Voyage of Rediscovery: A Cultural Odyssey through Polynesia

by Ben Finney, Marlene Among (Contributor), Chad Babayan (Contributor)

In the summer of 1985, a mostly Hawaiian crew set out aboard Hokule'a, a reconstructed ancient double canoe, to demonstrate what skeptics had steadfastly denied: that their ancestors, sailing in such canoes and navigating solely by reading stars, ocean swells, and other natural signs, could intentionally have sailed across the Pacific, exploring the vast oceanic realm of Polynesia and discovering and settling all its inhabitable islands. Their round-trip odyssey from Hawai'i to Aotearoa (New Zealand), across 12,000 nautical miles, dramatically refuted all theories declaring that―because of their unseaworthy canoes and inaccurate navigational methods―the ancient Polynesians could only have been pushed accidentally to their islands by the vagaries of wind and current.

Voyage of Rediscovery is a vivid, immensely readable account of this remarkable journey through the Pacific, including tales of a curiosity attack by sperm whales and the crew's welcome to Aotearoa by Maori tribesmen, who dubbed them their sixth tribe. It describes how Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson guided the canoe over thousands of miles of open ocean without compass, sextant, charts, or any other navigational aids. In so doing, it documents the experimental voyaging approach, developed by Ben Finney, which has both transformed our ideas about Polynesian migration and voyaging and been embraced by present-day Polynesians as a way to experience and celebrate their rich ancestral heritage as premier seafarers.

By sailing in the wake of their ancestors, the Hawaiians and other Polynesians who captained, navigated, and crewed Hokule'a made the journey described here a cultural as well as a scientific odyssey of exploration.

Genres: Nonfiction

401 pages, Hardcover

First published October 10, 1994

About the author

Ben Rudolph Finney (1933-2017) was an American anthropologist.

Reviews

[baxter baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a combination historical experiment and attempt to rekindle interest in Polynesian culture, the author and many other recreate a traditional twin hulled canoe and sail it from Hawaii to Aotearoa/New Zealand and back using only traditional Polynesian navigational techniques. The book covers the early European explorers observations of seafaring practises and the development of anthropological theory about the settlement of the Pacific up to the sixties. Part of their motivation was to rebut those theories that denied the possibility of early Polynesians deliberately criss crossing the Pacific to settle islands in the triangle created by Easter Island, Hawaii and Aotearoa.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the two essential books I recommend, along with Kyselka's "An Ocean in Mind", to introduce people to Polynesian voyaging generally, and the specific process by which voyaging was rediscovered / recovered during the in Hawai‘i during the Hawaiian renaissance in the '70s.

Highly recommended, 5 stars

[Zachary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about polynesian voyaging.