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Cynthia Smith and Andrew Reeves
INTRODUCTION
DISCOVERY
One of the most notable examples of re-discovery in history occurred during the Late Middle Ages. Beginning in the late 1300s, literate populations of Europe embraced the Renaissance, the cultural movement that led to the recovery and dissemination of forgotten or lost Classical cultural foundations. Rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture and the rebirth of literacy and scholarship laid the foundation for modern Western philosophy, sciences, mathematics, literature, art and architecture. The Renaissance enabled early modern Europeans to leave behind many strictures and the stagnancy of Medieval life.
This term has since become a compelling reference to movements of other peoples seeking to revive their heritage, identity, and history. Present day indigenous renaissance movements, for example, strive to recover, translate, preserve and disseminate native knowledge in areas such as medicine, storytelling, oral histories, ceremonies, and creative arts. Hawaiian historian George Kanahele noted in 1979, “(c)ultural revivals are taking place among the Cajuns in Louisiana, the Indians of the north and southwest and other parts of the United States; the Maoris in New Zealand, the Rarotongans in the Cook Islands, and the Chamorros in Guam; the Welsh in Wales; the Bataks in Sumatra; the Filipinos in the Philippines. Wherever there are peoples who feel strongly enough about their identities and legacies, there will usually be strong efforts to preserve and strengthen them (Kanehele 1979, 9). And one African historian noted “(i)t is invoked by all sorts of names, this future, names of hope and redemption: the African revolution, reawakening, reconstruction, rebirth, regeneration, renewal, resurrection, revival, and renaissance…” (Zeleza 2009, 155).
During the European Renaissance, humanist scholars sought to discover Greek and Roman manuscripts lost in the violence, upheaval and cultural stagnancy of Medieval Europe. Those carrying out ‘humanist archival archeology’ rescued seminal ancient Greek and Roman works moldering away in monastery libraries (Rundle 2020). Other works were reintroduced to Europe by Crusaders returning from Mediterranean regions.Manuscripts were recovered from Byzantine libraries while in other cases ancient Classical texts were preserved in translation in Islamic libraries. Modern cultural re-discovery efforts require a similar level of creativity and diligence. Efforts include translating and preserving traditional records found in forms other than writing. As one scholar notes, “…. there has to be cognizance of the “languages” of, say, Chippewa birch-bark pictographs, Pueblo pottery, Haida engravings, cave and rock petroglyphs, Kwakiutl and Tlingit clan totem pole, or Navajo sand painting” (Lee 2020, 257).
Native Hawaiian culture has also undergone an inspiring example of renaissance and revival. The diminishment and suppression of Hawaiian language and trad