Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and Their Polynesian Ancestors

by Andrew Crowe

Winner of New Zealand Heritage Book Award 2019
Winner of two Ka Palapala Po'okela Awards 2019
Storylines Notable Book Award 2019
Top Ten Non-Fiction for 2018 - Auckland Libraries
Top Reads of 2018 - Weekend Herald
Best of 2019 - Radio New Zealand National: It is absolutely one of the best books I have ever read.
A highly readable and lucid account of the early Polynesians' epic saga... will appeal to both the general reader and the specialist - New Zealand Listener
Succeeds in bridging the gap between academic researchers and the general audience - Journal of the Polynesian Society
A veritable mine of information about the environments and resources of ancient Polynesia. It stands as an excellent addition to earlier books on Polynesian navigation by authors such as David Lewis and Geoffrey Irwin - Journal of Anthropological Research
The book is very well written and illustrated, and is comprehensively referenced... I highly recommend [it] for its readability and presentation while offering an informed account of how Polynesians in double-hulled canoes voyaged over vast distances of the Pacific Ocean from small island to small island, carrying with them the materials required for successful settlement - International Journal of Maritime History

In this book, natural history writer Andrew Crowe elaborates.on how Polynesian navigators - in one of the most expansive and rapid phases of human migration in prehistory - managed to find and re-find incredibly small and/or remote targets scattered across the Pacific. As Hawaiian master navigator Nainoa Thompson explains: 'Everything you need to navigate is in nature. The question is, can you see it?'

For further details - including awards, interviews, podcasts, reviews, commendations - go to: https://authors.org.nz/author/andrewc...

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Adventure, Travel, Birds, Ancient History, Nature

288 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2018

About the author

Andrew Crowe is the award-winning author of some 40 non-fiction titles. His recent book, Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and their Polynesian Ancestors, received four awards. Full details at ►https://authors.org.nz/author/andrewc...

Reviews

[Angelique Simonsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good source of how the polynesians spread across the Pacific. It doesn't get too technical on voyaging methods but gives you enough to understand how well these people understood the oceans! Great book would recommend to others interested in where Maori came from

[Nigel Milius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Absolutely fantastic book! I have had a copy sitting there waiting to read for a while, I knew it would be good, but didn't realise it would be THAT good! So much research into so many facets of the story, all pulled together into a way which is highly readable even to someone as un-scholarly as myself. My particular interest is natural history (especially birds) but I also have a fascination for exploration and the sea. This book therefore covers many of these things and much else. From the DNA of Pacific Rats to astronomy, from bird migration to sailing and boat construction, from linguistics to traditions of oral rather than written histories, it's all here, and all woven together beautifully. I particularly liked the balanced discussions on other theories of how Pacific Islands may have been discovered apart from the ones core to this book. Having also a keen interest in Antarctic exploration, it got me thinking about the legends of Ui-te Rangiora reaching "the frozen seas" c.650AD. Although outside the scope of this book, the peoples and possible techniques would have been similar, and whilst I still think it quite unlikely that Polynesians did reach Antarctica all those centuries ago (and, more relevant and even more unlikely, they got back to tell the tale!) I can now understand much better how it could have happened.
Andrew is a personal friend of mine and I have some idea as to how long this book was in preparation and some of the angst involved in it over that time. I'm so glad it was persisted with, the result is a truly outstanding read.

[Kate]

So Andrew, whose other books form the backbone of my NZ natural history home library, has a knack for writing in such a way that draws me in to subject matter I didn’t know was of interest to me. This type of storytelling makes learning history fun and fascinating. Andrew’s impeccable and engaging writing and the accompanying, maps, photos, diagrams and references help convey the extraordinary feat of these resourceful people. I am astounded as to how much research has gone into creating this must read book.

[Cathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think the Vikings were the greatest pre-modern sea-faring people, take a good look at a map of the Pacific and note that Samoa was settled by about 900BC. Virtually all reasonable Pacific islands were inhabited when the great European explorers came looking from about 1500 onwards. Polynesians are the greatest sea farers the world has ever known.

So why is it that, growing up in NZ, I heard of Leif Eriksson, James Cook, Vasca da Gama and Magellan, but never of Tupa'ia? I had a vague notion that Cook picked up a Tahitian on his voyages who was somehow able to translate for him when they arrived in New Zealand, but no idea that it was Tupa'ia who showed Cook how to find it in the first place. Then, a couple of years ago, the Royal Academy did a wonderful exhibition of Pacific cultures, Oceania and I found a new fascination with this history.

