A 24/7 living education system of Fleets, Guilds, and Ranks — built from Pacific voyaging pedagogy, Hawaiian expert frameworks, and global LARP organizational models — connecting Indigenous athletic, academic, craft, and career pathways from Seattle to Brisbane and beyond.
Seattle · Honolulu · Anchorage · Brisbane · and beyond
The Alliance System
SAGA is a 24/7 global live-action role-play and living education system — similar in scope to the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), but oriented toward Afro-Indigenous futures rather than medieval European past. Three source traditions provide the structural DNA:
Governance hierarchy, marshal/safety system, combat authorization, peerage progression, arts & sciences competitions, event structure — adapted from 30,000-member worldwide medieval recreation society.
Star compass navigation, voyage-as-curriculum, crew roles, place-based education — from the Polynesian Voyaging Society and the 32-house Hawaiian Star Compass that guided Mau Piailug and Hōkūleʻa across the Pacific.
Expert (kahuna) progression system, loina (rules of conduct), ʻailolo graduation ceremonies, hālau academy model, 11 expert categories — from John Charlot’s 845-page scholarly documentation.
“SAGA does not clone any of these traditions — it creates an original synthesis. SCA provides the organizational scaffolding. PVS provides the voyage metaphor and Pacific Rim geography. CHE provides the educational philosophy and expert framework. The result is uniquely SAGA.”
Organizational Structure
Where the SCA organizes 20 kingdoms with crowns and baronies, SAGA organizes Fleets with Navigators and Harbors — every community is a vessel, every region a fleet sailing together.
Key difference from SCA: SAGA’s governance is based on demonstrated expertise across multiple domains (the Hawaiian kahuna model) rather than single-combat prowess. The Wayfinding Challenge tests navigation, physical skills, creative arts, community service, and teaching ability — reflecting the Hawaiian ideal of the complete person, ka poʻe akeakamai (“the truly wise”).
Expert Orders
Eleven Classical Hawaiian expert categories mapped to eight TEK8 wellness petals — each guild a living school rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems, expanded with Afro-Indigenous and modern skill domains.
Each guild is rooted in Classical Hawaiian expert categories: Garden from Ka Mahiʻai Nui (master farming) and Kahuna Lapaʻau (healing); Gather from Lawaiʻa Nui (fishing) and Lua (martial arts); Craft from Kahuna Kalai Waʻa (canoe making); Journey from Kahuna Kilo (star observation/navigation); Music from Kumu Hula (performance/hula); Map from Ka Poʻe Kūʻauhau (genealogy/history) and Moe ʻUhane (dream lore); Play from Ka Hale Aupuni (governance/statecraft); Yield from trade networks and reciprocal economics. Every guild includes Afro-Indigenous and modern additions.
Expert Progression
Six ranks combining SCA’s authorization rigor with the Hawaiian kahuna progression system. Every rank earned through study, practice, formal assessment, and public ʻailolo graduation.
The Kilo System (Safety & Assessment): Trained Kilo (observers/assessors) replace SCA marshals — they observe activities, authorize participants, and ensure safety. Three tiers: Kilo Kahua (field observer), Kilo Moku (harbor authority), Kilo Nui (fleet authority).
Guild of Craft · Cosplay & Design
SAGA’s living world requires living costumes, armor, and regalia. The Guild of Craft (D4/Fire · Occupational Wellness) includes a full cosplay design and fabrication pathway — the same skills that built traditional Hawaiian feather capes, carved war canoes, and forged ancestral armor now applied to creating SAGA characters, fleet regalia, and event costumes.
Seattle-area SAGA participants have access to a professional sewing classroom and the international fabrics and supplies network of the 7ABCs.com family merchant association. Industrial machines, specialty fabrics from around the Pacific Rim, notions, and expert guidance — all available to Guild of Craft members building their SAGA regalia.
Machine and hand sewing, fabric selection, garment construction, tailoring, pattern drafting from scratch, working with specialized fabrics (faux fur, vinyl, silks, kapa/tapa cloth).
EVA foam modeling, Worbla thermoplastic shaping, 3D printing, sculpting, mold-making. Build SAGA combat armor, ceremonial shields, fleet regalia, and character props.
Airbrushing, priming, weathering and distressing techniques for realistic texture. Wig styling, cutting, heat-treating. Photography and videography for showcasing characters. Modeling and posing.
Electronics and LED integration, reference analysis, technical drawing and concept art, material science (adhesives, foams, plastics), project management and prototyping with mockup materials.
These skills map across multiple TEK8 petals: CRAFT (primary — fabrication, material science), MUSIC (artistic vision, emotional expression), YIELD (budgeting, resource management, entrepreneurship), and MAP (research, analysis, historical context). A single costume project is a multi-petal wellness practice.
