How did freelance Pacific poets and minstrels learn their art?

In the context of Oceanic literature, freelance or unattached practitioners—such as wandering poets and minstrels—do not undergo the formal, rigid training required of traditional priest-poets. Instead, these artists learn their trade by listening to other practitioners.1

Unlike the professional priest-poets who were historically employed by chiefs and often belonged to a hereditary caste, freelance poets do not claim to possess special mana (a spiritual force or creative energy). While their work is sometimes socially recognized and compensated, they operate independently of the structured, traditional roles that characterized pre-colonial Pacific societies.1