Category: Product

Nowhere else in the world will you find such beautifully crafted model traditional outrigger canoes. The canoe pictured is similar to one in the collection of a Tokyo museum. The pictured canoe is for sale, but there will be a time lag on delivery as it is used as a tool to teach students about canoes. If you’d like to discuss buying a large model canoe please contact the WAM Director Alson Kelen.

Click to see another example of a custom-built canoe that was designed for the Government of Taiwan.

Price on request

Every clock made at WAM is unique because the craftsperson designs it according to the shape of the wood. A highlight of many of the clocks is hand-made engraving spelling out the name of an organization. Pictured is former WAM trainee Rinky Hersey with a clock he produced for Majuro hardware store Do It Best.

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Price on request

If you need a trophy, name plate, or special plaque to commemorate an event or series of events, the WAM staff and trainees can design and make it to your specifications. It doesn’t matter how big or how small, we can accommodate any request.

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Price: $12

WAM has T-Shirts in three styles. Vertical logo with canoe logo on back (yellow). Stick chart on back (black). Canoe on back (orange).

WAM has a variety of designs on its colorful range of T-shirts. Sizes include Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, and Double Extra Large.

Smaller range of polo shirts available for $25.

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WAM logo on t-shirt sleeve

Price: $15

How can you live without a lime squeezer in the tropics? Answer: You can’t! WAM’s lime squeezers will help you liven up your fish dishes, give cool beverages an extra flavor, and is sure to be one of your kitchen’s most important accessories.

The featured lime squeezer was made by WAM instructor Linton Baso.

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Lime squeezer made by WAM instructor Linton

Small $10, Medium $15, Large $20

WAM’s chopping boards always include some extra flair, such specially carved edges. The one pictured was made by WAM instructor Linton Baso.

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Price upon request

Stick charts, used for the teaching of navigation skills, are unique to the Marshall Islands. They explain about wave and current patterns around the Marshalls atolls. According to researcher Carol Curtis: “They were not taken to sea, but memorized and were meaningless without the knowledge in the heads of their master navigator instructors.

“Traditionally, the charts were made by men from thin strips of coconut frond midribs or pandanus root. They were then bound together with coconut sennit in geometric patterns depicting sea currents around the low lying atolls. Small money cowrie shells or coral pebbles indicate special islands and the curved sticks show wave patterns.”

There are three kinds of stick charts: The rebbelib is a general wave navigational chart and can cover all of the Marshall Islands; the medo covers only a few islands and is useful for specific voyages; and the mattang or wappepe, a small, square shaped teaching chart that identifies wave patterns formed around a single island.

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Price: $5

Weavers of jaki (mats) use a tool also called an ar that is made from a block of wood about the same width as the dried pandanus leaves (maañ) and has a row of sharp metal points inserted in one end. The distance separating the metal points will determine the width of the strips. The weaver inserts the ar’s points into the broad end of the maañ and drag it down, creating the strips in one move. If the weaver intends to make a finely-woven clothing mat (jaki-ed), the ar’s points will be much closer together to create fine strips of leaf.

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Used to soft the dried pandanus leaves (Maan) before the weaving.

Price: $45

The making of all mats in the Marshall Islands wouldn’t be possible without the use of the heavy pounders known as dekã in nin (literally translated as ‘stone of pound’). These larger, heavy pounders are mainly used to soften the dried pandanus leaves (maan) that are used to weave mats (jaki). They can, however, be used in the making of many traditional medicines and to soften some types of food.

WAM staff and trainees use hardwoods such as the wood from the lukwej tree to make the pounders.

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Betty Lobwij, who at that time was an apprentice weaver, learns to use a pounder (dekã in nin) to soften the dried pandanus leaves in preparation of making a jaki-ed (clothing mat).

Price: $45

WAM makes two varieties of pandanus pulpers: One to sit on, the other to sit next to. The fruit is scraped over the sharped edge of the PVC piping, bringing the juice out, which falls into a bucket or bowl placed beneath the pulper.

About pandanus: The pandanus tree grows up to heights of about 25 feet. Its trunk has aerial prop roots and long leaves up to 10 feet in length. The large edible fruit is called of bōb and is made up of many angular, wedge-shaped sections called keys that turn orange as they mature. It is likely that the pandanus is indigenous to the Marshall Islands and grows wild, but can be cultivated with very little effort.

Bōb, which is packed with vitamins and particularly Vitamin A, is usually eaten raw, but can be cooked. In the old days, many people preserved the fruit into a paste called mokwan or jāānkun. Canoe voyagers often took it with them as a main source of food.

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An Ailuk family transports pandanus fruit by canoe. Photo: Arc Tracer

A pandanus tree with ripening fruit at Enemanet Island in Majuro lagoon.

A bunch of bōb on the dock at RRE Shoreline area.

Price: $15

Marshallese use a pounder to make pulp from the pandanus fruit, but WAM Director Alson Kelen says: “I use mine also to pound breadfruit or any other type of food I need to pulp.”

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Marshallese use wooden pounders for pulping a range of fruit and vegetables.

Price: $45

Grated coconut, and the coconut milk that is squeezed from the flakes, plays a huge role in Marshallese cooking. The flakes are mixed with water and pressed through cloth to extract the milk. The tool used to grate (or scrape) is called a raanke. It is traditionally made of breadfruit wood, but can be made of almost any hardwood, such as the local tree called lukwej. It is often shaped like a stool, making it easy to sit on (usually with the legs extended in a V-shape) and work the metal jagged blade. The blade used to be made of a piece of shell, but modern versions use metal cutters.

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A WAM trainee finishes off a coconut grater with a coat of varnish.

Probably the most popular product made at WAM are the beautiful model canoes, which are made in a range of sizes. The designs faithfully follow their life-size counterparts, right down to the miniature paddles. The making of these model canoes by the trainees is an excellent starter exercise in how to work with wood. During the breaks between training programs, the full-time staff make the canoes to order. $9 per inch for student models and $15 per inch for staff models up to 12 inches. $20 per inch for larger models up to 24 inches. Custom prices for custom designs. Contact us to buy our product

A trainee lashes the platform between the outrigger and the hull on a model canoe.

A model canoe, measuring three feet, made by WAM trainees sits on the beach next to the Canoe House.

A trainee puts the finishing touches to a model canoe in the program’s A-frame workshop.