I would also like to add Tattooing into awesome video, we Samoans have traditional tattoos that the woman get that are actually hand compasses. This is used to measure angles and determine the position of celestial bodies in relation to their position. By aligning a reference point, such as a star, with the thumb or another part of the hand, they were able to estimate the angle between the horizon and the celestial body. This angle, combined with knowledge of the time of day or night helped determine their approximate position and direction.
I bought a book from Tonga about Polynesian navigation. I found it hard to follow because of myths and stories, but this video simplified the concepts.
It's extremely impressive how the ancient Polynesians managed to find and colonize Hawai'i twice. I told one that after a few days of not seeing any land, I would have headed back. The ancient maritime powers of the Mediterranean were rarely more than a day from any kind of land. Watching this video has only increased my admiration of the Polynesian navigators.
@@nmarbletoe8210, that would hint at the general direction, but their boats were probably too slow to follow, on a single trip anyway. Ancient Europeans, Levantines, and north Africans were rarely more than a few days from land. For those Polynesians to travel for weeks or months without seeing land would have tested their trust.
@@et76039 yes it is impressive faith! but i'm sure they could turn around also if they didn't find something. probably. Some of the birds are actually going from Tahiti to Alaska so they really lucked out Hawaii was there. Thankfully the Hawaiian archipelago stretches 1000 miles so it's a big target coming from Tahiti. There was also an idea that each major star had an island chain under its zenith, For Hawaii it is Hokule'a, Arcturus, Star of Gladness because it meant home latitude. Luck? God's design? Or knowledge predating Polynesia? idk
I was at Magic Island near Ala Moana the day the Hōkūleʻa completed its worldwide voyage in 2017. I never got to navigate a canoe, but I took celestial navigation at University of Hawaii in '19. My celestial navigation teacher worked with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and navigated the Makaliʻi to Tahiti from Hawaiʻi using traditional methods. I'm surprised at how much you got right. But I disagree that Oceanians always found these islands on *accident*, as even your evidence proves they were able to knowingly navigate their way to otherwise uninhabited islands. I'd also like to point out that Polynesians used lapita pottery, notably in Tonga and Sāmoa. Why they stopped is up for speculation, but wood bowls and jars became more common later on. There are countless island "finding" stories. The first that comes to mind for me is Hotu Matu'a and the dream of Rapa Nui. Besides a few things, this is a very informative video. Great job!
Thank you! It's high praise for me that a student who learned about the methods in a more formal sense finds them to be accurate You're right, I'm certain that islands weren't discovered exclusively by accident, the myths I looked at preserved, I think, some semblance of accidental discovery, but I should think that these were in the minority That and Lapita pottery were topics I was branching into, but I made the decision to cut the video off at purely explaining the methods in as much detail as I could, because there were a lot of examples of people gesturing broadly at navigational methods but very few had engaged properly with the methods
Another thing thats always left out is about micronesian and melanesian navigators used the same methods. The seafaring polynesians came from the West Pacific. Polynesians was able to sail back from Hawaii to Tahiti in the 70's because of 1 man from Micronesia. Mau from satawal Micronesia came to Hawaii to teach the polynesians the lost art all Pacific islanders shared. The canoes that sailed the polynesian islands again in the 2000's were two canoes donated by Micronesia. In honor of Mau the polynesians built a canoe (micronesian design) and sailed it to satawal Micronesia from Hawaii. There a ceremony was held with Mau passing on the title of "po" to his son and 5 polynesians.
@@edwinamugunbay5156 It should be noted that Papa Mau Piailug shared these teachings despite the strict code of secrecy the Pwo* are sworn to. Mau got a lot of grief from his community for sharing the knowledge he had. But he was afraid that no one in his community would learn and pass on the knowledge, hence his willingness to share beyond the Satalwan (and the greater Micronesian group by extension) sphere. Also, all of the five Polynesians were Hawaiian, specifically.
Thank you for this. It took two days down the UA-cam rabbit hole to find my answer. I was curious how ancient cultures such as the Polynesians navigated, by far, the worlds largest ocean and how they survived such journeys. This answered all my questions. 🙏
As a Maori/Kiwi, this was absolutly astonishing. And how you mentioned the legend of Maui fishing up Aotearoa with his magical hook, i interpreted that as Mauis magical hook being a metaphor for the navigational tools and knowledge past down, assisted in finding/fishing up that land. Ka mau Te Wehi.
Got to pull him up on a few of things though. That pottery ceased being made because of lack of raw material simply isn't true. Here in Aotearoa we have some of the finest pottery clay in the world, so the answer lies elsewhere. Also to suggest islands were discovered accidentally isn't true either. If that were the case the Pacific would never have been colonised. Polynesian techniques for finding land have been well documented, and there was nothing accidental about it. The diagram of how to work out due south from crux is wrong too, but that's a bit pedantic.
As another Maori I'd like to add that not only was the story of Maui use of a fishhook a metaphor , but in fact the use of his Grandmothers jawbone to make the fishhook was allegorical and represents him learning how to navigate from his Grandmother and it was the wisdom and teachings of hers that gave him the ability to sail here .
@@aaronmorgan8819 Aaron there's no evidence of the people who became Māori making pottery, neither in archaeology, whakatauki or any other kōrero. Pottery-making had its heyday in Melanesia. As our ancestors colonised to the east the art declined. By the time they settled Aotearoa it had pretty much if not absolutely finished. No-one knows why, but that's the evidence. Just because the truth doesn't comply with your beliefs doesn't make it any less true. Our mana is our voice. Our mana is our honesty. Let others revise their history. Don't let's revise ours. Let's not fall into that anti-intellectual and shameless trap.
