Stars and Tales of the Sea Kings: Kaveŋa
The beginnings of a remarkable legacy in the Pacific
Tracing back five thousand years ago, in the years following 3,500 BC, a truly remarkable chapter in human pre-history was taking place. The first ocean voyages to successfully cross into the remote Oceania region of the Pacific.
The daring spirit, courage, and intuition of the seafarers, was guided by a deep ancestral knowledge of the heavens, ocean, and land; transforming vast swathes of ocean into invisible highways. Mapped in their minds through the stars, winds, and clouds; the ocean's currents, colours and waves; sea life and land life.
Steering by the stars, winds, swells and sun
Navigating in relation to guiding stars provided the most accurate directional markers for seafarers supplemented by compasses derived from the sun, winds, and swells. Navigators had become expert astronomers for wayfinding and well adept in selecting and steering towards guiding stars or constellations as they rose from the horizon (for easterly directions) or as they set (for westerly directions) to arrive at their desired location. The skills of an expert navigator, or sea king, were so well crafted that they could navigate precisely to the harbours of an island via the stars, and stay on course when only one to two stars.
Kaveŋa - the guiding stars to which one navigates.
The word Kaveŋa is one of the earliest Oceanic words for navigating a star's path with linguistic traces of the word remaining throughout the Pacific today; kaveiŋa (Tongan, Pukapukan, Rarotongan, Anutan), 'avei'a (Tahitian). As the most important navigational guide, the word Kaveŋa, holds within it a rich self-determined heritage that connects the Asia-Pacific, filled with a legacy of courage and intuition, and the humbling intellect of human connectedness to our natural world.
The lost art.
With time, the ancient lore and legends of the sea kings has all but vanished. And with it, the profound connections between the heavens, ocean and land have once again become invisible to the unknowing mind. Yet remnants remain for those who seek. As the Tahitian saying goes -
‘O te puoe te muhumuhu no te ta’ata ana’e iho ‘o tei ‘ite i te fa’aro’o.
”The sea-shell sings for him alone who knows how to listen”
✧ Tahitian saying ✧
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Related Reading
✧ We, the navigators: the ancient art of landfinding in the Pacific by D. Lewis (1972). One of the most complete records of Pacific navigation, although collected at a time the body of knowledge was already rapidly disappearing.
✧ The lexicon of Proto Oceanic; the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society, Pacific Linguistics (2007).
✧ Songs and tales of the Sea Kings by J. Frank Stimson (1952). Interpretations of the oral literature of Polynesia, provides English translations to Tahitian Polynesian poems and stories.