Polynesian Way finders Explanation Writing

 Today in Hurumanu 1 (New Zealand History) we finished writing an explanation writing assessment about Polynesian Way Finders. Polynesian Way Finders are people from southeast Asia that travel to all of the small islands. eg. Niue, Cook Islands, Fiji, etc. We did it in buddy's so we could give each other feedback, my buddy was Reuben. It took us a while but we had to research everything before we could start writing so that took up most of the time. I hope you like my writing. Feel free to comment.

Do you know how to wayfinding? The Polynesian Voyages have been for thousands of years.

I will be telling you about them. What techniques they use, how they do it, where they go.

The Polynesians started wayfinding about 1496 BC, and have been for thousands of years.

Mostly they started in southeast Asia and voyaged all throughout the pacific ocean.

The techniques that they use are Incredible!. They have to memorize the positions of the stars

and where the sun was at what time of day. They use the sun's position to indicate east and west.

They do this by memorizing the position of the sun at different times of the day. Eg. 07:00am the

sun is just above the horizon indicating east. 12:00pm the sun is way high in the sky indicating North.

06:30pm the sun is just about to finish setting indicating west. (That is in summer. In winter the sun rises

west and sets east).   

The Polynesians voyage tremendous distances. They voyage across the Pacific Ocean which is over

160,000,000 Km²

(160 Million Square Kilometers). They make journeys like this every day! Imagine that.

You’re alone on the ocean for months,

your only company is a pet you bring along like a dog for instance.

There is no land in sight and you have a faint idea where you are.

That would be insanely scary. Alone on the vast open ocean with nothing but a dog for company.

Ever seen “Adrift”? It’s a movie that

was made in 2018 and there are two people stuck on a flipped boat in the middle of the ocean.

Alright back to the voyagers. 

They travel to Hawaii, Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, and a few other places.

The things that the voyagers rely on are Wa’a Kalua (Double Hulled Canoe) powered by sails and

steered with a large oar. They also need an experienced voyager, a sense of direction, good weather,

know how to fish, how to get fresh water, and how much food they have.

Another thing that amazes me is how they managed to memorize the positions of the stars. Like they

memorized the constellations, the small stars, the

large stars. Everything, (Not every one of the stars that wouldn’t be possible there is over 100 Billion stars!

That's more than all of the people in the world that's

like 14 stars for each person on earth. One final thing, maybe try some of these one days. Go out at night,

try and memorize the stars or even find the

constellations.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the Voyagers. Hope you have a great day. The End.