16 Rediscovering the discovery of a sea of islands
16 Rediscovering the discovery of a sea of islands
Published in 1993, the book A New Oceania: Rediscovering our Sea of Islands marked the re-imagining of the Pacific as a network of islands, resources, people and innovations, rather than a largely empty ocean dotted with small and isolated specks of land. That reimagining of the Pacific (which included the re-writing of Pacific discovery to include the point of view of islanders and the recognition that the Pacific had already been thoroughly explored before the arrival of Europeans) was a product of the late-twentieth century and the emergence of Māori and Pasifika voices and sensibilities.
The reanalysis of explorers’ journals that began in the 1960s offered new insights into Islander experiences when encountering Europeans. The timing of this scholarship was significant, as was its determination to strip away European preconceptions and projections in order to understand the behaviour of Islanders as rational actors with their own world views. It came as indigeneity became a source of pride, as university education become more widely available, and as the presence of historians and anthropologists who were themselves Islanders increased. The expansion of academic institutions to include more diverse scholars was of immeasurable benefit in furthering understandings of the past (and of the present).
Even in the first half of the twentieth century the significant Māori scholar Te Rangi Hīroa worked to reclaim the power of Māori tradition and to assert the achievements of Pacific navigators. His book Vikings of the Sunrise was published in 1938 during his tenure as the director of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. During the course of his career Hīroa practised medicine, served as a member of the New Zealand parliament, served with the Māori Battalion (including at Gallipoli), worked in public health, and then developed his interests and expertise in the practice of anthropology. Vikings of the Sunrise included biographical reflections, and a passionate account of the skill and daring required to discover the islands of the Pacific. While some of the details of Hīroa’s account have been refined by later archaeologists and anthropologists, his account remains eminently readable and reasonably accurate in outline. Its assertion of pride in the skills, courage, and achievements of the ancestors make it part of the rediscovery by Pasifika of the significance of their place in the world.
Hīroa was an early herald of a Māori renaissance that became more pronounced after 1960. The American civil rights movement had an influence in Aotearoa (New Zealand), and in Aotearoa land rights became a prominent point of discussion. Linked to issues of historical grievance and the need for redress were actions that aimed to secure taonga (Māori cultural treasures), including the promotion of Te Reo (the Māori language). The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 by many Māori chiefs and by representatives of the British Cr