The Invitation
NYO Team Seattle athletes train intensely for competition season. But between seasons, the fire dims. Athletes drift. The connection between training and life frays.
SAGA proposes a different model: a year-round circuit that integrates NYO athletic excellence with Makahiki games during off-season, while weaving in career development, academic pathways, and deep grounding in Traditional Ecological Knowledge systems.
Not replacing what you do. Completing the circle.
“The games are not just games. They are the living memory of how our ancestors survived — the kick that signals the whale, the carry that brings the village its food, the hop that crosses the ice. Every event is a story of survival made into celebration.”
The Vision
The partnership integrates four pathways that feed each other — athletics building discipline for academics, career skills funding travel, TEK grounding everything in purpose.
NYO events year-round — competitive season for sanctioned meets, off-season Makahiki games (Hawaiian athletic tradition) creating a pan-Indigenous sporting calendar where Arctic meets Pacific.
168 career fields from the Exchange-Visitor Skills List mapped to TEK8 petals. Athletes build professional skills alongside athletic ones — entrepreneurship, engineering, marine sciences, healthcare.
Education rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems — not as supplement but as foundation. Mathematics through traditional navigation, natural sciences through ecological stewardship, history through oral tradition.
TEK as the connective tissue — understanding seasonal cycles, land-ocean relationships, and reciprocal economies. Not studying about nature but training within it.
The Pacific Rim Bridge
Brisbane’s ELEVATE 2042 Legacy Strategy for the 2032 Olympic & Paralympic Games envisions “Games for the whole Pacific region.” SAGA’s 7ABCs initiative is a bridge connecting sister cities and Indigenous communities from the Salish Sea to the Coral Sea — every athlete, every knowledge holder, every community in between becomes a node in a living network led by Indigenous knowledge systems.
“These Olympic Games will not only be Games in Australia and for Australia, these will be Games for the whole Pacific region.”
The connection runs deeper than geography. Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Māori, and all Pacific Islander peoples share waterways, navigational traditions, and land-ocean knowledge systems cultivated over tens of thousands of years. Our athletes carry this living knowledge in their bodies — in every kick, carry, hop, paddle, and game. SAGA connects these traditions through a shared framework of daily practice, wellness tracking, and career pathways that honor what has always been known.
Aligned with ELEVATE 2042
The ELEVATE 2042 Legacy Strategy is built on four transformation themes and two legacy foundations. Every one of them maps directly to what SAGA and NYO Team Seattle are building together — not by coincidence, but because Indigenous knowledge systems have always understood these connections.
ELEVATE 2042’s mission: “To make our region better, sooner, together through sport.” Its vision: “By 2042, we will live in an inclusive, sustainable and connected society, with more opportunities in life for everyone.” SAGA shares this horizon — our 16-year plan from 2026 to 2042 was designed independently yet arrives at the same destination.
“More opportunities for all people to play sport and more ways to progress to high performance.” NYO events and Makahiki games create Indigenous-led athletic pathways that are inherently inclusive — every village has always had its games. SAGA’s TEK8 framework tracks holistic wellness across 8 dimensions, not just physical performance.
“Sharing the cultural knowledge and creative contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with the world.” SAGA builds the digital infrastructure for this connection — the Training Codex, the TOOL planner, and the partner network linking Seattle, Honolulu, Anchorage, and Brisbane into one living circuit of exchange.
“We acknowledge that we have much to learn from Traditional Owners who have cared for these lands for at least 65,000 years.” TEK is not a supplement to environmental science — it is the original environmental science. SAGA’s GARDEN petal (Spiritual/Indigenous Knowledge) and JOURNEY petal (Environmental/History) center ecological stewardship as daily practice.
“Deepened and diversified our economy and supply chain, increasing equity of participation.” SAGA maps 168 Exchange-Visitor career fields to TEK8 petals, building a trade network where Indigenous athletes are also marine scientists, sustainable engineers, healthcare providers, and entrepreneurs. The economy of the future is a reciprocal economy — as it always was.
ELEVATE 2042 Legacy Foundations
ELEVATE 2042 places Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at the foundation of everything. SAGA does the same for Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and all Indigenous peoples. Our partnership isn’t about including Indigenous perspectives — it’s about building from them as the starting point.
The TEK8 framework is inherently adaptive — 8 dimensions of wellness means every person can find their strength. NYO events test different abilities (grip, balance, endurance, flexibility). When we say “every person can train,” we mean it. The TOOL tracks what you can do, not what you can’t.
“I grew up thinking I wanted to be like Cathy Freeman. I want to represent our culture like Cathy did, wave the flag as proud as she did. I am very honoured to be one of the 60 Indigenous athletes to represent Australia at the Olympic Games, and I’m committed to creating opportunities and pathways to make those numbers rise in the future.”
