MY recent visit to Talakali village in the beautiful Langa Langa Lagoon of West Malaita, brought back memories of my younger days where boys from Langa Langa Lagoon became friends and mentors of mine.
It all started when young boys from Langa Langa Lagoon attended the Betikama Central School in Guadalcanal and later Jones Missionary College now Kambubu in Papua New Guinea.
I met most of these boys at Kambubu where my father served as a missionary for 16 years.
Dick Olitalala, popularly known by the community as Dick Tofe, was one of those boys.
Dick became a close friend.
He was a composer of songs and taught us many songs from the Langa Langa (Wala) dialect.
One of the songs, I remember, was entitled, ‘O-l-i-ta-la-la- ee-ee-ee’.
He composed other songs that are now commonly sung by Adventist young people in the Solomon Islands and one of them is ‘Patala Jesus’ which means ‘The Name of Jesus is so Sweet.’
In his dying days, I was told that he composed a song that was related to his bed-driven sickness and entitled it –‘Embulo e tasa Jesus’- ‘the spilt blood of Jesus can save you from sin’.
He composed more then 20 songs in his lifetime.
Apart from writing songs, my fondest memory of Dick was of him being a boat builder.
I still remember him taking us kids to the river side where he used sago palms to shape toy boats for us.
Fish tins were cut into small propellers, which were placed under the toy boat to produce an engine sound.
Probably, to Dick it was only a mere dream going through all those experiences with us as kids but it will become a reality in his life, in the coming years.
Thus this newspaper article would serve as a tribute to Dick’s life and work of boat building and a reminder to all but especially, modern Langa Langa young people of Solomon Islands, to continue the traditional boat building business.
Dick left Jones Missionary College before completing his studies, determined to pursue his dream of building boats.
You see, he was more of a practical skills person! So even though he became a school leaver, he successfully became a designer of boats and a boat builder, the first for the Solomon Islands.
His interest of building boats was nurtured and then matured when Dick enrolled into, the supposed to be, the first ever British school of boat building in Auki during the colonial or protectorate days of the fifties and sixties.
The plan by the British was to develop Auki as the boat building center for the whole Pacific region where young people from Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, the Cooks, New Hebridese and the Solomon Island could learn the skills of boat building.
Unfortunately this did not eventuate much to our disadvantage today! The little Dick learned, has benefited the whole nation in the long run.
The Seventh-day Adventist School at Lunga later known as Betikama Central School attracted Dick with two of his Langa Langa classmates, Gavutu and Ofta’a .
Ofta’a was commonly known as ‘one go’, a nick name given to him for his quick decisions in matters such as fishing, working in the garden and building boats.
Sometimes he made his own decision without consultation.
Ironically, this led him to build the biggest boat in the Solomon Islands known as the ‘MV Liofagu’ a 90 feet boat in length.
Dick and his two friends were often seen at the bank of the Lunga river, chipping off what would be small shaped dinghies.
The finished products of these Langa Langa boys would end up in the hands of the Chinese business men as dinghies for the Karter Boats around the lagoons of the Solomon Islands’ rural population, selling needed items from their shop boats.
The dinghies also helped lessen the burden of schools fees.
The dinghy production is a testimony of the skills and development of boat building in the Solomon Islands from Langa Langa.
The Talakali and the surrounding villages of the Gwaelaga’s clan were known to be ‘the Bible Noah’ of boat building.
Today the boat building business is helping business people like Fera, Savan, Fosala and Kote of Langa Langa Lagoon.
As you pass through the coastal villages of Langa Langa lagoon, you will encounter more than 10 high raised boat houses erected for boat building.
Apparently, the skill has spread throughout the lagoon since Dick’s days.
Dick who was unselfish shared his God given talents with the Langa Langa people and the Solomon Islands and he should be mentioned and recognised.
Apart from Dick, there were others whom we should also mention.
The following names are but few who have contributed much to the development of boat building in the Solomon Islands and also contributed to the development of shipping services – the likes of Abraham, Bobolo, Faisi, Sasi, Fredrick, Anina, Fagasi, Angeli, Taligaga, Boso, Galasi, Oloman, Walelia, Animamu and Maisulu.
One can only imagine sweat these people put under the heat of the sun just to make sure boats are being built for the sole purpose of making our lives easier of transportation and needed services to remote areas and villages of the Solomon Islands.
It takes time, money but a lot of commitment to build boats.
The boat building industry in the Langa Langa lagoon, has some what ‘come of age’ in a sense that it can die out very soon if we are not interested as a country to develop it.
Has the government or any NGO ever visited the place of the boat builders?
Have the members of Parliament looked into the possibility of legalising and protecting the business for a stable boat building industry in the Solomon Islands?
If the Langa Langa people could do it without any means of outside support and help, then why can’t the Solomon Island government further recognise them and really support this industry?
The Langa Langa people are hard working people and it was evident in the kind of houses they build and the shell money that they produced.
They use their resources to build modern houses and boats; however, the introductions of logging companies that flood our shores are a threat to the success of the boat building industry.
It took some boats five years to be completed.
Today, because of the exportation of logs, timbers are scarce. Boat builders now spend extra time and energy to go further inland to look for ‘vasa’; the right kind of trees for boat building.
What makes me sad and some what annoyed, was the number of log point that I saw while travelling from Afutara to Talakali, on a three hour drive.
It is difficult to get it right for our local industries to compete with foreigners and overseas companies, let alone boats that are now roaming the waters of the Solomon Islands as passenger boats.
We had it right when we had our own passenger boats in the past and no one else has to be blamed for their downfall.
We need to learn from our mistake and forget about the past! What we should be doing is to support one another in regard to public transportation.
If our own local people in the Solomon Islands can produce boats locally and the industry is still running, don’t ever say that it cannot be done!
I cannot understand why Solomon Island is dragging behind in economic development. We should be exporting timber boats by now, let alone Solomon Islands carvings as the best in the region flooding the markets around the Pacific.
I enjoyed the ‘Discovery’ and ‘the Express’ boat ride to Auki and Gizo and would like to thank the foreigners for improving our transportation.
It was sweet, quick and clean. I want to commend, especially, the manager of the Discovery for job well done.
It is truly, a great improvement on security and safety when travelling, to see the hostess demonstrating how to use a life jacket to be ready in case of accidents.
The foreigners are here to show us how to do it and we should work closely with them, side by side and be a master rather then a slave in our own country.
The foreigners are here to invest. We should learn from them and eventually take over when they leave.
Solomon Islanders, what we should be saying is this, ‘we can do it better?’ If the Langa Langa people of West Malaita have improved in the last 40 years of boat building, it can be done!
This is our country and we believe in our country. Do what you can do for your country; not what your country can do for you.
Perhaps, William Wale Baela said it well: ‘Solomon Islanders can build ships for Solomon Islanders. Why send signals of incompetency to your own country man? We need the government of the day to support us in this boat building industry to provide employment, educational skills for our young people and services for Solomon Islanders.’
My journey ended with some mix feeling of the future for Solomon Islanders.
Is this beloved nation of ours going to be an industrial nation of the Pacific, like Taiwan and Japan or are we going to depend on foreign aid all the time to help grow this nation?
The election is coming and my prayer is that we choose capable people who are God –fearing; men and women who can be trusted; men and women who will not be bought or sold; men and women who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men and women who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men and women whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men and women who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.
That is what our nation needs!
Long live the Boat Builder of Langa Langa Lagoon! And God bless Solomon Islands!
By WILFRED LILIGETO
Youth Director of SDA in the Solomon Islands
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