Which name belongs to this part?
Choose a clue, inspect its ring, then arrange all the syllable blocks. These are spelling pieces, not separate meanings.
Jumbled spelling blocks
Choose a spelling block to begin.
DESIGN INQUIRY · WAQA
A drua you can investigate.
What can you see before you know its name? Choose a view and a ring. Follow the part, compare the source clues, then decide what you would ask a sailor or builder.
01 · LOOK, THEN NAME
Where does your eye go first?
Choose a view, then tap a ring to reveal its Fijian name. The close-up marks the same point.
LOOK · BUILD · EXPLAIN · USE
Language activities
Find a part in a view, build its name, then put a sourced or speaker-reviewed Fijian sentence together. Use those words and the evidence you find to explain an idea of your own.
Can you put the Fijian sentence together?
Tap the blocks in order, or drag them into the sentence. Tap a placed block to return it to the bank.
Jumbled Fijian blocks
Choose a block to begin.
Source context and language review: . The linked source may provide background rather than the exact sentence. Most sentences here were checked by a native speaker; the counting example still needs that review. English meanings and grammar roles remain working interpretations, not word-for-word matches or claims about every canoe.
What happens when you change the boat noun?
Use a structure you just built. Replace its noun, then ask a speaker whether your new phrase sounds right in context.
Your practice phrase · needs speaker review
What happened to the name you built?
Look at your completed word from 01 and sentence from 02. Does the same name appear, does its form look different, or is this sentence about something else?
Build a part name and check a sentence to compare them here.
Complete 01 and 02 first.
What changed in the phrase you tried?
Use the part name you built in 01. Compare what your completed sentence says about it with the new phrase you tried in 03. What can each phrase tell someone?
Sentence you built in 02
Complete a sentence in 02 first.
Pattern you started from
Your practice draft · needs speaker review
What could this sentence help you investigate?
Bring together your part name, the completed sentence, and the noun change you examined. What can they help you ask about a real canoe part or skill?
Your completed word and sentence will appear here.
Complete the word, sentence, and noun-change comparison first.
My working phrases and notes
Saved on this device. These frames are prompts for inquiry, not checked answers or automatic translations.
NA DRUA · SUPPLIED MODELChoose a ring
HERITAGE · SCIENCE · DESIGN · TOMORROW
What could this drua set in motion?
Imagine a young Fijian designer beside this drua, asking a builder to trace the karikaritu down to the tau. Each name opens a design question: how the sail is held, how the two kata carry a load, and how a damaged part might be repaired. The next sketch could serve a short coastal journey, a fishing trip, or a boat carrying supplies where fuel is costly. Which idea is worth exploring?
People are already asking related questions. A Fiji National University proposal explores a sailing outrigger with a small backup motor and possible solar or wind assistance. A Pacific maritime presentation describes voyaging craft that bring traditional lashings together with modern navigation and solar-electric propulsion. These are other vessels and design efforts. They give us examples to question, test, and learn from as we study this drua.
The Uto ni Yalo Trust offers a living example in Fiji: its wind- and solar-powered canoe helps people practise voyaging, navigation and ocean care today. What might begin in your community if an experienced sailor taught one young person to read the wind—and that learner returned to teach another?
Names, measurements, experiments, and stories could all change the sketch. A learner might compare the hulls, test a small sail in different winds, ask a sailor where a rope leads, or ask a community which knowledge may be taught or adapted. Then comes the harder question: would a new boat actually be safe, useful, affordable to repair, and respectful of the people whose knowledge helped shape it?
One beginning is close at hand: choose a ring that might be wrong. Ask a knowledgeable person to show what they see, record their account with permission, and let that correction change the next drawing.
THREE DESIGN INVESTIGATIONS
What would you carry forward—and what would you test?
Imagine a young Fijian who has travelled by outboard but has never learned to set a laca. A sailor invites them to name a part, feel a change in the wind, and help with a small supervised practice craft. What would make them eager to return and learn the next skill? Where could that skill matter on a journey people make today?
Begin with a Fijian part name, open its ring, and follow what someone does with it. Build a sentence about what you observe. Then combine a view, a source and a sailor's or builder's account to propose one thing to try. Which idea from this drua could guide a new design or a new way to teach? What evidence or local account could change your mind?
