Waan Aelõñ in Majel: Building Life Skills From Traditional Marshallese Canoes

Waan Aelõñ in Majel (WAM) began in 1989 as a project documenting traditional Marshallese outrigger canoe designs and has grown into a grassroots vocational school for at-risk youth in Majuro. Trainees spend three to six months learning boatbuilding, carpentry, English, math, and the Marshallese chants and legends tied to canoes and the sea, in a drug- and alcohol-free program. In November 2025 WAM graduated a record class of 33 trainees, 14 of them young women, its largest cohort in over 20 years of operation, at the soft opening of a new campus built after fire destroyed the original workshop. Graduates leave prepared to re-enter school, find employment, or bring new skills back to their outer-island communities.