Among the Multihulls, Chapter Seventeen, Video illustrations with Commentary

Chapter 17 – Cracks In The Sky

Tuvalu Project. Yet another intense cross-cultural adventure teaching Polynesian fishermen to build sophisticated intra-lagoon sailing multihull fishing and transport vessels for South Pacific atolls. Bootstrap development project financed by Save The Children/USAID unexpectedly goes into profit; local government takes over, project fails but trainees establish longstanding boatbuilding business.

1 Comment

1.  Wade Tarzia on July 9, 2012 at 5:59 pm

   Superbly narrated. This is an important chapter of Brown’s memoir in that an interesting sort of reverse-colonialism-colonialism was at work: the changes in the ecology and social context due to Euro-American colonialism have been horrific. And yet the same forces can recognize the mistakes and try to help (and of course, ecological problems were not always caused by the Western colonists; some were built into native colonial expansion and development). It is too bad that contemporary forces had too much momentum to be addressed with this project, but it was a noble effort.