Thank you so much for this amazing video. I am currently researching Polynesian navigation for a science unit our school is teaching next term. I have spent hours trying to piece together how a star compass works. This video is by far the most detailed and easiest-to-understand explanation I have seen. My mind is now racing with ideas of how I can share this information in a practical way with fellow staff and students. Ngā mihi nui.
Awesome video, a very comprehensive outline of navigation methods. Whales were also another navigation helper, they stop off and feed predictably along the reefs of particular islands as part of their yearly migrations with names even given to guardians who travelled with particular ancestral canoes.. One technology they did excel at was the storage capacity of the human brain in their schools of learning. with so much encoded in a huge body of knowledge as you mentioned. Indeed the polynesian worldview is opposite to western in many ways, the past is in front of us, as it is known and seen, the future, behind us as it is hidden and unseen. Navigators pull an island towards themselves rather that looking at travelling 'to' it. It's thanks to the late Mau Pialug and the many tireless modern day navigators who have learned all he taught them to rebuild the body of knowledge around polynesian navigating. Without Mau and those he taught, so much would have been lost forever. Thanks for making this in a way that pays respect to the amazing feats of our ancestors.
Wayfinding has always been mysterious and fascinating. To see it explained so clearly feels like Merlin explaining how magic works to an apprentice. The graphics might look low-budget to some, but they're actually fun, and the content is absolutely awesome. I'm going to watch this video again and again.
I've seen a few videos about this fascinating subject, but I must say that this one is by far the most detailed and clear presentation out there. Great work!
Thanks for a fine video telling a valuable story. Mau Pialug and David Lewis are personal heroes for maintaining the ancient navigator's art. Became aware of them in the 70's as a multihull enthusiast. Pialug noted island generated swells were sensed from the motion in the stern by the testicles and the direction of islands could be also be detected in the dark by"te lapa" (little lightnings) which were streaks of bioluminescent micro-organisms in te seawater. The orientation of the streaks indicates the direction of the island mass. Navigators are revered as "Ppallu".
In Aotearoa, the Scorpio constellation for the Maori is named Te Matau a Māui, the fishhook of Māui in the story of Māui fishing up the North Island - Te Ika A Māu. I'd say the Hawaian legend is the same. So when navigating, the constellation sets behind the islands which look to rise out of the sea.
My advanced ancestors knew that AOTEAROA came out of the Ocean millions of years before they arrived here and knew the north Island looked like a fish ... te Ika o maui
I’ve always wondered about that. To recognise Ika island as a fish and Pounamu/waka island as a canoe- HOW THE HECK DO YOU DO THAT? Polynesians are the greatest navigators in known history - but did they have aircraft too?
This is absolutely amazing. The amount of skill, intelligence and familiarity with nature required to be able to achieve such feats speaks volumes on human ingenuity. Thank you for this wonderful video, liked and subbed 😊
Hee hee hee, can you see it now? americans having to get by with these traditions.... yuh no way. Most so out of touch america lives like a spreading disease. Many will agree
Additionally by way of navigating by the swells, imagine about the size of a dinner tray woven from curved sticks, a sort of ocean wave map. This was a map of the oceans swells and went aboard the boats as a navigational aid. Not only did it show the nature and direction the primary swells came in, but it also showed the effects of different land masses had on those swells as they struck an island and an echo of that swell returned to sea, showing the location of that land mass. A map of ocean swells and the echoes of different land masses. If you found an echo you found a land mass, and the echo showed the way.
Thanks for bringing that up. I've only watched one documentary about using the swells (wave patterns) and that was produced decades ago. It's disappointing that there are so many videos, and so little awareness of that skill. Otherwise how do you navigate when the sun ad the stars are clouded over day and night. That documentary pivoted around an old Polynesian taking his grandson (I think) out on an outrigger. He sat at the back and sat the young man out on the gunwale as close to the bow as possible and started coaching him on forgetting everything else and just feeling those swells coming and going under him. They they progressed to feeling for multiple patterns and determining that direction each was coming from and how they compared in strength. It was like watching somebody learn how to drum for the first time, keeping all those rhythms and timings in their mind. The old man could identify which body of land each pattern was coming from and how far away they were to determine their own position.
Such a great video! Neil DeGrasse Tyson piqued my interest in this topic during Cosmos: Possible Worlds, and I'm so glad you were able to shed more light on the topic! Excellent video!
Thank you so much for your effort! Awesome job! Heard a podcast on this subject and needed a visualization of some sort. I am so thrilled about this. 🙌🏻
This is my ideal UA-cam video - introducing a topic I pretty much never think about, getting me into it, then blowing my mind with its depth/complexity. Great job.
Excellent, concise explanation of how WE were once attuned to our planet. Mankind would have evolved with 'nature.' Intriguing to understand The World in their perspective.
11:38 if I’m not mistaken, the name of that constellation called _Tautoru_ should mean “3 people”. In my language (Chuukese; Mortlockese dialect) we call that same constellation _Un Aluwel_ which means “3 Guys”. I know about that constellation lol. And I remember hearing that the Māori had the same meaning for that same constellation.
this is incredible. well done sir. I had looked for a video with a more in depth over view like this video on the subject a few years ago, but nothing existed on youtube at the time.
The algorithm gives you more of what you engage with :-) If I watch an F1 vid, it will offer me more of them. If I watch a Cat vid it'll offer more of them. More so if I like, comment, or subscribe.
Wow. What an amzing video to stumble across. Fantastically informative & clearly conveyed. Thank you. I've seen a few, incuding full docs. This was by far the best.
polynesians are absolutely fascinating and hands-down the most talented navigators that this world will ever see, however it kills me how they literally discovered the new world, but never managed to find australia, instead being shocked to learn of its existence
Maori would travel to Australia seasonally each year the Aboriginals called us the turtle dreamers because their arrival would coincide with the sea turtles egg laying cycle.
