OBJECTIVE

Experimental Archeology - To retrace the history of the migration of the Polynesian ancestors, 3000BC ago

The ancestors of the Polynesian

The ancestors of the Polynesian, originating from the east coast of China, carried out a unique exploit in the history of mankind: the exploration and settlement of the biggest ocean in the world.

• It was the first high technology (canoe and sails building) and knowledge (agriculture, livestock, fishing, navigation technics) migration ,

• It was the first migration not by foot, but which required great technical and empirical training: the knowledge to make oceangoing ships along with comprehension of the elements to sail them.

• The last great migration and systematic colonization of the largest ocean of the world which remains to this day the middle of the exchanges: the Pacific, 20,000 km from Asia to Central America;

Without metal and only equipped of wooden canoes and stone tools, the Polynesian explored over 41 million square kilometers of ocean and settled on every habitable island in the Pacific. They brought with them their world view and an array of plants and animals.

Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia

The Pacific is usually subdivided into three large cultural areas: Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. However, linguistically and archaeologically, only the Polynesians can be identified as a unified group: “…only in Polynesia do we find a robust grouping, one that is meaningful in terms of a set of peoples and cultures that share a common history”[1].

All the known Polynesian cultures share a common ancestral and cultural heritage: Asia.

"O Tahiti Nui Freedom" Expedition

Using a traditional outrigger sailing canoe, the expedition consisted of retracing, but in a reverse direction, the route of settlement which began over 6,000 years ago.

The canoe traced back this slow migration, from east to west, from the Pacific islands towards China, the country of origin[2]. The important settlement areas will thus become the stopovers on the return voyage: Tahiti, Raiatea, Cook Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and China (Fujian).

[1] “On the Roads of the Winds – an archaeological history of the Pacific Islands before European Contact », University of California Press, 2000, Patrick Kirch (page 211).

[2] Aspect archéologique général : Bellwood (1987), Green (1993), Jennings (1979), Kirch (1982, 1984, 1989)