I\u2019m interested in how we as Pacific Islanders approach technology \u2014 ancient and modern \u2014 to serve our own purposes within our own value systems.<\/p>\n
Sophia Perez, Berkeley Ph.D. student and Indigenous Technologies Coordinator at the Berkeley Center for New Media<\/p>\n
\u201cI went back to my apartment in Brooklyn, sold all my stuff, then moved to Saipan,\u201d she says. \u201cIt changed my life forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophia spent five years living in Saipan, where she worked as a reporter at the Marianas Variety, produced a children\u2019s show called Island Time and volunteered for 500 Sails. Then she decided to move back to the Bay Area to start a Ph.D. program in Berkeley\u2019s Department of Geography<\/a>, where she\u2019s studying militarism in the Mariana Islands and decolonial efforts rising in response to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n This year, she\u2019s also the Indigenous Technologies Coordinator at the Berkeley Center for New Media<\/a>, where she has been organizing a weeklong workshop that brings four traditional navigators from the Pacific Islands to lead sessions on the sophisticated science of traditional seafaring. It\u2019s a role that bridges her Berkeley academic life with her years in Saipan, proving that wayfinding is just as much a technology as the digital tools we use today.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there is a fair amount of new media theory behind the argument that while this is ancient knowledge, it\u2019s also technology,\u201d says Sophia. \u201cWe just have to be open to an idea of technology that\u2019s not limited to Western inventions.\u201d<\/p>\n The weeklong series is the culmination of a massive cross-departmental effort led by the Critical Pacific Islands Studies Collective<\/a> (CPISC), a student research group that Sophia co-founded at Berkeley. With mentorship from geography professor Clancy Wilmott, CPISC spearheaded the grant proposal that made the navigators\u2019 visit possible \u2014 a collaboration among CPISC, the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Department of Geography and the Pacific Islander Initiative<\/a>. Awarded by the Campus Advisory Committee on Student Services and Fees<\/a>, the grant reflects the collective\u2019s dedication to bringing traditional Pacific knowledge to campus life.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of seeing Indigeneity as connected to the absence of technology, which is often how it\u2019s framed by the Western world,\u201d Sophia says, \u201cI\u2019m interested in how we as Pacific Islanders approach technology \u2014 ancient and modern \u2014 to serve our own purposes within our own value systems.\u201d<\/p>\n Ali\u00f1a Gumataotao<\/p>\n The workshop, titled \u201cNative Seas: Traditional Micronesian Navigators Visit the Bay Area,\u201d<\/a> runs from March 9-12. The navigators \u2014 Sesario Sewralur, Mario Benito, Cecilio Raiukiulipiy and Milton \u201cJun\u201d Coleman Jr. \u2014 arrived on March 7, when they attended an opening ceremony and welcome reception at the UC Gill Tract Community Farm<\/a>. The event was hosted by the Pacific Islander farming organization Planting Oceania and Lisjan (Ohlone) leaders of the Sogorea Te\u2019 Land Trust, to honor the visiting seafarers within the local Indigenous community.<\/p>\n The public programming begins Monday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the California Academy of Sciences\u2019 Morrison Planetarium, where the navigators will lead an immersive session<\/a> using the planetarium dome to demonstrate traditional seafaring methods and Indigenous scientific knowledge systems. Following a keynote lecture<\/a> on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Berkeley\u2019s Jarvis Auditorium, the series concludes on Thursday at 1 p.m. with a hands-on demonstration<\/a> of traditional canoe technology at the Berkeley Boathouse. All events are open to the public; registration is required.<\/p>\n A lifetime on the water<\/p>\n One of the featured visitors, master navigator Jun Coleman, is the executive director of 500 Sails, and brings with him a lifetime of work dedicated to reclaiming Chamorro and Carolinian maritime heritage.\u00a0<\/p>\n Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1972, Jun grew up throughout the Pacific Islands, spending a lot of time on Saipan and Mulinu\u2019u in Nu\u2019uuli, a village on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa. As a child, he learned to respect the ocean \u2014 its deep power and mystery, and all the creatures that live within it. \u201cThat\u2019s their home,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re just visiting.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d heard about traditional sea navigators \u2014 people who were guided by the stars and read the language of the clouds, waves and animals to find even the smallest islands in a vast ocean. It didn\u2019t occur to him, though, that it was something he could do; he\u2019d always imagined navigators as 90-year-old men with long white hair and flowing beards.<\/p>\n But at age 13, Jun watched the 1983 documentary The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific<\/a>. In it, he saw the legendary Micronesian master wayfinder Papa Mau Piailug, then 51 and in his prime, talking about his mission to teach the younger generation how to sail traditional canoes. \u201cI remember thinking to myself that maybe I could be one of them,\u201d Jun says.