One Oceania
ELEVATE 2042’s Focus Area 6 calls for “Celebrating First Nations cultures, languages and stories” — and envisions a One Oceania network that connects First Nations peoples across the region. This is exactly what SAGA builds: a knowledge exchange network where the Two-Foot High Kick meets the Makahiki Ulu Maika, where Traditional Ecological Knowledge flows between Alaska and Queensland, where athletes don’t just compete but connect.
“Brisbane 2032 brings forward the opportunity to connect with First Nations peoples across the region and the world, to engage with their cultures, languages and stories. Deeper engagement will lead to the greater exchange of knowledge about common environmental challenges — with the potential for innovation based on traditional wisdom drawn from Indigenous peoples across the region.”
SAGA’s Training Codex already documents this convergence: the 64 Kalas (classical Indian arts mapped through millennia of Pacific exchange), the 11 NYO events (Arctic survival encoded in sport), the 10 Makahiki events (Hawaiian seasonal celebration), and the 168 Exchange-Visitor career fields. When we combine these traditions with Brisbane’s vision of “Caring for Country together” and “Unifying knowledge systems,” we create a framework for the kind of future all our communities deserve.
The Year-Round Calendar
Eight TEK8 wellness dimensions rotating through four seasons — NYO competition in winter/spring, Makahiki games in autumn, career and academic intensives in summer. Never off. Always in cycle.
Athletic Foundation
Each event is a survival skill made into sport — every kick, carry, and hop encodes thousands of years of Arctic wisdom into measurable athletic performance.
TEK8 Petal Distribution in NYO Training
The Integration
NYO competition season (winter/spring) feeds into Makahiki games (autumn), with cross-training in traditional martial arts and survival skills year-round. Every workout has cultural context. Every competition tells a story.
NYO Events Makahiki Lua / Haka Survival SkillsAthletes build professional skills through the 168-field Exchange Skills taxonomy. Marine sciences, sustainable engineering, healthcare, education — all mapped to TEK8 petals so career growth is wellness growth. A local-global trade network led by Indigenous knowledge systems.
168 Career Fields Entrepreneurship TEK8 MappedAcademic pathways rooted in Indigenous Knowledge Systems — mathematics through star navigation, natural sciences through ecological observation, ethics through community reciprocity. Not Western knowledge with Indigenous garnish. Indigenous knowledge as the foundation.
IKS Curriculum STEM + TEK Oral Tradition Land-Based LearningThe Tool
The TOOL is SAGA’s daily planner — athletes assign activities to TEK8 wellness petals, track progress across all eight dimensions, and build training regimes that integrate athletics, academics, and career skills into one coherent life practice.
The Journey
A sixteen-year arc from first partnership through the Brisbane 2032 Olympics to a self-sustaining global Indigenous knowledge-trade network.
Partner launch. NYO Team Seattle athletes begin using SAGA TOOL for daily training. First off-season Makahiki games introduced. TEK8 wellness tracking begins. Pilot career mapping for 10–15 athletes.
Expand to NYO teams in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau. Establish Makahiki exchange with Hawaiian athletic programs. Launch scholastic pathway with Indigenous Knowledge Systems curriculum. First inter-Indigenous athletic exchange — Alaska ↔ Hawai’i. Begin engagement with Brisbane 2032 legacy planning and Oceania sports networks.
The Brisbane 2032 Olympic & Paralympic Games become the catalyst. SAGA athletes and knowledge holders participate in the “One Oceania” cultural program. Indigenous athletic exchanges flow across the Pacific — NYO athletes train with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes. Makahiki games demonstrated on the world stage. TEK recognized as foundational knowledge for environmental sustainability.
The post-Games legacy activates. Indigenous athletes operating in career fields (marine sciences, sustainable engineering, healthcare) create reciprocal economic circuits between Arctic, Pacific, and Oceanian communities. Annual inter-Indigenous games rotate between Seattle, Honolulu, Brisbane, and Auckland. SAGA platform serves 500+ athletes with year-round training plans.
A self-sustaining network of Indigenous athletic-academic-career pathways spanning the Pacific Rim. Traditional Ecological Knowledge recognized as foundational curriculum worldwide. The trade network demonstrates that Indigenous knowledge systems produce thriving, resilient communities and economies. ELEVATE 2042’s vision realized: “An inclusive, sustainable and connected society, with more opportunities in life for everyone.”
What SAGA Brings
What NYO Team Seattle Brings
This is an invitation, not a pitch. We’re building something that doesn’t exist yet — a Pacific Rim network of Indigenous athletic, academic, and career pathways that stretches from Seattle to Brisbane and all the beautiful places in between. It can only be built together. No one organization holds all the pieces.