@@AndrewBlucher sorry I don't know it was told to me by my tipuna (grandparents/ancestors) sorry I can't help you another story was told to me of Tupaia guiding Cook here... Cook was about to give up trying to find NZ & return to England but was told about Tupaia who lived in Tahiti & could Navigate to NZ so Cook persuaded him to guide him which he did upon reaching these shores the locals were seen waving on the beaches and yelling out Tupaia Tupaia which highlighted the frequency of Tupaia's previous visits be reason of the locals familiarity with Tupaia. I really regret not paying more attention when I was younger all that knowledge has passed now.
Do remember the "survivor bias" that applies here... people who sailed in the wrong direction would die out at sea, so the people who made it to other islands were the people whose "hunches" were correct. You could have a circle around a center point. By placing a tall stick at a distance, you can see the stars that rise or fall along where that stick meets the ground. You place your stick in the ground to say "I'm going there", then you follow that heading. If somebody comes back from that journey, saying they found land, their stick is marked. Unmarked sticks represent directions where somebody left and didn't return. Directions which you likely wouldn't want to sail. Over decades, even centuries, these circles would acquire more information. Unmarked sticks might be maintained by the remaining families of the people lost to that direction, like symbols of their watery grave, a place to remember them. Each island would come up with its own version, based on the resources it has available to make sticks or stone sculptures, a high point that can see in different directions from a fixed point, or the heading would be encoded in the placement of the object itself, the direction it faces. No single system would be suitable across different islands, but memory of how it was done on the departing island would give a person ideas for how to replicate something on their new island.
Polynesians would sail against the Trade winds to discover new islands. They would therefore easily return home if not successful and they did. You make it sound like they didnt know what they were doing, when in fact they had generations of knowledge and experience behind them!
No actually survivor bias does not apply here because your "hunches" theory has largely been abandoned by most modern academics. In fact: Andrew Sharp's "1963 drifiting theory essentially argues what you argue but elaborates that migration was a series of one way journeys that were largely accidental, and that exiles from established islands simply drifted onto lands. This view was widely rejected in his time and even more so today as it simply ignores far too much evidence that points to an incredibly complex system of navigation that was traversed more like highways. Remember when James Cook was voyaging through the Pacific; he relied heavily on western navigational methods; with even hiring local Polyneasian navigators who he saw as ill equipped to know navigation - however as he spent more time with them; he became amazed at the array of non-european navigational methods that relied heavily on their connection to the land and sea, concluding the islands could only be populated through navigation. This in no way implies they were the only humans doing so btw as modern literature has found many non-european navigational systems like those of the Indians along the coasts through to South East Asia, indigenous in Madagascar etc. however the positioning of the Pacific and it's proximity to the equator helped facilitate the Polynesian system and it's expanse. So what im pretty much saying is these werent people who just went about the ocean blindfolded, just sending people off to the sea without knowing lol settling the islands of the Pacific was methodical and complex.
lol You made this whole shxt up. We're still navigating in Micronesia. We're not guessing where we're going. I have a complex map of routes between islands. They have names; like highways. Micronesians and Polynesians knew where they were going. They went back and forth between islands. In Micronesia, all of our islands were connected through these routes. Islands were aware of other islands even some thousands of miles away. That's why some islands speak the same language or dialects of the same language. If we were all isolated from each other, each island would have their own language and culture. lol People from the outside always underestimating my people. Christopher Columbus thought he landed in India. Talk about lost lol. That's that survivor bias shxt.
They truly were the best navigators. I always wondered how they survived storms at sea. Also how they avoided the health problems that result from being exposed to the sea, like sores from the salt water.
I totally agree . Thankyou ! I'm not clever enough to follow all of this but I have always wondered how it was done and You have shed some light on what for me has always been a mystery . THANKYOU !!!!!
I don''t appreciate you calling New Zealand Aotearoa. This is the modern trend, but it has no base in fact. Great Barrier Island was called Aotea by the maori.
Very good, simple temperature works well in the south pacific for latitude - southern french polynesia is colder, NZ latitude way colder. If you sailed 1 or 2000km south by accident in this area - you would soon know.
I don't know if I would have said they did it entirely by accident.... Your video and explanation were utterly superb! This was the best one I have seen in many days, and I have watched excellent ones on various subjects to-day! Some of these might still be in use. Not just as a legacy or a preservation revival, but as an actual necessity. As I understand it, of our 6plus bil on the planet (more than 8 is more than six!), there're fifty thousand or so people who permanently navigate across the sea on ancient designs of craft.
Yeah, that ending was weird. It was a throwback to the days when anthropologists claimed Polynesians drifted around the Pacific until they ran into land.
The wording your looking for canoe's is Waka mighty ships of the pacific, double hull waka's over 100 feet long and twice as big as the Endeavor. These were one of the great wonders of the world at the time for a pacific nation.
This series should be taught in elementary school's history/science classes, as a way to "Perpetuate/Pass the Torch" onto the succeeding generations coz "What good is knowledge if it's Not passed on?"....It's NEVER Too Late To Start!
That is brilliant stuff! I guess when the ancient Polynesians first encountered Europeans and discovered the European's lack of navigational skills, they might have thought to themselves: "Ahh, the kids these days aren't worth a huckle".
Fascinating- absolutely fascinating... billions of us see an ocean and see nothing but ocean... these guys saw paths that took them thousands of kilometres
Ive always wondered this and considered it one of the most insane aspects of history, it seemed so magical, and in some sense, really is when I first learned it, especially considering the places they found are paradises.