Pathway of the Birds is the story of Polynesian voyaging, explaining how they navigated the Pacific, the evidence for the widely accepted idea that they came from the west along the band of islands between the tropics, heading as far north as Hawai'i, south to Aotearoa/New Zealand and possibly even as far as South America, picking up the kumara while there.

It puts to rest some older ideas of 'accidental voyaging', describing how early explorers may have found remote islands by observing bird migrations, currents and floating materials to then return home and mount colonising expeditions with larger groups of people, livestock and plants. They navigated without compass or chronometer, but with a deep knowledge of celestial navigation, currents and the ocean.

Andrew Crowe is particularly strong on the way genetics and comparative linguistics have been used to map likely relationships between the cultures of all the islands, and show that there's a very real sense in which there is one overall Polynesian culture. He also talks about it extending north west into the Solomons and Caroline Islands where the local language is easily understood by Maori speakers, over 4000km away. This gives us a wealth of detail on plants, birds and their names, with beautiful photos and illustrations throughout.

Its told from a New Zealand frame of reference, with liberal use of Maori terms and NZ references which may be slightly tricky for other readers. Comparing the Kermadecs to Little Barrier is a new twist on the standard British land measurement of Wales, but possibly even less useful.

This is a very different sort of archaeology, from a place which will be very remote to many of us, but tells a story to rank with the most interesting and astounding of European or Middle Eastern origins. Here we have a completely different way of being human, a civilisation so physically and psychologically remote from ours, yet so close. Well worth a read.

[Neil Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. I have always had an interest in the navigational exploits of the Polynesians, which is part of my ancestry. Little was known about how they were able to colonise the Pacific Ocean until the researches of David Lewis in the ‘60s & ‘70s led him to study with traditional navigators in the Caroline Islands. This in turn led to the revival of Hawaiian voyages in the form of the traditional double-hulled Hokule’a & a resurgence of interest in traditional navigation throughout the Pacific wth other craft being constructed.
Andrew Crowe’s book brings together all the current evidence into one very readable volume, especially on the importance of migratory seabirds & particularly on the importance of the NZ long-tailed cuckoo whose seasonal migration from the Pacific Islands to lands in the south (New Zealand) to breed, meant the ancient Polynesians knew NZ existed even before anyone had visited. The book also covers the importance of rat & kumara (sweet potato) DNA in tracing the spread of people through the Pacific. This book, with great illustrations & notes, is a must to anyone who has an interest in the exploration of the Pacific Ocean in the millennia before the Europeans arrived on the scene.

[Johann Bernhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book was long overdue and I can’t recommend it highly enough to anybody who is interested in the origins of our country’s settlement, its people and culture. It should especially be part of the school curriculum in Aotearoa as well as in the Polynesian Islands. That way we all might get an appreciation of the amazing seafaring achievements of the Polynesian people, who showed us that learning from nature can beat technological “progress” (by thousands of years).

From the media I knew about archaeological findings suggesting that the origins of Polynesians in general, and Maori in particular, are to be found in Southeast Asia. That was fascinating information, as the path from there to New Zealand through the Pacific Ocean and via island groups looks dauntingly distant. I tried to imagine the vastness of the ocean, especially from the more central island groups of Polynesia to the remote outliers of Hawai’i, Rapanui and Aotearoa. But however much I tried, the vastness remained abstract until I sailed from Aotearoa to Tonga and Fiji, and even more so when I had the opportunity to sail on a Greenpeace ship to Pitcairn and then on to Mururoa. This ocean is vast beyond imagination; it goes on and on and on. That’s when I realized the absurdity of Islands of Polynesia supposedly colonized by accidental drifting.

But the question of how they achieved this feat remained a bit of a mystery to me until I came across Andrew Crowe’s book Pathway of the Birds. And what a revelation it was! Meticulous and painstaking, Andrew puts the whole compelling story together. All his references to the many aspects that combine to allow the observant seafarer to find their way across the vast uncharted expanse of the ocean are convincingly laid out in this book. The whole book and its narrative is easy to read and to follow. I read it from beginning to end with increasing fascination. Of all the useful images, charts and explanations I found the many maps most helpful to follow the logic of the movements, the origins of voyages and the likely paths followed.