Know: name and locate the parts. Do: trace, describe and compare what they do. Decide: use the evidence to design a small trial, explain why it matters, and revise your idea.
Select an underlined Fijian name to find it in a view above.
Which line could change the whole sail?
Begin with the , the , and the . Which parts are timber, cloth or rope, and which can move?
Build the tools: point to each part in the rigging view. Build a related sentence in Activity 02, then ask a speaker how to describe one connection. Which word would tell you about the action or relationship?
- Trace a possible path from the sail to the and . What would a sailor point to when explaining how the sail is controlled? What complete Fijian phrase would they use?
- The diagram compares a rope over the masthead with a possible route through its hole. What would you need to see before calling one route on a particular canoe?
- In a supervised practice session, how could a sailor teach a learner to notice a wind shift, predict rope tension, then adjust the sail? What repeated observation would tell you the learner understands the movement rather than only the name?
Bring it together: draw the rope path you can actually trace, mark one uncertain link, and ask a sailor to demonstrate it. How might that demonstration become the first lesson in a local sail-skills practice group?
Could two hulls serve a new journey?
Look at the two , then follow the beneath the . Where might the weight travel?
Build the tools: name both hulls, the beam and the deck. Build the carrying-capacity comparison in Activity 02. Which words would you need to change to compare these hulls? Ask a speaker before using a new version.
- If people and supplies move toward one side, what would you measure: each hull, the gap between them, the cargo, or something else? How would you record the difference between two small models?
- Sketch a route for the load from deck to beam to hull. Which join would you test first? What result would challenge your first claim about balance or strength?
- Could a small training craft make sail skills useful alongside an outboard on a familiar route? Compare fuel use, trip time, safe load, weather limits and repair cost. What could the make you ask about control? Which trial would persuade a local skipper to test the idea again?
Bring it together: combine your measurements, a sailor's weather limits and a familiar route in one proposal. What small, safe model test would tell you whether sail assistance could reduce fuel use without losing useful carrying space?
Who will carry the skills into the next voyage?
Compare the and the . A name can open a conversation about a place, its use, and a skill someone can demonstrate.
Build the tools: locate the house and the raised shelf, then use their names in a question to a knowledgeable person. What can the model show, and what can only a person explain?
- This inquiry uses two kata for the drua, while another source distinguishes kata and cama. Which canoe, community and complete Fijian phrase would you compare before deciding whether the accounts differ?
- Who could still show a learner how to rig, steer, read local winds or repair a join? How might several short lessons and a shared task help the learner practise the words and the movements with that person's permission?
- If new equipment changed the house or shelf, whose work or practices might change too? Could local builders repair the proposal after rough weather? What would their answers make you keep or change before inviting another young person aboard?
Bring it together: with permission, plan one short lesson that pairs a Fijian part name with a real action, such as rigging, steering or repairing. What could the learner teach next, and what must remain in the knowledge holder's care?
Where would your own inquiry begin?
Choose a question if it catches your attention. Open it to push the idea one step further.
If two sources use different names, what else might differ?
Could the canoe type, community, time, or action explain the difference? Whose complete Fijian phrase and demonstration would you seek before deciding?
Would two similar-looking kata make a safer boat?
What would you measure besides length? How could a small model test load and wind, and what result would make you revise your first guess?
Which drua idea could help a present-day journey?
Could sail power, connected hulls, or repairable joins inform a coastal service or a modern ferry? What would you compare with today's option—fuel use, safety, cost, or local repair? Which small skill could a sailor teach on a safe first trial, and what might bring the learner back?
What should travel into the future, and who decides?
What can young people learn or document with permission? Which choices belong with builders, sailors, and communities, and how would their answer change your proposed design? How could more young people practise without placing all the work on a few knowledge holders?
The modern examples above are prompts for comparison. Neither source establishes that its design would work on this particular drua or route.
03 · KEEP EVERY TERM IN VIEW
Canoe vocabulary for translation research
Search the full supplied list. A model view or diagram is shown where the point can be located; the other terms stay in the research bank until the right model or demonstration is available.
These are translation research leads, not approved dictionary entries. Original spellings, current usage and boat type need review. Use the sources shown with each visible part as starting points for checking.
04 · COMPARE REAL FORMS
Models and sailing views supplied for comparison
These images were supplied for comparison. If you know their original collection or creator, please use the correction form so we can improve attribution.