Finding islands without a compass
Polynesia is a vast triangle of ocean with Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island at its corners, and its islands were settled by people sailing double-hulled canoes, steering by the stars, the swell of the waves and the flight of birds. For much of the 1900s, some Western scholars doubted this could have been done on purpose, and suggested the islands had been found by canoes drifting off course.
In 1976 a replica voyaging canoe, the Hōkūleʻa, sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti, more than 4,000 kilometres, with no compass, charts or instruments. Its navigator, Mau Piailug, came from a small island in Micronesia and was one of the last people still trained in the old wayfinding. The voyage took about a month and went a long way to settling the argument. Many Polynesian peoples, including the MAORI of New Zealand, trace their ancestors to a homeland called HAWAIKI, and the stories of MAUI and the gods crossed the Pacific the same way the people did.
A fish the size of an island
MAUI, the demigod and trickster, turns up in stories right across the Pacific, and one of the best known is how he fished up land. In Māori tradition he hid in his brothers' canoe, lowered a hook made from his grandmother's jawbone, and hauled up a fish so enormous that it became the North Island of New Zealand. Its Māori name, Te Ika-a-Māui, means the fish of MAUI.
He also decided the days were too short, so he and his brothers snared the sun with ropes as it rose and beat it until it agreed to cross the sky more slowly. In Hawaii, the mountain Haleakalā, 'house of the sun', is where he is said to have caught it. Not every scheme worked. His attempt to win everlasting life for people failed when a small fantail bird laughed at the worst possible moment and woke the goddess of death.
Gods with a home address
In Māori tradition, the sky father RANGI and earth mother PAPA once held each other so tightly that their children lived in darkness between them, until the forest god TANE lay on his back and pushed them apart with his legs. Not all the children agreed: TAWHIRI, god of the winds, was so furious that he still attacks his brothers with storms. The rain is RANGI's tears for his lost partner. In New Zealand's Waipoua Forest stands Tāne Mahuta, 'lord of the forest', the largest living kauri tree, thought to be somewhere between 1,250 and 2,500 years old.
In Hawaii, PELE, goddess of fire and volcanoes, is said to live in the summit crater of Kīlauea, one of the most active volcanoes on Earth. Scientists use her name too: fine threads of volcanic glass blown by the wind are called Pele's hair, and small drops of it are Pele's tears. The national park there regularly receives parcels of lava rock posted back by visitors who took one home and then had a run of bad luck. For many Hawaiians, PELE remains a living presence, honoured with chants, hula and offerings.