Johann Bernhardt

[Marcella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got unusually emotional at the introduction of this book because I didn't know about any of this. A massively widespread voyaging culture, long distance navigating without instruments, an age of exploration that happened before and was way more impressive and successful that anything the Vikings ever did.

This book delivered on its promise. It's incredibly information dense (hence taking 5+ weeks to finish). At times it felt repetitive, especially when talking about distances or DNA evidence from Pacific rats, but the interesting sidebars kept me going. This book was written by and for New Zealanders, and the periodic mysterious cultural reference was fun.

As far as science books go, I thought it was excellent. Everything was cited and the author presented opposing viewpoints in a balanced way. He provides a compelling case for an advanced voyaging society whose accomplishments were systematically derided, underplayed, and dismissed by eventual European visitors. The archaeological evidence does not support the idea that all these islands were settled by castaways on rafts, but that remains a dominant narrative. I also thought it was interesting how quickly characterizations of Polynesians changed: initial white visitors described them as robust and healthy, but a couple rounds of smallpox and TB later and suddenly they are desperate, incompetent refugees.

Overall this is a gorgeous book that addresses the navigational accomplishments of a fascinating culture that is understudied (by average people, not historians or scientists) in the west.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers and very readable account of how the Māori and their Polynesian cousins populated almost all islands in the Polynesian triangle between Hawaii (north), New Zealand (southwest) and Rapanui (Easter Island) in the southeast. He provides a vast array of evidence and admits where there are weaknesses in the argument that Polynesian ancestors deliberately and systematically proceeded in outward and return voyages to their lands of origin. This is a fascinating work that, for me anyway, confirms the things I came to believe about the Māori and other Polynesian people and their abilities as sailors. This belief became stronger the more I read and listened. I would recommend this book to anyone having an interest in Polynesia and its settlement.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read and summarises the amazing skills and achievements of Polynesian navigators in finding and settling just about all the islands and atolls in an area comprising 15% of the earth, travelling 1000s of km, making return voyages and all before Europeans had ventured more than 225 km offshore. Plus documents the dreadful toll on this island populations once contact with European sailors was made. Population losses from 60 to 90%, mostly from disease with violence and slavery thrown in for good measure.

[Wendy Hare · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story gleaned from master story tellers around the Pacific and woven together with love and passion with years of research and deep attention to detail by Andrew Crowe - himself, a master story teller. If you sail, if you love natural history or if you want to know more about what shaped the Aotearoa-New Zealand we live in today this is a MUST read. Andrews great skill in crafting a story that is easy to read and understand makes this epic accessible to everyone.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The detail in this book is at times overwhelming and I often found it annoying ; showing Pacific migration and interchange of animals and birds and voyaging back and forth of humans. The proof is mainly provided by commonality of plants, some birds, some language, cultural practices, some use of natural materials and foods, some proof of use of certain craft/boats, some knowledge/documentation of European discovery, some animals and various dna investigations. However I am not totally sure all of it is 100% for real and convincing and I found a few generalisations where I wasn't sure their authenticity had been shown. In other words while it seems the evidence and suppositions for his theories make sense I felt the author was bending the actual evidence and facts to his viewpoints. He also makes statements which suppose the reader has prior knowledge of history, prehistory and certain other terms which would seem to leave many readers unable to follow everything. I particularly did not find it suitable for school students and feel even tertiary students would need some grounding in basic course material in a number of fields before being able to make the most of it.
As part of my BA I have 2 papers in anthropology/prehistory and 1 in Modern Pacific History [admittedly some time ago but taught by very skilled foresighted academics ] but still found the viewpoints not that convincingly backed up. I will read through again but feel annoyed that I need to.
There are a multitude of photographs, portraits, drawings and maps which were a] mostly too small, b] not always very clear in content and often inadequate c] overcrowded d] annoying - this mostly applying to the globes with vague indications of where certain vocabulary/plant use / practices occur, e] not always proof of anything much.
On Page 96 2 plant labels are in the wrong order.
The author states that the most important evidence re early migration to Aotearoa relates to Eastern Polynesia but does not provide a specific labelled map of the area until near the end of the book. The index does not cover everything mentioned although does seem to cover the main themes.

[Vineet Kaur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rich source of knowledge about the history of Maori and their Polynesian ancestors how they travelled all Pacific Islands and settled down in New Zealand. I chose this book because I wanted to have some knowledge about New Zealand History and Geography. Although this book does not tell much about the Geography of New Zealand, what I found in this book was even beyond what I was looking for.