In order to navigate to a destination, you need to have prior knowledge of where you are going. Initial Polynesian explorers were incredibly brave to keep going into a vast, endless-looking ocean, not knowing where they would end up.
i agree. a key aspect of their exploration skill was the ability to tack into the prevailing wind in the search for islands, then confidently return home with the wind at their backs. there are so many islands in the western and central pacific it must have seemed like the ocean and islands stretched out forever.
Hi Guthlac, Thank you very much for your work. Very interesting and clear. I'd really like to dig deeper on this particular subject. Have you still the sources with which you created this video ? Does they used experimental archeology ? Like I say I'd really like to know more about ancient south pacific sailing techniques. Best regards
Sure! so a lot of what we know about navigation first came to light in David Lewis's "We the Navigators" - a book from the 1970s. I recommend that because it goes into a lot more detail than I do here, and mentions things that I didn't have time to mention
In 1990 we paddled 90 man waka Te Awatea Hou from Waikawa, south island toTitahi Bay, North island in Aotearoa. 14 hours in the mostly the dark night. On ourvreturn, our instructions were to steer left of Venus in order to enter the channel known as Raukawa or Cook Strait betwen the two islands.🥝🇳🇿😎
Good overview. I've been trying to sort this out practically in the real world. Also, I've just sailed across the Pacific Ocean on a catamaran. I'm annoyed with the whole 'myth' and 'ritual religious' explanation. I've traveled a lot of places and have become completely fed up with hearing the local 'myth' repeated over and over. (A few years ago I spent several days around Loch Ness and thankfully no one talked about that competely debunked....) A person or more like many Polynesians over many years observed the same stars seen in the rest of the world and figured out a way to use them in a unique and useful manner. This is one of the greatest human inventions. Polynesians invented this form of navigation. It is a far more important human creation than everything the Europeans did until Harrison solved Longitude and even that only begins to rise to the level the Polynesians reached a millennia before. The chief difference is consequences of what the Polynesians invented weren't as broad or as devastating as what the Europeans wrought. Without any source I do think someone like Cook and his navigator would've been very interested in Polynesian navigation, the Longitude Problem had only been 'solved' for a few years at that time. Cook and crew certainly wouldn't reached Hawaii had they not followed the navigation of the Polynesians on board. I speculate that the find the latitude and then head east or west probably put them off. During our voyage the constellations you cite for the Sidereal Compass I could usually immediately and reliably spot. So very practical. And of course sailing between the Philippines and Taiwan we were where the Polynesians got started, but not where they reached their full brilliance.
You already know they were telling the women “yeah sorry you can’t come sail with us you don’t have balls to read the swells properly” classic guys being dudes
18:28 “Apparently, the best thing a Man possesses is his…..” Me - 😳😂🤣😂 I wonder who was the person or people that sourced this information….. AND THEIR SOURCES!!!!😂🤣😂 This was great btw👌🏾✌🏾
I would also like to add Tattooing into awesome video, we Samoans have traditional tattoos that the woman get that are actually hand compasses. This is used to measure angles and determine the position of celestial bodies in relation to their position.
By aligning a reference point, such as a star, with the thumb or another part of the hand, they were able to estimate the angle between the horizon and the celestial body. This angle, combined with knowledge of the time of day or night helped determine their approximate position and direction.
Awesome job with this. I learned a lot!
Mr breast, what caused the long pause?
What a fantastic video! The effort put into this deserves to be recognised!
It was brilliant.
The Polynesians probably collected and amassed the largest repertoire of navigational techniques of any culture.
They also caused the extinction of various birds because of the stupidity of some of their hunters.
I bought a book from Tonga about Polynesian navigation. I found it hard to follow because of myths and stories, but this video simplified the concepts.
It's extremely impressive how the ancient Polynesians managed to find and colonize Hawai'i twice. I told one that after a few days of not seeing any land, I would have headed back. The ancient maritime powers of the Mediterranean were rarely more than a day from any kind of land. Watching this video has only increased my admiration of the Polynesian navigators.
The Tahitians knew there was land to the north by watching migratory land birds :)
@@nmarbletoe8210, that would hint at the general direction, but their boats were probably too slow to follow, on a single trip anyway. Ancient Europeans, Levantines, and north Africans were rarely more than a few days from land. For those Polynesians to travel for weeks or months without seeing land would have tested their trust.
@@et76039 yes it is impressive faith! but i'm sure they could turn around also if they didn't find something. probably.
Some of the birds are actually going from Tahiti to Alaska so they really lucked out Hawaii was there.
Thankfully the Hawaiian archipelago stretches 1000 miles so it's a big target coming from Tahiti.
There was also an idea that each major star had an island chain under its zenith, For Hawaii it is Hokule'a, Arcturus, Star of Gladness because it meant home latitude. Luck? God's design? Or knowledge predating Polynesia? idk
@@nmarbletoe8210 and the South west
@et76039 there was nothing to go back to they were peoples exiled from home and forced to find new land or perish at sea.
I was at Magic Island near Ala Moana the day the Hōkūleʻa completed its worldwide voyage in 2017. I never got to navigate a canoe, but I took celestial navigation at University of Hawaii in '19. My celestial navigation teacher worked with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and navigated the Makaliʻi to Tahiti from Hawaiʻi using traditional methods. I'm surprised at how much you got right. But I disagree that Oceanians always found these islands on *accident*, as even your evidence proves they were able to knowingly navigate their way to otherwise uninhabited islands. I'd also like to point out that Polynesians used lapita pottery, notably in Tonga and Sāmoa. Why they stopped is up for speculation, but wood bowls and jars became more common later on. There are countless island "finding" stories. The first that comes to mind for me is Hotu Matu'a and the dream of Rapa Nui. Besides a few things, this is a very informative video. Great job!
