Polynesian Seafaring and Navigation: Ocean Travel in Anutan Culture and Society

1. Introduction

1 INTRODUCTION ~SUbjects have intrigued Western observers since the time of Captain Cook so much as Oceanic seafaring. A people to whom metals were unknown, sailing wooden outrigger or double-hulled canoes without the benefit of instruments, had managed, by the time of European contact , to locate and settle virtually every habitable island in the tropical Pacific. Yet, systematic studies of Pacific Island seamanship and navigation have not been conducted until very recently, at a time when old techniques have been abandoned throughout most of Oceania. As a result, most contemporary studies rely heavily on reconstruction of the ancient arts from fragmentary records of explorers, missionaries, government administrators, and earlier ethnographers. Valuable insights are provided by computer simulation (see Ward et al. 1976) and test voyages using the old methods in European boats (see Lewis 1966, 1971, 1972) or canoes built to ancient specifications (Horvath and Finney 1976; Finney 1979). But few writers have reported on traditional techniques used as an integral part of an Oceanic people's Iives.! This book helps to fill the ethnographic gap by describing in detail the practice and significance of ocean travel for people of Anuta Island. Anuta is a tiny, isolated island in the eastern Solomons (figure 1). Although located in what normally is considered Melanesian territory, its people are racially, linguistically, and culturally Polvnesian." Anutans do not usually traverse great distances compared with, for example, people from the Central Carolines of Micronesia. However, they are among the few remaining Oceanic peoples to spend much of their time CAROLINE ISLANDS -Nukuoro • 1~ ~ • MARSHALL ISLANDS .~ .. c Kapingamarangi • KIRIBATI 0 0 SOUTHWEST PACIFIC OCEAN o 500 mi 20 0 10 0 e Niue SAMOA - ... :. , . ~TONGA Uvea .' , TUVALU , FIJIO· .:' , -, 170 0E • Duffs . :Ndeni Anute -, ,e. Patutaka Tikopia Roturna 1. Banks , ,. VANUATU .:. .. • ~ -. ~Oyalty Islands NEW CALEDONIA ~, SOLOMONS·0' e ::.\ ... -AUSTRALIA Fig. 1. Map of central Pacific Ocean showing relationship of Anuta to other island groups (adapted from Yen and Gordon 1973:3) INTRODUCTION 3 at sea, often out of sight of land, relying exclusively on traditional equipment and techniques." Thus, they provide a most instructive case for anyone concerned with traditional Pacific Island navigation and related arts as well as the role these play in the lives of real people in the world today. I first became acquainted with Anutans in 1972-1973 when I spent fourteen months in the Solomon Islands as a graduate student conducting an anthropological investigation of Anutan kinship and social structure." Navigation was peripheral to my major research focus. However , as someone who has always enjoyed being on or near the water, I was, from the start, interested in Anutan use of the sea. I had innumerable discussions with Anutans about their voyages to other islands, participated with them in countless fishing expeditions, and accompanied a group of sailors from Anuta on a four-day trip to Patutaka, an uninhabited island 30 miles away." This book began in earnest several years ago as I prepared to teach a course in Pacific anthropology. After reviewing such important works on Oceanic navigation as Gladwin's East is a Big Bird (1970)and Lewis's We, the Navigators (1972), it occurred to me that the Anutan data were sufficiently distinctive to make a worthwhile contribution. The unsystematic nature of my initial inquiries into seamanship and navigation, however, left many important gaps to be filled. Details of Anutan astronomy and canoe-building techniques were particularly problematic. Therefore, when I had the opportunity to return to the Solomon Islands in 1983 to work with Anutans in the Honiara area on Guadalcanal, investigating the changes since the early 1970s,I also took advantage of the opportunity to resolve my many unanswered questions regarding Anutan canoes and navigation. Fortunately, Anutans pass through Honiara with considerable frequency, and I was able to consult with some of the island's leading navigators. Finally, in 1984, I spent several months studying Nukumanu, a Polynesian outlier atoll in eastern Papua New Guinea. This gave me the opportunity to compare Anutan voyaging techniques with those of Nukumanu . Although a detailed description of Nukumanu seamanship must await another place and time, my experience with sailors and canoes from that atoll has provided me with a perspective that helps inform the presentation of Anutan seamanship which follows. Organizationally, this book moves from the abstract to the concrete and back to the more speculative. The second chapter introduces the Anutan community, summarizing the island's...