On the improbability of pre-European Polynesian voyages to Antarctica

Abstract

Recent publications by Wehi and colleagues assert that Māori or other Polynesians in the pre-European era voyaged to and from the Antarctic. Such ideas have been advanced for more than a century, largely in relation to Rarotongan traditions translated by Percy Smith. As the juxtaposition of unexamined Polynesian traditions with historical archives is problematic for both historiography and matauranga Māori, an analytical approach is taken here to the traditional evidence. It is argued that a key assertion referring to frozen seas has a different and more probable interpretation and that there are no compelling traditions of Antarctic voyaging. In addition, Polynesian voyaging through the circumpolar westerlies would have little chance of success and archaeological evidence of Polynesian voyaging does not extend south of about 50° South. It is concluded that Antarctic voyaging by pre-European Polynesians seems most unlikely. Show more