Thank you! It's high praise for me that a student who learned about the methods in a more formal sense finds them to be accurate
You're right, I'm certain that islands weren't discovered exclusively by accident, the myths I looked at preserved, I think, some semblance of accidental discovery, but I should think that these were in the minority
That and Lapita pottery were topics I was branching into, but I made the decision to cut the video off at purely explaining the methods in as much detail as I could, because there were a lot of examples of people gesturing broadly at navigational methods but very few had engaged properly with the methods
Another thing thats always left out is about micronesian and melanesian navigators used the same methods. The seafaring polynesians came from the West Pacific. Polynesians was able to sail back from Hawaii to Tahiti in the 70's because of 1 man from Micronesia. Mau from satawal Micronesia came to Hawaii to teach the polynesians the lost art all Pacific islanders shared. The canoes that sailed the polynesian islands again in the 2000's were two canoes donated by Micronesia. In honor of Mau the polynesians built a canoe (micronesian design) and sailed it to satawal Micronesia from Hawaii. There a ceremony was held with Mau passing on the title of "po" to his son and 5 polynesians.
@@edwinamugunbay5156 It should be noted that Papa Mau Piailug shared these teachings despite the strict code of secrecy the Pwo* are sworn to. Mau got a lot of grief from his community for sharing the knowledge he had. But he was afraid that no one in his community would learn and pass on the knowledge, hence his willingness to share beyond the Satalwan (and the greater Micronesian group by extension) sphere.
Also, all of the five Polynesians were Hawaiian, specifically.
@@mathoskualawa9000 lol @ "Hawaiians specifically". Duly noted. My apologies.
Wow! I'm impressed that you witnessed those voyagers and appreciate the knowledge. Tell the stories. Best to you.
Thank you for this. It took two days down the UA-cam rabbit hole to find my answer. I was curious how ancient cultures such as the Polynesians navigated, by far, the worlds largest ocean and how they survived such journeys. This answered all my questions. 🙏
As a Maori/Kiwi, this was absolutly astonishing. And how you mentioned the legend of Maui fishing up Aotearoa with his magical hook, i interpreted that as Mauis magical hook being a metaphor for the navigational tools and knowledge past down, assisted in finding/fishing up that land.
Ka mau Te Wehi.
Got to pull him up on a few of things though. That pottery ceased being made because of lack of raw material simply isn't true. Here in Aotearoa we have some of the finest pottery clay in the world, so the answer lies elsewhere. Also to suggest islands were discovered accidentally isn't true either. If that were the case the Pacific would never have been colonised. Polynesian techniques for finding land have been well documented, and there was nothing accidental about it. The diagram of how to work out due south from crux is wrong too, but that's a bit pedantic.
As another Maori I'd like to add that not only was the story of Maui use of a fishhook a metaphor , but in fact the use of his Grandmothers jawbone to make the fishhook was allegorical and represents him learning how to navigate from his Grandmother and it was the wisdom and teachings of hers that gave him the ability to sail here .
@@poisontoad8007yes, the firing of clay relates to the creation myth of Tane Mahuta and Hine Ahuone...
Whairepo, the north island was the stingray.
Aotearoa was the south island, the waka of the gods which then became Maui's waka
@@aaronmorgan8819 Aaron there's no evidence of the people who became Māori making pottery, neither in archaeology, whakatauki or any other kōrero. Pottery-making had its heyday in Melanesia. As our ancestors colonised to the east the art declined. By the time they settled Aotearoa it had pretty much if not absolutely finished. No-one knows why, but that's the evidence. Just because the truth doesn't comply with your beliefs doesn't make it any less true. Our mana is our voice. Our mana is our honesty. Let others revise their history. Don't let's revise ours. Let's not fall into that anti-intellectual and shameless trap.
Thank you so much for this amazing video. I am currently researching Polynesian navigation for a science unit our school is teaching next term. I have spent hours trying to piece together how a star compass works. This video is by far the most detailed and easiest-to-understand explanation I have seen. My mind is now racing with ideas of how I can share this information in a practical way with fellow staff and students. Ngā mihi nui.
Awesome video, a very comprehensive outline of navigation methods. Whales were also another navigation helper, they stop off and feed predictably along the reefs of particular islands as part of their yearly migrations with names even given to guardians who travelled with particular ancestral canoes.. One technology they did excel at was the storage capacity of the human brain in their schools of learning. with so much encoded in a huge body of knowledge as you mentioned. Indeed the polynesian worldview is opposite to western in many ways, the past is in front of us, as it is known and seen, the future, behind us as it is hidden and unseen. Navigators pull an island towards themselves rather that looking at travelling 'to' it. It's thanks to the late Mau Pialug and the many tireless modern day navigators who have learned all he taught them to rebuild the body of knowledge around polynesian navigating. Without Mau and those he taught, so much would have been lost forever. Thanks for making this in a way that pays respect to the amazing feats of our ancestors.
Wayfinding has always been mysterious and fascinating. To see it explained so clearly feels like Merlin explaining how magic works to an apprentice. The graphics might look low-budget to some, but they're actually fun, and the content is absolutely awesome. I'm going to watch this video again and again.
I've seen a few videos about this fascinating subject, but I must say that this one is by far the most detailed and clear presentation out there. Great work!
Thanks for a fine video telling a valuable story. Mau Pialug and David Lewis are personal heroes for maintaining the ancient navigator's art. Became aware of them in the 70's as a multihull enthusiast.
