Voyage of Rediscovery
eBook - ePub

Voyage of Rediscovery

A Cultural Odyssey through Polynesia

  1. 401 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Voyage of Rediscovery

A Cultural Odyssey through Polynesia

About this book

In the summer of 1985, a mostly Hawaiian crew set out aboard Hokule'a, a reconstructed ancient double canoe, to demonstrate what skeptics had steadfastly denied: that their ancestors, sailing in such canoes and navigating solely by reading stars, ocean swells, and other natural signs, could intentionally have sailed across the Pacific, exploring the vast oceanic realm of Polynesia and discovering and settling all its inhabitable islands. Their round-trip odyssey from Hawai'i to Aotearoa (New Zealand), across 12,000 nautical miles, dramatically refuted all theories declaring that—because of their unseaworthy canoes and inaccurate navigational methods—the ancient Polynesians could only have been pushed accidentally to their islands by the vagaries of wind and current.

Voyage of Rediscovery is a vivid, immensely readable account of this remarkable journey through the Pacific, including tales of a curiosity attack by sperm whales and the crew's welcome to Aotearoa by Maori tribesmen, who dubbed them their sixth tribe. It describes how Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson guided the canoe over thousands of miles of open ocean without compass, sextant, charts, or any other navigational aids. In so doing, it documents the experimental voyaging approach, developed by Ben Finney, which has both transformed our ideas about Polynesian migration and voyaging and been embraced by present-day Polynesians as a way to experience and celebrate their rich ancestral heritage as premier seafarers.

By sailing in the wake of their ancestors, the Hawaiians and other Polynesians who captained, navigated, and crewed Hokule'a made the journey described here a cultural as well as a scientific odyssey of exploration.


In the summer of 1985, a mostly Hawaiian crew set out aboard Hokule'a, a reconstructed ancient double canoe, to demonstrate what skeptics had steadfastly denied: that their ancestors, sailing in such canoes and navigating solely by reading stars, o

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Yes, you can access Voyage of Rediscovery by Ben Finney in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Asian History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. CONTENTS
  5. FIGURES
  6. PREFACE
  7. 1 WITHOUT SHIPS OR COMPASS
  8. 2 EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGING
  9. 3 CULTURAL REVIVAL
  10. 4 MORE THAN HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD
  11. 5 WAIT FOR THE WEST WIND
  12. 6 VOYAGE TO AOTEAROA
  13. 7 SAILING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN HAWAI’I AND TAHITI
  14. 8 PUTTING VOYAGING BACK INTO POLYNESIAN PREHISTORY
  15. 9 THE FAMILY OF THE CANOE
  16. APPENDIX A
  17. APPENDIX B
  18. APPENDIX C
  19. ABOUT THE DRAWINGS
  20. NOTES
  21. REFERENCES
  22. INDEX