This month's museum pick...

Auckland Museum, North Island, New Zealand

Relics of the Polynesians' epic sea voyages find a loving home

Auckland Museum proudly boasts the world's leading collection of Maori taonga (treasures) including three entire buildings and a waka taua (war canoe, above) from the 1830s.

Although the late Thor Hyerdahl strove to prove that the ancient Polynesians originated in South America by sailing west from Peru on his reed raft, the Kon-Tiki, modern science has used genetic clues to establish that they came from Southeast Asia.

Starting from Samoa around 1,000 B.C., the Polynesians spent the next 1,800 years establishing themselves as the greatest pre-scientific navigators of all time. Relying on an astonishingly deep knowledge of the heavens, wave actions and birds’ behavior patterns, they were able to accurately determine their location and direction on long voyages from one isolated island to another.

For example, the Polynesians tracked and knew the paths of scores of stars in the night sky and were able to use several of them as reliable markers for establishing latitude. If the sky was overcast, navigators would “read” wave patterns, knowing that mid-ocean waves were shaped differently than waves caused by seas hitting the shore of an island. By determining that a deep-ocean pattern had changed, even subtly, a navigator could steer his boat toward land.

The Polynesians were also keen observers of sea birds. They knew their behaviors, including their migratory patterns. They also knew that birds, once they had finished a migration, would typically foray out over the ocean from their island homes in daytime, then return by dusk. Astute sailors would follow the birds back home to a landfall.  

From Samoa the Polynesians reached almost 2,000 miles east to the Marquesas Islands, establishing themselves in that most distant of island chains by 300 B.C. From there, they spread north and south, settling Easter Island in 400 A.D., Hawaii in 500 A.D. and arriving, finally, in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in 800 A.D.

The Maori settlement of Aotearoa (“Land of the Long White Cloud”) was the highpoint of the Polynesians’ era of bold exploration. The two islands, more than 100,000 square miles in area, were by far the largest territories the Polynesians had ever claimed. The land, very temperate compared to the other Polynesian islands, was well watered, heavily forested, had rich soil and was capable of supporting a large population. Here, at last, the ages-old pattern of leaving an overpopulated island in search of a new island, finding one and settling it, then overpopulating it within a few short generations to start the cycle anew had come to an end. Aotearoa was as close to paradise as the Polynesians would come.  

In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand, but laid no claims on it. That was left to the great British explorer James Cook, who claimed the land for his sovereign in 1769. Settlement by white Europeans, “Pakehas” in Maori, was tentative at first, given the huge Maori presence. But as more Pakehas landed in New Zealand, tensions and confrontations between the two groups escalated. Finally, in 1840, in one of the most remarkable actions of the modern era, the two peoples signed the Treaty of Waitangi. In it the Maoris agreed to surrender rule of the islands to the British crown in exchange for recognition of their equal legal rights and standing, as well as ownership of the land. Although sometimes honored more in the breach than not, the treaty created a bicultural, bilingual society that functions remarkably well considering the vastly different histories of its two peoples.

Considering the richness of Maori society, both in physical and cultural terms, it’s no surprise that New Zealand boasts the richest collection of Polynesian art, architecture, tools and other artifacts in all the world. That richness is brilliantly displayed at the Auckland Museum in New Zealand’s largest city.

The museum preserves the artifacts in two collections, “Maori Treasures” and “Pacific Pathways.” The first focuses on Polynesian culture in its New Zealand manifestation, while the second deals with the larger Polynesian culture spread throughout the Pacific Ocean. Between the two collections there are more than 3,000 artifacts, many of them ancient or one-of-a-kind.

Auckland itself, a city of 360,000 (plus an almost equal number in its suburbs), is New Zealand’s most sophisticated burg, with bridges, highrise towers, a temperate climate and a rich cultural life. It is also, like Sydney, a city in love with water. Home to thousands of sailing enthusiasts, it will host the 2003 America’s Cup races next February.

By Patrick Totty