The substance of Polynesian voyaging

Abstract

The prehistory of Polynesia has been seen as a story of cultural dispersal of people throughout the eastern Pacific Ocean. Central to that story is the voyaging capabilities of Polynesians. However, the description of the dispersal as ‘exploration’ and ‘colonization’ promotes coherence to a form of practice for which there seems little evidence of consistency in intention or purpose. In Robert Suggs' words, ‘the cause of the continuance of eastward expansion is frankly anyone's guess’ (1960: 93). This paper examines the nature of Polynesian voyaging in a different manner. Here voyaging is argued to be a strategy for the negotiation and transformation of Polynesian social identity through a phenomenological intersection of materiality, cosmology and practice. Specifically, it is suggested that the elemental nature of the blue water of the Pacific Ocean as a medium and metaphor of transformation is grounded in phenomenology.

Keywords:

• Polynesia
• materiality
• blue water
• sacred canoes
• phenomenology
• cosmology

Acknowledgements

I would primarily like to thank Nyree Finlay for her invitation and patience with this contribution. I am also very grateful to Sue Hamilton, Terry Hunt, Siân Jones, Paul Rainbird, Julian Thomas and Joanna Wright for discussing ideas about the sea and for providing interesting comments on this paper. A phenomenal time was had with Chris Tilley and Wayne Bennett aboard a canoe. Also, many thanks go to the anonymous referees for their critical and encouraging observations. This paper is dedicated to Catkins.