![]() ![]() These are the winds that bring the monsoon rains off the Indian Ocean onto the land, then reverse and take the rains back out to sea. The trade winds blow southwest in winter, and northeast in summer. ![]() These are winds that blow steadily in one direction for six months when the northern hemisphere tilts towards the sun, then reverse and blow in the opposite direction for six months when the northern hemisphere tilts away from the sun. The secret of sailing the Indian Ocean, has always been knowledge of the “Trade Winds”. Elaborate geometrical designs which were often added to, renewed, and embellished throughout the life of the individual until they covered the entire body. Polynesian peoples, believe that a person’s mana, their spiritual power or life force, is displayed through their tattoos. Polynesian tattooing is considered the most intricate and skillful tattooing of the ancient world. Clothing was minimal, and natural dyes were used to paint and tattoo the skin. Today four Malayo-Polynesian languages have official status in four important states: Malagasy in Madagascar Malay in Malaysia Indonesian in Indonesia and Pilipino (based on Tagalog) in the Philippines.Įarly Polynesian Islanders used body art to express social and political standing. The Malayo-Polynesian languages, sometimes also called Austronesian languages, are a family of languages estimated at from 300 to 500 tongues and understood by approximately 300 million people… a Maylao-Polynesian is spoken in Madagascar, in the far western Indian Ocean off the Southeast coast of Africa, indicating that the Polynesians and their ancestors ranged as far west as Africa (and may well have originated there), and as far east as South America the Malay Peninsula Indonesia and New Guinea the Philippines Taiwan (8,000 years ago, a people genetically related to the present day Taiwanese aborigines, populated the western coast of North America) the Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian islands and New Zealand. The artist, Herb Kane was co-founder of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, principal designer and first captain of Hokulea. The name Hokulea (star of gladness) is Hawaiian for the star Arcturus, which was useful for ancient navigators because it makes its zenith passage directly over Hawaii. Almost all navigation was done without instruments, by using ancient methods. The longest voyage was a Pan-Polynesia campaign in which it was sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand returning by way of Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, and the Tuamotu Islands - more than 16,000 miles. Launched in 1975, this replica of an ancient Polynesian voyaging canoe has logged more than 100,000 miles on voyages between Hawaii and the South Pacific and within the Hawaiian Islands. Modern Replica of double Polynesian voyaging canoe, “The Hokulea” There are some references in their oral traditions to the flight of birds. ![]() Scientists think that long-distance Polynesian voyaging followed the seasonal paths of birds. It is probable that the Polynesian navigators employed a whole range of techniques including use of the stars, the movement of ocean currents and wave patterns, the air and sea interference patterns caused by islands and atolls, the flight of migrating birds, the winds and the weather. ![]() Recent re-creations of Polynesian voyaging have used methods based largely on Micronesian methods and the teachings of a Micronesian navigator, Mau Piailug. Meanwhile, Micronesian ethnographic research in the Caroline Islands revealed that traditional stellar navigational methods were still in every day use. In the mid to late 1960s, scholars began testing the sailing and paddling lore related to Polynesian navigation: David Lewis sailed his catamaran from Tahiti to New Zealand using stellar navigation without instruments. The vast majority of what we know today about the Polynesian culture has been passed down through an oral history of legends, songs, and ritual ceremonies. ![]()
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