![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Māori cosmology tells the history of this land as a story not only of wayfaring but of fishing. ![]() Aotearoa, or “The Land of the Long White Cloud” as it translates in Māori language, is the indigenous name used for both the North Island, and for the country as a whole, the largest island complex in this Pacific triangle. The area triangulated by Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Hawai’i, and New Zealand is home to distinct but interrelated Pacific cultures living on and across more than a thousand islands. It is an ancient art that has survived across the Pacific and Melanesia through elders such as Mau “Papa” Piailug (Satawal), Sir Hector “Hek” Busby (New Zealand), and Nainoa Thompson, (Hawaii), and is still being taught and practiced today. Imagine learning the intricate language of the stars, when and where they rise and set, how they rotate in the circular celestial diagrams that are the foundation of wayfaring, the learned and memorized skills of celestial navigation.Īlthough both modern and traditional navigators take into account weather patterns, the movement of the currents and tides as well as avian and marine life, celestial mapping in traditional wayfaring guided these travelers accurately before GPS or satellites. Imagine the vast dark sea as a place, and that the map to understanding this place lives in the heavens. ![]()
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