<\/p>\n At age 13, Jun saw the documentary The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific and thought, \u201cMaybe I could be one of them.\u201d He\u2019s now a master navigator and executive director of of the seafaring nonprofit 500 Sails. <\/p>\n Jun went on to learn how to build traditional canoes under master builder Wright Bowman Jr. in Honolulu. At a canoe-launching ceremony, Jun finally met Papa Mau, who recognized the young man\u2019s dedication. Mau invited him to his home island of Satawal, in Micronesia, to learn the sacred art of navigation from him firsthand.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was pretty shocked when I showed up a few months later,\u201d Jun laughed. \u201cHe\u2019d invited a lot of people from Hawaii over the years, but no one had actually come to his island before. That\u2019s when he took me under his wing, and affirmed me as part of his family.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the next six years, Papa Mau taught Jun a way of life that went far beyond the stars \u2014 how to navigate the sea, how to build canoes and houses, and how to identify specific plants needed for making different things, from traditional medicine to rope. For Jun, this wasn\u2019t just a technical education; it was an apprenticeship in how to survive and thrive using only what the island and the ocean provided. <\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t realize how much I was learning until I started doing my own sailing and building,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n Traditionally, this knowledge has been kept and passed down within families, a sacred secret guarded by a select few. But Papa Mau, worried that the ancient knowledge would be lost because of the lure of modern technology and the migration of the younger generation to westernized cities, decided to break with tradition. He chose to look outside his own bloodline to find successors. \u201cHe wanted to teach people who were eager to learn,\u201d Jun says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Joseph Camacho<\/p>\n Every navigator has their own style and approach, says Jun, but the basics stay the same: They know how to read the elements of nature \u2014 the sun, moon, stars, the wind, the waves, the clouds and the different animals of the ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n They use a intricate system of \u201csea-marks,\u201d which are location-specific creatures that act like landmarks in the open ocean. Jun explains that a navigator might know a specific turtle is located to the southeast of the island of Satawal, and in the school of navigation, these creatures aren\u2019t just species \u2014 they often have their own personal names. Even a creature as small as a butterfly can serve as a sea-mark, providing a vital connection to a course correction.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Jun, these elements are far more than just tools; they are constants. As he recalls, \u201cMau told me one time, \u2018The stars are better than your best friends, because they\u2019ll never lie to you if you know them well enough.\u2019 You do really develop a deep respect for them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Jun says that he hopes their visit to the Bay Area encourages Pacific Islanders at Berkeley and across the Bay Area to look to their ancestors for inspiration. \u201cThey used what was available in nature, and they worked in harmony with nature,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEach of the navigators has a great story,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe all share in the responsibility of keeping the knowledge and traditions alive by continuing to practice the art and teaching the next generations. We support each other and all the canoe families and culture organizations across our ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey offer an example of expertise that is not reliant on Western science,\u201d adds Sophia. \u201cAs we see Western technology change faster and faster, we wonder, \u2018Is there going to be a breaking point? What happens when these systems fail?\u2019 Because they do.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI hope these navigators can help Bay Area audiences think outside the box, instead of being completely invested in Western ways of knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n To learn more about the \u201cNative Seas\u201d weeklong workshop and to register for events, visit the Berkeley Center for New Media\u2019s website<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sophianavigators_Alina-Gumataotao-1621-1024x585.jpg\")
From left: Corrina Gould, chair and spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan (Ohlone) and co-founder of the Sogorea Te\u2019 Land Trust, stands with visiting master navigators \u2014 Milton \u201cJun\u201d Coleman, Mario Benito and Cecilio Raiukiulipiy \u2014 and Sophia Perez, a Berkeley Ph.D. geography student and the Indigenous Technologies Coordinator at the Berkeley Center for New Media. On Saturday, they attended an opening ceremony and welcome reception at the UC Gill Tract Community Farm. Not pictured: Grandmaster navigator Sesario Sewralur.<\/p>\n![\"Jun](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Jun-Coleman-1023.jpg\")
Jun (center) was initiated as a master navigator three years ago. \u201cYou\u2019re always learning,\u201d he says. \u201cThe weather is always changing.\u201d <\/p>\n