It is only when we reach the third chapter that various Polynesian oral traditions are afforded full attention. Despite this, issues relating to European colonisation are often omitted. Throughout describing these events, Christina Thompson draws attention to the problematic nature of claiming that European explorers discovered anything in the Pacific. It moves onto the subsequent contact of Álvaro de Mendaña with a group of islands called the Marquesas. Moai, meaning “statue” in Rapa Nui, are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Islandįollowing a chronological order of events, the book begins with the voyage of Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan marking the first European success of travelling around the Polynesian Triangle. Sea People traces the epistemology of the West, the way we have collected knowledge and made sense of it, how we relate to the natural world, and the racism which has often coloured research and thought surrounding Polynesia. As Thompson states in the prologue: “The story of the Polynesian settlement of the Pacific is less so a story of what happened than it is about how we know. But how did these people who lacked writing skills and metal tools conquer and manage this land and the world’s largest ocean? This enigma termed the Puzzle of Polynesian Origins came about in the 18th century as one of humankind’s greatest geographical mysteries. Polynesian roots stretch back to groups of epic voyagers who ventured into these lands in what is known today as one of the greatest adventures in human history. Before the arrival of European explorers, these were the only people to occupy this land.

Who first settled the islands of the remote Pacific? Where did they come from? How did they get there, and how do we know? The answers to these and more questions are all explored in this mesmerizing novel by Pacific historian Christina Thompson.įor over a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the most secluded islands in the Pacific Ocean encompassing a triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. A book all about ancient Pacific navigation

Sea people the puzzle of polynesia