Learn more about the history of the Polynesian people, inhabitants of the region called Polynesia that served as inspiration for ‘Moana’
In the movie ‘Moana’, you’ll see that the characters have multiple tattoos. This was indeed a characteristic of the ancient Polynesian people – the animation takes place about 2000 years ago. From adolescence onwards, young people had their skin drawn, using instruments made of bamboo, bone or wood (and pigments made from soot and water). The tattoo identified the person’s island of origin and hierarchical position in society.
for new lands
About 4 thousand years ago, the Polynesians (inhabitants of the region called Polynesia, in the Pacific Ocean) went to discover the world! They departed from islands like New Guinea and Solomon to find other nearby territories like Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
Slowly
The Polynesians were smart: to avoid running out of a region’s natural resources, they colonized new places. Thus, even though established in some islands of the Pacific, they went beyond! Between the years 800 and 1000, they arrived in Hawaii. Then, around 1200, they reached Easter Island (present-day territory of Chile) and New Zealand.
With an eye on nature
Ancient Polynesians did not have locating instruments such as compasses to navigate. Even so, they managed to direct the vakas (canoes, in their language) following some signs: the stars, the flights of migratory birds, the formation of waves and currents in the sea, the wind and the color of the clouds. They even knew there was land nearby thanks to the smoke from the volcanoes in the area.
Vakas, in general, had two candles in the shape of a triangle made of coconut fibers. Over time, the look changed, but the main features were maintained: interlocking hulls and forks (side floats) — to give stability. The hull of these types of canoes was carved into the trunk of trees. With all this, the vakas sailed up to 200 kilometers a day.
Ark of Noah
On board the vakas, in addition to the crew (made up of men, women and children), there were dogs, pigs, chickens and plant seedlings — everything necessary to live in the discovered place. When they arrived on an island, the different Polynesian clans lived under one roof.
A tradition of this people was the mahu: a family member always took care of the parents in their old age. As the task was female, the caregiver, regardless of gender, was considered a woman (she wore a flower in her right ear) — and received respect from society.
Goodbye ocean!
Polynesians stopped exploring new places when they were colonized by Europeans, in the 16th century. The first to land in the region was the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendaña de Neirawhich reached the Marquesas Islands in 1595. From there, other European peoples dominated Polynesia.
Nowadays
The set of Polynesian islands covers a huge area of the ocean: there are more than 298 thousand square kilometers for about 4.5 million inhabitants. The biggest islands are volcanic in origin and the smallest ones arose from corals. Today, most of the islands belong to the United States (Hawaii and Midway), New Zealand (Cook Islands, Tokelau and Niue), France (Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu, Tubuai and islands that form French Polynesia) and Chile ( Easter Island, Sala and Gómez).
Source: Recreio
