View of Maitavie Bay, Tahiti; painting by William Hodges (1776)
…Although the details of Tupaia’s knowledge may be lost to history, Pacific people continue to voyage in his wake. To mark the 250-year anniversary of Tupaia’s voyage, in 2019 Galenon and Teipoarii navigated the ship by the moon and stars from Tahiti to Aotearoa. They are part of a Pacific-wide movement of modern wayfinders who hope to restore inter-island networks disrupted by colonization and to build regional unity around shared challenges like climate change.
Like Tupaia, they exchanged oral traditions with people they met along the voyage. ‘Our ancestors would navigate to maintain relationships,’ says Galenon. ‘The canoe was the link.’
Above painting is Tahiti.
knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2021/reading-pacific-navigators-mysterious-map
Also, Polynesian Navigation on Wiki: wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesian_navigation
From Dan Dwyer
