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imagine setting sail from Hawaii in a
canoe your target is a small island
thousands of kilometers away in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean
that's a body of water that covers more
than a hundred sixty million square
kilometers greater than all the land
masses on earth combined
for thousands of years Polynesian
navigators managed voyages like this
without the help of modern navigational
aids ancient Polynesians used the Sun
Moon stars planets ocean currents and
clouds as guides that allowed them to
see the ocean as a series of pathways
rather than an obstacle
they're voyages began around 1500 BC
when the people who would settle
Polynesia first set sail from Southeast
Asia early Polynesians eventually
settled a vast area of islands spread
over 40 million square kilometers of the
Pacific Ocean some historians believe
the voyagers moved from place to place
to avoid overpopulation others that they
were driven by war voyages became less
frequent by around 1300 ad as polynesian
societies became more rooted in specific
locations
during the voyage Imperial successful
journeys depended on a number of factors
well-built canoes the skill of
navigators and whether being some of the
biggest voyages relied on sturdy vaca
lua or double-hulled canoes which were
powered by sails and steered with a
single large oar canoe building involved
the whole community bringing together
the navigators canoe builders priests
chanters and hula dancers navigators
were keen observers of the natural world
they were abundantly familiar with trade
wind generated ocean swells which
typically flow north east or south east
by day navigators could identify
direction by the rocking motion of their
canoes caused by these swells but
sunrise and sunset were even more useful
the sun's position indicated east and
west and created low light on the ocean
that made it possible to see swells
directly
at night navigators used something
called a star compass which wasn't a
physical object but rather a sort of
mental map they memorized the rising and
setting points of stars and
constellations at different times of the
year they used those to divide the sky
into four quadrants subdivided into 32
houses with the canoe in the middle so
for example when they saw the star
Pyrrha Atia rising from the ocean they
knew that to be northeast they had some
other tricks too
the Earth's axis points towards Ho Koopa
or the North Star so-called because it's
the one fixed point in the sky as the
Earth rotates and always indicates north
however it's not visible south of the
Equator so navigators there could use a
constellation called Navy or the
Southern Cross and some mental tricks to
estimate where South is for instance
draw a line through these two stars
extend it 4.5 times and draw another
line from there to the horizon that's
south
the sky also contains navigational aids
much closer to earth the clouds
besides being useful weather cues under
the right conditions they can indicate
land masses for instance the lagoons of
Pacific a tolls can actually be seen
reflected on the underside of clouds if
you know what to look for and high
masses of clouds can indicate
mountainous Islands
once Navigators neared their destination
other clues such as the flight patterns
of birds floating debris or vegetation
and types of fish in the area helped
determine the proximity of land for
example the Manu oku had a known flight
range of 190 kilometers and could be
followed back to shore
so how do we know all of this partially
through evidence in petroglyphs written
observations of European explorers and
Polynesian oral traditions but also by
trying them out for ourselves in 2017 a
voyage in canoe called Hokulea completed
a worldwide voyage using only these
techniques if that seems remarkable
remember the ancient Polynesians who
through close study and kinship with
nature were able to forge these paths
across an unfathomable vast vibrant
living ocean
the educator behind this lesson helped
Ted Ed's student voice program find its
way to Hawaii over 30 Ted ed clubs have
since formed in the Hawaiian Islands and
thousands more across the globe what if
every educator and student subscribed to
Ted ed followed Alan's lead navigate to
Ed ted.com slash clubs to be the founder
of the first TED ed Club at your school
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