After reading the book, I came to know about so many Pacific and other tiny islands which are even hard to see on the map without zooming, and these Islands have such a great history of settlement by Polynesians. If I would not have read this book, I would have missed something great to know about. This book also describes all the voyaging methods used by Polynesians, although not too technical, but easy enough to understand for every reader.

Pictures and maps are another great thing of this book which makes it easy to relate and understand every Island and its wildlife and people. Facts and figures shown in separate columns are quite handy if you want to go back to any chapter and relate it to something in your current chapter.

If you want to get a high-level knowledge about Polynasian's history and their voyaging pathway, this single book is enough to get that basic knowledge.

I am happy that I read this book and could grab a big knowledge of Maori's ancestors and how great explorers they were.

Highly recommended book to all, especially who are after some New Zealand History.

[Bryan Leyland · Rating 5 out of 5]

How the Polynesians managed to voyage all over the Pacific without a compass or sextant or chronometer has mystified people ever since Europeans first visited the Pacific Islands. Early explanations were based on accidental voyaging but it didn't explain the two way voyaging that undoubtedly took place. In recent years people have learned from the few remaining Polynesian and Micronesian navigators just how they were able to find their way across oceans that, to a European, were trackless.

Andrew Crowe's book reveals all. He has done extensive research on the voyaging and how the Polynesians and the Micronesians found their way by following the pathways of the birds, observing wave directions, studying the stars and much more. It demonstrates that 1000 years ago – and more – they were, by far, the best navigators in the world. They were crossing great oceans when all the other sailors were creeping nervously around coastlines.

For anyone interested in the peoples of the Pacific and ther voyages, I cannot recommend this book too highly.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

EVERYONE HAS TO READ THIS ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE FROM THE PACIFIC

[Fannington · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true scholarly achievement, and a much needed corrective to the section on Maori navigation presented in the book Tangata Whenua, supposedly the most comprehensive book on Maori ever written. The continuing accumulation of science-based evidence supporting the strong oral history of Polynesia should by now have put to rest the notion that the original settlement of Aotearoa was somehow accidental, and that there wasn't movement back and forth to the Cooks and the Society Islands. The vast migration of birds before their populations were decimated by rats on most of these islands would have made it virtually inevitable that skilled Polynesian wayfarers would have gone back and forth in the Southern Hemisphere spring with a return in the autumn. It would indeed have been a pathway almost impossible to miss.

[Bruce Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Zealand might as well be known as Birdland. According to this book, a quarter of the world's seabirds consider this land their landing zone. Polynesian seafarers used birds and stars (sky ropes) as guides, crossing immense distances on earth's largest ocean.
This work is an immense treasure trove of unexpected information. We learn, for example, that a specific tomato was favored in cannibalistic feasts. That there is a a specific word, mai, meaning ‘to drink saltwater’ in Mangarevan language. That my favorite bird, the fantail, has 23 names in Māori. That tsunami actually have historians— referred to in the book as paleotsunami researchers.
A surprising lacuna was that kūmara was not given is true provenance as a word from the Incan language. Despite that, the book is highly recommended for people interested in the Pacific, particularly New Zealand.

[RobdawgReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've ever been curious about human exploration, migration, and settlement in the South Pacific, I highly recommend Pathway of the Birds by Andrew Crowe!!! He provides an amazing and well-cited synthesis of the scientific research carried out in the region. The book has a ton of beautiful pictures and incredibly informative maps! Also, it's not full of jargon and is extremely easy to read!

I have loved reading this to obtain a general understanding of research in the South Pacific and I will definitely be citing this in my PhD dissertation!

[Elisabeth Nz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant feat of research and filled with fascinating facts and insights, have taken so much from this that I find I am often telling people some of the fascinating things i have learned by reading this book. Bravo!

[Brian Chamberlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

andrews explanation of how the kumara arrived via south America I found a bit far fetched any one interested in this topic the book by max hill 'to the ends of the earth and back again' provides interesting reading

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional read, full of eye opening research and astounding insights into the Polynesian exploits throughout history. This book is an important stepping stone in the expansion of understanding regarding the skill and knowledge of the pre-european Pacific peoples.

[Daniel Ready]

Loved it

[Chris]

In library

[Devin Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting book on how Eastern Polynesia was settled and the evidence for it.