Pacific Paddler December 2013 - (Page 14)

Image and by H. M. Wyeth The Vaka Taumako Project has an image problem. Its aim is to revive and teach the ancient arts of Polynesian canoe building and navigation. But who still uses them? Nga Taumako, the people of tiny Taumako Island still do. Where is Taumako? In the eastern Solomon Islands. For many students of Polynesian culture, that ends the conversation. Nga Taumako live well outside the imagi- nary triangle bounded by Hawai'i, Easter Island, and New Zealand (figure 6). outside world through the The so-called Polynesian triangle, a fanciful construction that does not reflect geographical or cultural reality (open source). Vaka Taumako Project. The idea behind this image is that Taumako is in Melanesia, or perhaps worse, a "Polynesian Outlier," and in any case unworthy of notice. Having encountered this attitude of rejection repeatedly in the 17 years since the Vaka Taumako Project was formally organized, two of its Hawaii supporters, Mimi George, and H. Meph Wyeth, decided to speak to the A more accurate, if less mellifluous, representation: the Polynesian irregular polygon. Recent research indicates that Polynesian seafarers sailed well beyond the region bounded by Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island (open source). topic of "Image and the Reality in Polynesian Voyaging." Accordingly, they gave a series of talks at the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center for the Kaua'i Historical Society. Their multi-media presentation includes correctives to a number of misleading images that have become part of modern narratives about ancient Pacific seafaring. Some of these are illustrated here. Familiar to many people in Hawai'i is the sail depicted in petroglyphs like the one shown in figure 1. Hokule'a and other modern replicas of ancient voyaging canoes use sails whose design is partly derived from such images. However, these may not truly reflect what the ancestors used. The original Polynesian sail may well have looked more like the elegant construction in figure 2. When seen in profile, these sails do appear asymmetrical (figure 3). For the Vaka Taumako Project, figure 1 represents the answer. The old man gazing at the petroglyph is the late Koloso Kaveia, Paramount Chief and Master Navigator of Taumako. Chief Kaveia spent more than 75 years sailing the traditional canoes of his people, canoes like the one in figure 2. When he first glimpsed the sail petroglyph during a visit to Maui in 1998, he happily exclaimed, "Now I know my ancestors came here, this is their sail!" He clearly recognized the image as a schematic rather than a complete representation. Does this really matter, or is it just nitpicking? George and Wyeth aver that it does matter. Wind tunnel tests conducted on Sails like those in figure 2 have shown them to be vastly more efficient than most conventional rigs such as the Bermuda. Their aerodynamic potential has only incompletely been understood by modern sailors. This means that ancient Polynesian sailing capabilities may have been seriously underestimated. 14 Pacific Paddler December 2013 http://www.jambahawaii.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Paddler December 2013

Molokai Hoe
So Cal - Winter Season begins
Image and Reality in Polynesian Voyaging
Canadian Outrigger Heats Up
XCEL European Championship
Take It to the Next Level
COVER 1999 Edition
December 1999 CONTENTS
1999 Na Wahine
1999 Na Wahine
1999 New Products
1999 Ocean Tides, Currents & Racing
OC-1, OC-2 & Kayak 2000 schedule
1999 Canada Outrigger
1999 P3 Masters Waa Kaukahi Relay
1999 Hawaiki Nui Va‘a, Tahiti ~

Pacific Paddler December 2013