Contents Introduction .....................................1 Sam Low, Ph.D. TheproducerofThe Navigatorsdescribesastorm-tossed voyage duringwhich MauPiailug outwits a satellitenavigational computer. The Polynesians: A Pacific Odyssey 2 Patrick V. Kirch, Ph.D. A foremostarchaeologist tellshow scientistshaverevealed the seafaring geniusof Polynesian navigators. Wind, Wave, and Stars: A Sea of Natural Signs 8 Stephen Thomas Mau Piailug teaches a young American navigator tosteer a ca noeby starand ocean swell. Canoe House Tales: The Poetry of Discovery 14 Marjorie Sinclair Polynesian poetry and Micronesian songs reveal the inner life ofa seafaring people. Teacher's Guide 17 Classroom projects and discussion make The Nav igators a useful toolfor teachers. Museum.s 18 Museum exhibits for further exploration. Bibliography 19 An annotated list of useful books and articles. Glossary 20 Unfamiliar words aredefined. 'E,e Pacific Ocean, is la~c.;er than all of tile earth's continentscombined. Tileislandsin this Past ocean arca weresettledby intrepidseafa rers whobegan tileirl'Oyages ofexploratioll thousands of years before the Pacific was "discovered" by HawaIIan Islands EI/ropcans. Somoa Huah ine I Tuamotus TO~ Tahiti Nluatoputapu I Easter Island C OZI er: A Samtoaicsc sailins canoe skim« thmush lleaFI! seas. (COl/ rtesyStephen Tlunna«) Introductio A storm-tossed night reveals the genius ofMau Piailug. By Sam Low, Ph.D. hile filming The Navigators we journeyed with Mau Piailug and his crew to the W tiny coral island of West Fayu. On the third day, I watched Mau as he intently studied the sky at dusk. "We must leave right away,"he told me. Mau had discovered signs of bad weather in the sky and predicted a storm would arrive that night and would last for at least three days. If we didn't leave immediately, we would be stranded on West Fayu. Within minutes Mau had launched his 28-foot outrigger canoe, and I was ~ ~ ~ ~ '"'- __.:"L _ .L._..............._ -..r>.tj6 ...........J..;..... .... n_ t:..o _C,... e-. J. aboard the expedition's 60-foot schooner with my camera crew. We headed out through the narrow opening in the reef, intending to sail in company on the 60-mile voyage to Satawal. As darkness fell, the wind M au Piailug'scanoe sailsindeepwateroutsidethereefthatsurroundsSatawal . (Courtesy Stephen Thomas) picked up and the sky clouded over. Soon we could no longer see the canoe Satawal, having made good speed to my appropriate status, a prisoner of in the pitch black of the stormy night. through the night. my own culture; a slave to gadgets, The film crew sailed in comfort The captain and I agreed Mau was pilot books and charts; a "sailor" accus­ aboard the schooner. We navigated by lost. We would sail to Satawal and re­ tomed to a dry bunk even in the worst compass, chart and a unique satellite trace our course in a search pattern for storm. After that night, my admiration navigational system. Somewhere in the his canoe. for Mau and for men like him who gloom, Mau and his men endured As Satawal rose slowly from the sea sailed across vast and empty seas was sheets of rain that blanketed the sea directly ahead of us, we took turns unshakable. Sadly, I realized that I around us and whipping winds that using binoculars to scan the island. A could never enter Mau's world, I could gusted to 40 knots. The sea was a con­ tiny speck bobbed off the entrance only refine my appreciation for it. fused roil of waves as surface winds through the reef. Could it be? I hope that the film we have made threw new wave sets against the under­ As we drew nearer, the canoe took on contains some of the awe that we all felt lying swells caused by distant trade sufficient detail to identify it. Not only in the presence of Mau Piailug, and as winds. Without a compass or even the had Mau unerringly found his way we discovered the archaeological foot­ stars to guide him, Mau must be steer­ through that tempestuous night, he steps left behind by ancient navigators ing his canoe by these swells, yet I had reached Satawal before us! who voyaged across the relentless Pa­ could not understand how it would be It was a humbling experience. Hav­ cific thousands of years ago. In the humanly possible to do so. ing studied Mau's techniques, I under­ annals of seafaring, their achievement I slept fitfully that night, aware that stood how it was possible to navigate is second to none. the schooner's engine was started twice without instruments, relying instead