Polynesian navigation
Polynesian navigation or Polynesian wayfinding was used for thousands of years to enable long trips across thousands of kilometers of the open Pacific Ocean. Polynesians made contact with nearly every island within the huge Polynesian Triangle. Navigators travelled to small islands using wayfinding techniques and knowledge passed by oral tradition, often in the form of song. Generally, each island maintained a group of navigators who had very high status; in times of widespread death from starving or difficulty, they could trade for aid or evacuate people to neighbouring islands.
Star compass of Mau Piailug taught in the Caroline Islands, with North at top. Re-creation with shells on sand, with Satawalese (Chuukic) text labels, from the Polynesian Voyaging Society. See annotations on Commons.
Antarctica and surrounding islands, showing the Auckland Islands just above (south of) New Zealand, at the center bottom of the image
Marumaru Atua in Rarotonga, 2010.
