The group left Tahiti on July 27 for the voyage. Previous stopovers included Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Papau New Guinea and now Palau. They’ll be on the island until today.
Using a traditional outrigger sailing canoe, the Tahitian voyagers will trace back the slow migration of their ancestors, from east to west, from the Pacific islands towards China, the country of origin.
“The idea is to retrace the routes of our ancestors in reverse,” Hiria Ottino, the coordinator of the O Tahiti Nui Freedom crew, said in an interview. He said scientifically, there were three main theories about their ancestors’ routes – from South America, from Southeast Asia and from the lost continent of Mu.
“Tahiti has been believed to be populated by people coming from South America. Then there’s the idea that we have also been populated by people coming from the Southeast Asia about 50,000 years ago. And the last theory is that we came from the lost continent of Mu, the continent in the Pacific Islands that disappeared,” Ottino explained.
But he said one of the strongest theories now is the one that believes Polynesians came from Southeast Asia. “Which believed to have had two movements: one is from 50,000 years ago where they walked all the way from China, to Taiwan to the Philippines and finally to Tahiti, because water then was much lower than today. And the second movement was about 6,000 years ago when they said to have travelled through canoes from China.”
The second movement is the one that the O Tahiti Nui Freedom canoe hopes to retrace in six months.
Using an original plan from the 1700s, the traditional outrigger canoe will sail from Palau to the south of Taiwan, then the Philippines, then to China, depending on the weather conditions.
“We have a double system,” Ottino explained. He said he is in charge of the modern navigation. They use one small GPS. And Koronui, a Cook Islander who’s a famous traditional navigator, is in charge of the traditional navigation, which uses the winds and the stars.
“This is the first time that an outrigger canoe will travel all the way to China from Tahiti.” Ottino added. He said they had to secure lots of official authorizations to enter China. For paper works alone, it took them almost one year to prepare everything.
And it took them three months to build the canoe. Unsubmersible, light and fast, the canoe was built out of wood epoxy, with solar panels to produce the necessary electricity to run the transmission and safety appliances. It is equipped with safety materials such as flares, life jackets, survival raft, etc.
Since they don’t have a refrigerator on board, they fish for their food and buy stocks in the countries they visit.
The crew will arrive just in time for the closing of the Expo Shanghai 2010 on October 31, in front of the world press. According to Ottino, the canoe will be exhibited at the Chinese Maritime Museum in Shanghai for a couple of months.
Ottino’s crew includes Sam who is a son of a Queen in Cook Islands; Fai, son of the present Prime Minister of Cook Islands, Koronui, famous traditional navigator from Cook Islands; Punua, from Tahiti and Captain of O Tahiti Nui; and Herve from Tahiti. During their stop over in Palau, they were joined by Tetuahau, son of former President of Tahiti; and Etinne, the President of the O Tahiti Nui Association.
The canoe is docked in front of Sam’s Tours.
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