Pialug noted island generated swells were sensed from the motion in the stern by the testicles and the direction of islands could be also be detected in the dark by"te lapa" (little lightnings) which were streaks of bioluminescent micro-organisms in te seawater. The orientation of the streaks indicates the direction of the island mass. Navigators are revered as "Ppallu".
Nice to see this video come to fruition after so many months. It was definitely worth the wait you did a great job Guthlac!
In Aotearoa, the Scorpio constellation for the Maori is named Te Matau a Māui, the fishhook of Māui in the story of Māui fishing up the North Island - Te Ika A Māu. I'd say the Hawaian legend is the same. So when navigating, the constellation sets behind the islands which look to rise out of the sea.
My advanced ancestors knew that AOTEAROA came out of the Ocean millions of years before they arrived here and knew the north Island looked like a fish ... te Ika o maui
I’ve always wondered about that. To recognise Ika island as a fish and Pounamu/waka island as a canoe- HOW THE HECK DO YOU DO THAT?
Polynesians are the greatest navigators in known history - but did they have aircraft too?
This is absolutely amazing. The amount of skill, intelligence and familiarity with nature required to be able to achieve such feats speaks volumes on human ingenuity. Thank you for this wonderful video, liked and subbed 😊
Hee hee hee, can you see it now? americans having to get by with these traditions.... yuh no way. Most so out of touch america lives like a spreading disease. Many will agree
I loved this. I was practically disappointed when i got to the conclusion because it was coming to an end and I wanted MORE.
Additionally by way of navigating by the swells, imagine about the size of a dinner tray woven from curved sticks, a sort of ocean wave map. This was a map of the oceans swells and went aboard the boats as a navigational aid. Not only did it show the nature and direction the primary swells came in, but it also showed the effects of different land masses had on those swells as they struck an island and an echo of that swell returned to sea, showing the location of that land mass. A map of ocean swells and the echoes of different land masses. If you found an echo you found a land mass, and the echo showed the way.
Thanks for bringing that up. I've only watched one documentary about using the swells (wave patterns) and that was produced decades ago. It's disappointing that there are so many videos, and so little awareness of that skill. Otherwise how do you navigate when the sun ad the stars are clouded over day and night.
That documentary pivoted around an old Polynesian taking his grandson (I think) out on an outrigger. He sat at the back and sat the young man out on the gunwale as close to the bow as possible and started coaching him on forgetting everything else and just feeling those swells coming and going under him. They they progressed to feeling for multiple patterns and determining that direction each was coming from and how they compared in strength.
It was like watching somebody learn how to drum for the first time, keeping all those rhythms and timings in their mind. The old man could identify which body of land each pattern was coming from and how far away they were to determine their own position.
Also birds
18:35. I knew it took balls to navigate the open Pacific. Now you just proved it.
Passed down & followed from generation to generation
Such a great video! Neil DeGrasse Tyson piqued my interest in this topic during Cosmos: Possible Worlds, and I'm so glad you were able to shed more light on the topic! Excellent video!
Thank you so much for your effort! Awesome job! Heard a podcast on this subject and needed a visualization of some sort. I am so thrilled about this. 🙌🏻
This is my ideal UA-cam video - introducing a topic I pretty much never think about, getting me into it, then blowing my mind with its depth/complexity. Great job.
Excellent, concise explanation of how WE were once attuned to our planet.
Mankind would have evolved with 'nature.' Intriguing to understand The World in their perspective.
11:38 if I’m not mistaken, the name of that constellation called _Tautoru_ should mean “3 people”. In my language (Chuukese; Mortlockese dialect) we call that same constellation _Un Aluwel_ which means “3 Guys”. I know about that constellation lol. And I remember hearing that the Māori had the same meaning for that same constellation.
Very interesting. In Tongan, we call it _Alotolu_ which means "the three rowers"
this is incredible. well done sir.
I had looked for a video with a more in depth over view like this video on the subject a few years ago, but nothing existed on youtube at the time.
Fantastic! You must have done a lot of research with this and it shows!
I love this video! The ability of humans to come with solutions to problems is nothing short of incredible.
Your content is awesome. I hate how UA-cam doesn't promote educative videos like these.
The algorithm gives you more of what you engage with :-)
If I watch an F1 vid, it will offer me more of them. If I watch a Cat vid it'll offer more of them. More so if I like, comment, or subscribe.
Most excellent video. As someone who is well versed In all aspects of aerial navigation I loved the additional survival navigation theroys.
Wow. What an amzing video to stumble across. Fantastically informative & clearly conveyed. Thank you. I've seen a few, incuding full docs. This was by far the best.
polynesians are absolutely fascinating and hands-down the most talented navigators that this world will ever see, however it kills me how they literally discovered the new world, but never managed to find australia, instead being shocked to learn of its existence
I think the Maori knew of Australia.
Maori would travel to Australia seasonally each year the Aboriginals called us the turtle dreamers because their arrival would coincide with the sea turtles egg laying cycle.
@@nicktorea4017 Hi Nick, do you know where I can read more about this? Regards, Andy
@@AndrewBlucher sorry I don't know it was told to me by my tipuna (grandparents/ancestors) sorry I can't help you another story was told to me of Tupaia guiding Cook here... Cook was about to give up trying to find NZ & return to England but was told about Tupaia who lived in Tahiti & could Navigate to NZ so Cook persuaded him to guide him which he did upon reaching these shores the locals were seen waving on the beaches and yelling out Tupaia Tupaia which highlighted the frequency of Tupaia's previous visits be reason of the locals familiarity with Tupaia. I really regret not paying more attention when I was younger all that knowledge has passed now.
@@nicktorea4017 Thanks Nick.
This is one of the most interesting things I have ever seen - I will share this knowledge with my class. Thank you.
