Navigators/wayfinders

 Kia ora Bloggers 

This week my class and I have been learning about Polynesian navigators. 

Polynesian navigators were smart and creative. They travelled and they respected each other. 

They are really important to the Polynesian people, they were intelligent and they used birds to find land. When they would find land they would help each other,  they respected the land and they kept  their waka/canoe in a good condition until it was time to use them again. During the adventures of the navigators, the navigators didn’t use any technology/devices or google, they used the animals, the wind and the stars. 

One of the important things that the navigators needed to know was the star compass. A star compass was similar to the compasses we use these days but the one that the navigators used was hard to remember because the navigators had to memorise them in their head because they couldn't see the star compass. Matariki is a star cluster that is important to Maori people AND the Polynesians because in the beginning the people from hawaiiki used Matariki to navigate. When the navigators saw leaves floating around in the sea, they knew they were near land and when  they saw birds they also knew they were close to land. They can find clues from land from about 80 kilometres away.

At night they used up the time and they looked at the stars to see where they were, because in their times they didn’t have any devices so the navigators used the stars.  The navigators sailed by wind. They knew when it was time to sail because the wind was blowing from the opposite side from the way they wanted to go. Navigators used many techniques to find land.  When they found land, they would keep some people there then they would travel and find more land.

Thank you for reading