Overview:
President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. has issued a presidential proclamation honoring Grand Master Navigator Sesario Sewralur, who died July 10 in Taiwan just hours before his 57th birthday. The proclamation recognizes Sewralur's decades of teaching traditional wayfinding in Palau and calls for his legacy to be carried forward through the nation's schools, cultural institutions and community programs.
KOROR, Palau — Palau is mourning the loss of a master of a dying art. President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. has issued a presidential proclamation honoring Grand Master Navigator Sesario Sewralur, whose death leaves a void in the ranks of the few people alive who could still read the stars, swells and winds to cross open ocean without instruments.
Sewralur died July 10 in Taiwan, just hours before his 57th birthday. News of his passing sent a wave of grief across Palau and the wider Pacific, where he was regarded not just as a skilled sailor, but as one of the last direct keepers of a knowledge system passed down through generations of Satawal navigators.
Born on Satawal Island in Yap State, Sewralur was the son of the late Pius “Mau” Piailug, the legendary navigator credited with reviving traditional wayfinding across the Pacific. Sewralur began training at age four, was sailing with his father by five, and went on to become one of the youngest navigators ever to sail the historic Kealaikahiki route between Hawai’i and Tahiti.
In 2019, he was formally initiated as a Grand Master Navigator in Palau, joining an unbroken line of Weriyeng navigators. For nearly 20 years, he taught the art at Palau Community College, turning what could have been a fading tradition into a living classroom — one where the ocean itself was the textbook.
As captain of the voyaging canoe Alingano Maisu, Sewralur sailed deep-sea routes connecting Palau to Satawal, Saipan, Taiwan and Okinawa, guided only by natural signs. In December 2024, he watched his son, Landon Kionie Sewralur, earn his own navigator certification — a moment that ensured the knowledge wouldn’t die with him.
The proclamation calls on Palau to keep that promise: honoring Sewralur’s legacy through schools, cultural programs and continued support for the Micronesian Voyaging Society and PCC’s navigation courses, so that what he carried across an ocean isn’t lost to it.
He is survived by his wife, Florentina Laurseram Sewralur; seven children; and six grandchildren. (Presidential Proclamation No. 26-432)