Pius "Mau" Piailug was a Micronesian navigator from the Carolinian island of Satawal, best known as a teacher of traditional, non-instrument wayfinding methods for open-ocean voyaging. Mau's Carolinia
"Mau Piailug is from the island of Satawal. It's a mile and a half long and a mile wide. Population 600. Navigation's not about cultural revival, it's about survival. Not enough food can be produced on a small island like that. Their navigators have to go out to sea to catch fish so they can eat." (Nainoa Thompson)
Mau's name carved into the back of the navigator's seat aboard Hokule'a
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Pol
Cook's Bay on Moorea, French Polynesia
Mokoliʻi Isle near Oahu, Hawaii
Moai at Ahu Tongariki on Rapa Nui
On February 14, 1779, Capt. James Cook was killed on the island of Hawaii.