Tonga Paci!c Seafaring Heritage: The Tongan Voyaging Sphere Lea Lani Kinikini-Kauvaka, PhD (Independent Contractor, East-West Center) he voyaging knowledge and traditions 1 2 of the Pacific islands are a rich and T exceptional example of intangible cultural heritage. Covering one-third of the globe’s surface, the Pacific Ocean is home to numerous archipelagos that were settled as long as 40,000 years ago in the case of Papua New Guinea—a continental island in Melanesia, and as recent as 800 years ago, in some of the farthest flung archipelagos 3 in Polynesia, which makes the Pacific the last region of the world to be settled by humans and the largest maritime diaspora in the world. Evidence points to the island archipelagos in Southeast Asia, including the continental island of Taiwan, as launching points for settling the remote Pacific Ocean, beyond Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands, into what is today called 1. Replica of a Tongan Tongiaki built in 1969 CC BY-NC-SA Ethnologisches Museum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin Polynesia and Micronesia. Current thinking 2. Double canoe of a Tongan group CC BY-SA The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection 3. An unprovoked attack by Schouten upon a Tongiaki o" Niua, May 1616 CC BY-SA The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection places Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji as the landing point for voyagers who came from Vanuatu in classical open sea boats that the Polynesians indigenous boatbuilding and navigation in the Western Paci!c about 3,500 years ago. used when exploring the vast Pacific Ocean. the Southwestern Pacific went into decline The Tongan archipelago, today consisting Willem Schouten, a Dutch explorer who with the European “discovery” of these vast of about 175 islands linked together by circumnavigated the globe in 1616, saw a archipelagos. By the nineteenth century, the immense waterways, ensconced by coral reefs double-hulled tongiaki on long-distance influence of European trade and shipping sitting atop vast volcanic mounts, some of journeys and wrote about them: “[T]hey are networks began to shift the balance of power which are still producing new islands today, navigating so fast with sails, that there are of these Oceanic maritime cultures. With the was several hundred years ago the center just a few boats in Holland which were able to introduction of the steam engine and its ability of a vast maritime network that extended overtake them.” 1 to sail faster than wind-powered vessels, a between Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Rotuma, Uvea Tongiaki were constructed by master great decrease in traditional navigation and (Wallis), and Futuna, and some theorize as far builders called tufunga fo‘u vaka who worked building occurred across the islands. as Tahiti and Hawai‘i, constituting the largest in service of their chief. The boats built were Today, navigation and sailing are “voyaging sphere” in the Paci!c Ocean. (Image mighty and essential to the survival and becoming powerful political and material 4). According to archaeologists, the Tongan political dominion achieved. They often forms of cultural identity. Tonga has joined maritime empire wielded immense power measured up to twenty-five meters and other robust seafaring and traditional over the maritime areas between the tenth could carry over two hundred people on local navigation revitalization movements like and sixteenth centuries, as Tonga, Samoa, journeys, who rode on a solid platform-like those in Hawai‘i, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and to some extent Fiji became increasingly connection between the two big hulls. Palau, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, interlinked by boatbuilding industries that Like the rest of Oceania, metal nails were Tahiti, Cook Islands, Aotearoa/New Zealand, required cooperation and resource sharing. unknown in Tonga, and the structural pieces Samoa, and Fiji amongst others who are The traditional double-hulled boats were connected with coconut fiber rope reclaiming “Moana,” an indigenous Oceanian called tongiaki from Tonga belong to the called kafa and organic caulking made of plant word for the Pacific Ocean. Regional Pacific gum. Sails were woven from plant !bers and, cooperation in preserving and perpetuating as historical evidence shows, were possibly indigenous knowledge and intangible decorated with designs. heritage of seafaring cultures is a way The boatbuilding industry required forward into a more sustainable and climate- close cooperation among Tonga, Samoa, challenged Paci!c island region. and Fiji. Tonga did not have the forests and hardwoods necessary for building seagoing 1. Jacob Le Maire, Being an Account of the Voyage vessels. Hardwood trees were sourced from of Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten 1615- Fiji. Boat builders from different families or 1616 published in Amsterdam in 1622. (Sydney: Model Tongiaki (sailing canoe), 2002, Tonga, by Alex clans, such as the Lemaki Clan of Samoa, Hordern House for the Australian National Kennedy. Commissioned 2002. CC BY-NC-ND license. Te Maritime Museum, 1999). Papa (FE011789) came to preeminence in the years before VOL. 23 | 7.