiative aims to raise public awareness of maritime knowledge, promote shipbuilding and navigation techniques and promote related arts and cultural creative forms the OAC said, adding that it is committed to working with local governments, civil organizations, educational facilities and museums to enrich the country’s inheritance and development of marine culture.

Article courtesy of Taiwan Today