Wow. Dipping the coin purse to check the swell. I do similar to check the wind, maybe even a faint breeze.
Great informative vid mate👍
I have ask this question of how they navigated to New Zealand for years, this is an excellent production thanks.
Maori were very clever people. They invented modern trench warfare after all.
Amazing video. You have to love anything that illuminates and makes vivid the realities of ancient peoples
Do remember the "survivor bias" that applies here... people who sailed in the wrong direction would die out at sea, so the people who made it to other islands were the people whose "hunches" were correct.
You could have a circle around a center point. By placing a tall stick at a distance, you can see the stars that rise or fall along where that stick meets the ground. You place your stick in the ground to say "I'm going there", then you follow that heading. If somebody comes back from that journey, saying they found land, their stick is marked. Unmarked sticks represent directions where somebody left and didn't return. Directions which you likely wouldn't want to sail. Over decades, even centuries, these circles would acquire more information. Unmarked sticks might be maintained by the remaining families of the people lost to that direction, like symbols of their watery grave, a place to remember them. Each island would come up with its own version, based on the resources it has available to make sticks or stone sculptures, a high point that can see in different directions from a fixed point, or the heading would be encoded in the placement of the object itself, the direction it faces. No single system would be suitable across different islands, but memory of how it was done on the departing island would give a person ideas for how to replicate something on their new island.
Polynesians would sail against the Trade winds to discover new islands. They would therefore easily return home if not successful and they did.
You make it sound like they didnt know what they were doing, when in fact they had generations of knowledge and experience behind them!
A hunch ? You can't be serious ? Trying to find land in the Pacific is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
No actually survivor bias does not apply here because your "hunches" theory has largely been abandoned by most modern academics. In fact: Andrew Sharp's "1963 drifiting theory essentially argues what you argue but elaborates that migration was a series of one way journeys that were largely accidental, and that exiles from established islands simply drifted onto lands. This view was widely rejected in his time and even more so today as it simply ignores far too much evidence that points to an incredibly complex system of navigation that was traversed more like highways. Remember when James Cook was voyaging through the Pacific; he relied heavily on western navigational methods; with even hiring local Polyneasian navigators who he saw as ill equipped to know navigation - however as he spent more time with them; he became amazed at the array of non-european navigational methods that relied heavily on their connection to the land and sea, concluding the islands could only be populated through navigation. This in no way implies they were the only humans doing so btw as modern literature has found many non-european navigational systems like those of the Indians along the coasts through to South East Asia, indigenous in Madagascar etc. however the positioning of the Pacific and it's proximity to the equator helped facilitate the Polynesian system and it's expanse.
So what im pretty much saying is these werent people who just went about the ocean blindfolded, just sending people off to the sea without knowing lol settling the islands of the Pacific was methodical and complex.
lol You made this whole shxt up. We're still navigating in Micronesia. We're not guessing where we're going. I have a complex map of routes between islands. They have names; like highways. Micronesians and Polynesians knew where they were going. They went back and forth between islands. In Micronesia, all of our islands were connected through these routes. Islands were aware of other islands even some thousands of miles away. That's why some islands speak the same language or dialects of the same language. If we were all isolated from each other, each island would have their own language and culture. lol People from the outside always underestimating my people. Christopher Columbus thought he landed in India. Talk about lost lol. That's that survivor bias shxt.
They truly were the best navigators. I always wondered how they survived storms at sea. Also how they avoided the health problems that result from being exposed to the sea, like sores from the salt water.
I totally agree . Thankyou ! I'm not clever enough to follow all of this but I have always wondered how it was done and You have shed some light on what for me has always been a mystery . THANKYOU !!!!!
Appreciate you referring to New Zealand as Aotearoa. Great video.
I don''t appreciate you calling New Zealand Aotearoa. This is the modern trend, but it has no base in fact. Great Barrier Island was called Aotea by the maori.
Excellent video.
This is one of my favorite topics. I read about this in an old National Geographic decades ago. It's unforgettable.
Fascinating stuff as usual! This is something i've been wondering about for years and now i know!
This was so informative and awesome! Thanks for putting it together
Thank you so much, this video is so underrated.
Beautiful lesson and demonstration.Thank you very much.
One of the most interesting videos I have watched on youtube, great work.
Very good, simple temperature works well in the south pacific for latitude - southern french polynesia is colder, NZ latitude way colder. If you sailed 1 or 2000km south by accident in this area - you would soon know.
I don't know if I would have said they did it entirely by accident....
Your video and explanation were utterly superb! This was the best one I have seen in many days, and I have watched excellent ones on various subjects to-day!
Some of these might still be in use. Not just as a legacy or a preservation revival, but as an actual necessity. As I understand it, of our 6plus bil on the planet (more than 8 is more than six!), there're fifty thousand or so people who permanently navigate across the sea on ancient designs of craft.
Yes, I loved this video, right up until the last sentence.
@@TillyOrifice yes that last sentence was a weird and inaccurate statement
Yeah, that ending was weird. It was a throwback to the days when anthropologists claimed Polynesians drifted around the Pacific until they ran into land.
Great job! I learned so much from this! :D
just found this channel because of Anglo Saxon stuff
love your content already!
The wording your looking for canoe's is Waka mighty ships of the pacific, double hull waka's over 100 feet long and twice as big as the Endeavor. These were one of the great wonders of the world at the time for a pacific nation.
They traveled during the height of the last ice age. You could basically walk so very very short trips were needed on boats
Nope, there were no Polynesians back then.
I believe that to be correct.
@@Wildflower27823 you are incorrect
We inherited our knowledge from our austronesian ancestors who traversed the Kai long ago
Really good watch. I’ve always been fascinated by these sea people.
