Science, Travel and History: Never Lost

"Thousands of years ago, small groups of Polynesians set out on canoes for points unknown, possibly never to return, leaving behind loved ones and the safety of terra firma. What made them do it?"

"No written record preserves Polynesian history, but speculations abound. They may have been driven by population pressures, a famine caused by a period of drought, or a lost battle. Or they may have been led by an ambitious chief, bent on glory or expansion. Some voyages may not have been driven by necessity at all, but instead by curiosity and a spirit of adventure."

"This much is certain: Traditions of seafaring ran deep in the peoples of Polynesia, and often those who voyaged left their homes with no intention of returning, bringing with them the plants and animals they would need to start their lives afresh in a new land."

Never Lost, an Exploratorium website, online at www.exploratorium.edu/neverlost, explores ancient

navigation techniques that nearly disappeared, but are now experiencing a revival across Polynesia, especially in Hawaii. Thousands of years ago Polynesians navigated by direct observation, relying on clues from the sun, moon, and stars, as well as ocean swells, winds, and wildlife, as they voyaged over open ocean settling islands across the Pacific. Never Lost shares the story of this living tradition and charts wayfinding practices that are still in use today. This multimedia site began last spring and is available in both English and Hawaiian.

From a virtual canoe floating beneath an “astronomically correct” sky, online visitors can learn to see the world as it appeared to the ancient Polynesians. Virtual voyage instruction, master navigators “talking story” in the Hawaiian tradition, an online planetarium with a tour of the Hawaiian night sky, podcasts, and educational resources for teachers will be featured. Never Lost is intended to become part of the Exploratorium’s Ancient Observatories series*. In researching Never Lost, Exploratorium staff collaborated with expert navigator Kalepa Baybayan and Dr. Paul Coleman, an astrophysicist at the University of Hawaii, as well as the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii: http://www.imiloahawaii.org.

The 'Imiloa Center takes its name from the Hawaiian word ‘imiloa, which means to explore or to seek profound truth. Exhibit programs explore the connections between the early Polynesian star navigators, our earliest astronomers and observers of the skies, and today’s astronomers, who look at stars for answers to questions about how life began.

Chadd Kalepa Baybayan, a native Hawaiian, is an expert ocean navigator, and Navigator-in-Residence at the Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo, Hawai’i. He is one among a handful of people in the world to have been granted the rank of Pwo (master navigator in the Micronesian tradition). Baybayan also mentors Hawaiian youth in traditional navigation practices that use no instruments aboard double-hulled canoes on voyages across thousands of miles of open ocean.

*Chaco Canyon

*Chichén Itzá

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Science, Travel and History: Never Lost

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