John (Jacko) Webster Te Kapene Thatcher (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Pūkenga, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti and Ngāti Awa) is one of 10 master navigators from Aotearoa New Zealand, the Cook Islands and Hawai'i, who earned the Micronesian rank of Pwo, or master navigator, from Mau Piailug, the legendary teacher of traditional wayfinding/celestial navigation for open-ocean voyaging. At the dawn of Matariki 2021, we meet Thatcher in the classroom, inspiring a new generation of navigators.
Adorned in the markings of his people, Jacko Thatcher cuts a powerful figure as he walks among his students. Each intricate design, portrayed in the darkest of inks, tells a story; each has a meaning. The tattoos stretching from his hips to his knees, for example, map out his tribal affiliations and a genealogy reaching back to the earliest migration canoes; while those wrapping his inner thighs record his experiences from his own years voyaging the Pacific. If it wasn't for his ever-present smile and infectious personality he may appear intimidating to some, but he is far from that. Thatcher is a leader who has gained respect by putting the needs of others before his own, and through an unwavering dedication to his art. And it is here among his students, in a worn-out school gymnasium built in the closing years of the 19th century, that he has come to fulfil the expectations of his mentors.
It isn't the most obvious location for a Pwo navigator to pass on his knowledge, but the Sports Pavilion of Northcote College on Auckland's North Shore proves to be the perfect setting for this three-day wānanga. Tucked away on the periphery of the school grounds, there are few distractions here.
The third of four hui, it is part of a winter series of workshops that has drawn 40 students from all corners of Aotearoa and as far away as Japan and Tahiti. They have come to learn the art of traditional celestial navigation from one of its finest exponents. That Thatcher is a voyaging legend in his homeland with over two decades of navigating experience ensures that this workshop, like his earlier ones, is full to capacity.