I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for putting it together.
18:35 proves why men are the best navigators. Its something youre born with.
this is really fantastic content, big ups 👍👍
This series should be taught in elementary school's history/science classes, as a way to "Perpetuate/Pass the Torch" onto the succeeding generations coz "What good is knowledge if it's Not passed on?"....It's NEVER Too Late To Start!
As a polynesian descendant, I thank you.
What get me is calling our ancestors stone age we were more advance then the white wigs just because they look civilized doesn't mean they were.
That is brilliant stuff!
I guess when the ancient Polynesians first encountered Europeans and discovered the European's lack of navigational skills, they might have thought to themselves: "Ahh, the kids these days aren't worth a huckle".
Very factual and informative, thanks for all your hard work! 💪😤
Star paths! Ingenious! It sounds like the different addresses the SG teams had to learn to return to Earth!
Phenomenal video man. This was so fascinating
brilliant insight. thanks.
Very interesting!
Cook had a chief with him on his ship and there is a copy of the map the chief drew for Cook .
Great video!
Fascinating- absolutely fascinating... billions of us see an ocean and see nothing but ocean... these guys saw paths that took them thousands of kilometres
Hey! I just found out your channel! Time to binge watch!
Outstanding, sir. Thank you.
Ive always wondered this and considered it one of the most insane aspects of history, it seemed so magical, and in some sense, really is when I first learned it, especially considering the places they found are paradises.
One of the best vids on UA-cam, learned a lot 👏
this is really really really good ....... thank you for creating it
This is a sick lil video bud!
In order to navigate to a destination, you need to have prior knowledge of where you are going. Initial Polynesian explorers were incredibly brave to keep going into a vast, endless-looking ocean, not knowing where they would end up.
i agree. a key aspect of their exploration skill was the ability to tack into the prevailing wind in the search for islands, then confidently return home with the wind at their backs. there are so many islands in the western and central pacific it must have seemed like the ocean and islands stretched out forever.
Interesting that you didn't mention the Polynesian stick charts.
Right? Or how they judged how there is land in a certain direction.
Taught me a lot! Thanks.
this is amazing!
Hi Guthlac,
Thank you very much for your work. Very interesting and clear.
I'd really like to dig deeper on this particular subject. Have you still the sources with which you created this video ?
Does they used experimental archeology ? Like I say I'd really like to know more about ancient south pacific sailing techniques.
Best regards
Sure! so a lot of what we know about navigation first came to light in David Lewis's "We the Navigators" - a book from the 1970s. I recommend that because it goes into a lot more detail than I do here, and mentions things that I didn't have time to mention
@@GuthlacYT thanks a lot.
The great thing about star navigation is that you can start to learn it while being on land.
Damn. As a Maori, I never knew how clever my ancestors were. But then they did invent modern trench warfare.
Farmers in Java also use stars to start farming.
Something tells me this information could be very useful in near future.
They are the children of the ocean! ❤❤❤
In 1990 we paddled 90 man waka Te Awatea Hou from Waikawa, south island toTitahi Bay, North island in Aotearoa. 14 hours in the mostly the dark night. On ourvreturn, our instructions were to steer left of Venus in order to enter the channel known as Raukawa or Cook Strait betwen the two islands.🥝🇳🇿😎
Just utterly fascinating.
I assume they navigated very well
exceptional video!!! Thank you
It is said that the Navigators never slept on the journey so they must in some way keep track of where they are on the journey
@Guthlac, can you recommend further reading on this subject for those of us who want to learn more?
Good overview. I've been trying to sort this out practically in the real world. Also, I've just sailed across the Pacific Ocean on a catamaran. I'm annoyed with the whole 'myth' and 'ritual religious' explanation. I've traveled a lot of places and have become completely fed up with hearing the local 'myth' repeated over and over. (A few years ago I spent several days around Loch Ness and thankfully no one talked about that competely debunked....) A person or more like many Polynesians over many years observed the same stars seen in the rest of the world and figured out a way to use them in a unique and useful manner. This is one of the greatest human inventions.
Polynesians invented this form of navigation. It is a far more important human creation than everything the Europeans did until Harrison solved Longitude and even that only begins to rise to the level the Polynesians reached a millennia before. The chief difference is consequences of what the Polynesians invented weren't as broad or as devastating as what the Europeans wrought.
Without any source I do think someone like Cook and his navigator would've been very interested in Polynesian navigation, the Longitude Problem had only been 'solved' for a few years at that time. Cook and crew certainly wouldn't reached Hawaii had they not followed the navigation of the Polynesians on board. I speculate that the find the latitude and then head east or west probably put them off.
During our voyage the constellations you cite for the Sidereal Compass I could usually immediately and reliably spot. So very practical. And of course sailing between the Philippines and Taiwan we were where the Polynesians got started, but not where they reached their full brilliance.
You already know they were telling the women “yeah sorry you can’t come sail with us you don’t have balls to read the swells properly” classic guys being dudes
This was so interesting.
about time people actually took other cultures' achievements seriously.
Thank you that's beautiful. So much crap on UA-cam. ❤
18:28
“Apparently, the best thing a Man possesses is his…..”
Me - 😳😂🤣😂 I wonder who was the person or people that sourced this information….. AND THEIR SOURCES!!!!😂🤣😂 This was great btw👌🏾✌🏾
Samoa is the original island they nicknamed Samoa "The Navigator Islands".
fantastic video, thank you!
Fascinating! Thank you!
Your accent is awesome. Where in the UK are you from?
Thank you! I'm from East Lancashire, so it'll probably sound similar to the Yorkshire accent (probably with a bit of Manchester mixed in)