when the wind died, to be shut down on a world of natural signs. I even Sam Low, producer ofThe Navigators, again as the wind picked up, often thought with practice I, too, could learn is an anthropologist whose films focus on blowing from a new direction. With the to navigate as he did. That thought had seafaring peoples around the world. dawn we were only twelve miles from vanished with the storm. I was reduced The Navigators 1 cha rted waters, to find even the most remo te islands of th e Pacific had al­ rea dy been discovered and colonized. The peopl e of these islands had no wr itten langu age. They used no com­ pass, cha rts or navigation al instru­ The Polynesians: ments. The ir conq ues t of the Pacific was a mystifying feat. The more astute Euro pea n explorers, A Pacific Odyssey like Captain James Coo k of th e British Royal Nav y, quickly rea lized th at th e native peoples of such widely scattered islands as Hawaii, Easter Island and On remote tropical islands, scientists discoverclues to the ocean New Zealand were closely related . These islanders spoke mutually intelli­ voyages ofan ancient seafaring people. gible langu ages and shared many cul­ By Patrick V. Kirch, Ph .D. tural traits. "How shall we account for this Nation spreading itself over such a vast ocean?" Cook asked upon discov­ ering th e Hawaiian islands in A.D. 1778. In th e two centur ies follow ing Cook's discovery of Hawaii, man y theories have been prop osed to explain th e settleme nt of this vast ocea n area . One th eory held th at th e Polynesians he tropical sun zle th at has intrig ue d us for were descendants of South American beat down on many years: Wh o were th e Indian s who drifted into the Pacific on th e sandy plain Polyn esian s? Where had rafts; another proposed that the islands Twhere I worked th ey come from? How had were settled from Asia, during a slow with my Tongan ass is­ they settled such a vast area process of accide ntal discovery by tants to clear fau trees and of the Pacific? canoes blown out to sea during violent tangled underbrush from Polyn esia (the term liter- storms; and, for a tim e, th e most radi­ the site of an ancie nt Poly­ ally means "ma ny cal theory was that Polynesia had been nesian village. From where islands") forms a settled by a seafaring peopl e who n e s i a ~ Fr~ m "w h~re 1 si analS" n~Fm~ "'a village. settled ' by ; se~ar i ng' people'-wn o I stood, on a gentle rise, I triangle with Ha- sailed from Southeast Asia on inten ­ looked out at the _ _"" c'~ waii, Easter Island tional voyages of discovery. This last lagoon surrounding and New Zealand theory would eventually win out, but the Tongan island at the apices, con- only after a long process of collabora­ of Niuatop utapu . taining an area tive research by scientists in th e fields The deep azure more th an twice of anthropo logy, linguistics, ethno­ waters of the lagoon lapped at a glisten­ th e size of th e contine ntal United botan y and archaeology. ing white beach. Geologists have deter­ States. Today, we can travel by jet from mine d th at Niua toputapu is rising ­ Londo n to Hawaii in less th an a day. ne of th e first clues to the ori­ tectonic plates the size of contine nts Centuries ago, th e great European gins of th e Polynesians was beneath the PacificOcean are thrusting navigators who "discovered" the Pacific found by examining the crops the island slowly and inexorably up­ spe nt months, even years at sea to O they grew. According to eth­ war d . If this is true, I reasone d that the make the same journey. Imagine their nobotani sts, who study how human ancient beach and its accompanying surprise, after slowly tacking th eir way societies use and interact with the plant settlements would now be found above across thou sands of miles of un- world, all of the plants th at we now cul­ the mod ern beac h, somewhere on this tivate were do mesticated from species gentle san dy slop e. th at once grew wild . The process of "Sio mai, Petu," One of my assistants domesticating wild plants led to varie­ had spo tted some thing. ties that yielded much greater harvests, As we pulled away th e tangled but could only grow and reproduce bru sh , I saw it too - a sma ll, see mingly with the aid of man . ins ignificant potsh erd . On th e surface The ancie nt Polynesians cultivated a of th e sherd were complex geo me trical wide variety of plants such as taro, designs, which th e ancient potter had breadfruit, yams, and bananas.