Alson Kelen

Who is Alson Kelen?

Alson Kelen is a Marshallese master canoe builder and traditional navigator who has spent decades reviving the seafaring knowledge of his islands. In the late 1990s he co-founded Waan Aelōñ in Majel (WAM), meaning "Canoes of the Marshall Islands," a program that teaches at-risk youth traditional outrigger canoe building and sailing alongside vocational and life skills; several hundred young Marshallese have since graduated from the program, and canoes once nearly extinct on the outer islands are again part of daily life. Kelen trained as an apprentice under one of the last recognized ri-meto, or master wave-piloting navigators, of the Marshall Islands, learning the traditional non-instrument navigation techniques of reading ocean swells, stars, and currents. In 2015 he captained the canoe Jitdaam Kapeel on a voyage from Majuro to Aur Atoll using only these traditional navigation skills, a feat that drew international scientific interest in the near-lost art of wave piloting. Through WAM and his continuing mentorship of young Marshallese sailors, Kelen is widely credited as one of the central figures keeping Marshallese traditional navigation and canoe culture alive for future generations.

Sources: Waan Aelōñ in Majel (WAM) program records, canoesmarshallislands.com · Smithsonian Magazine, "Science and Tradition Are Resurrecting the Lost Art of Wave Piloting" · The Conversation, "My voyage to explore how Pacific island sailors find their way at sea without technology" (2025)