Rapa Nui Voyage--Education Projects

Closing the Triangle: A Quest for Rapa Nui
Polynesian Voyaging Society

The voyage to Rapa Nui can be used as the basis for on-line or library research and/or writing assignments in Social Studies/Hawaiian, Polynesian, Pacific Island Studies, Science or Applied Math, or Language Arts classes; or in an interdiscplinary curriculum. It can be adapted for students from K-12 or college, of varying ability. The assignments may include writing postcards, letters, or journals; informal essays; or research papers.

A teacher may design his or her own research and writing assignments, with different emphases, depending on the subject being taught. Topics or projects might include:

Why We Explore: students could brainstorm and write about why people explore the world about them. Why did the people who came to be known as the Polynesians leave the world of continents and large islands in the Western Pacific to explore a vast unknown Ocean, discovering and settling small islands to the east and becoming the greatest explorers of their time? (See Polynesian Migrations and Voyaging Traditions of the Polynesians.) Was their motive love of adventure? Or curiosity about the unknown oceanic space at the eastern frontier? Was the impetus for exploration population growth and a search for new land and resources? Or conflicts in the home country, with those defeated forced to leave? What parallels are there to modern space exploration? Or to the students' own explorations of their worlds?

Tracking the Canoe: students can track the canoe daily, plotting the longitude and latitude of the canoe from daily reports. A more challenging excerise would be to estimate the position of the canoe for the following day, given the canoe's heading and the direction and speed of the wind and ocean current and the weather forecast. On the following day, students could plot the canoe's actual position and discuss the accuracy of their prediction: was the canoe where they predicted it would be? If not, why not? After a period of days, students could compare their plot to the on-line plot done by the ARGOS tracking system. Best Chart for Tracking the canoe from Hawai'i to Mangareva: Nautical Chart 526 from the Defense Mapping Agency (Available at Map and Boating Stores (in Honolulu, Pacific Map Center, West Marine, Ala Wai Marine; cost: $14-16); to track the canoe from Mangareva to Rapa Nui, students should be able to design their own maps from their familiarity with and understanding of Chart 526 and the on-line map provided.

Imagining Life on the Canoe: A Virtual Voyage: Students could sign on as crew members and organize a virtual voyage aboard Hokule'a; they can follow the Polynesian Voyaging Society voyage to Rapa Nui (June-December 1998) via the PVS web-site or, in Hawai'i, via distance learning television programs and broadcast televsion, newspaper and radio reports. Students could imagine they are crew members on an ancient canoe and recreate in writing how Polynesian conducted their voyages of exploration and settlement of the Pacific centuries ago; or they could write as modern travelers learning about the world of the open ocean and about peoples and cultures of the islands the canoe visits. As virtual crew members on the voyage, they could send postcards home, daily or weekly. The writing could include elements of fiction, with students creating scenarios on the canoe. (Such a fictional voyage could be set in ancient or modern times: What is daily life like? What sorts of internal or external conflicts might be experienced on a 30-day voyage? What sorts of hardships might be experienced? How would such conflicts or hardships be resolved or overcome? etc. Scenarios could used to explore ethics and values of human interaction in a small space--the deck of the about ten feet by 40 feet,the ten canvas sleeping compartments 3 feet by 6 feet.)

Scientific Perspectives: as part of the virtual voyage, students could write reports on the meteorology, oceanography, and marine biology of the Pacific, or about naked-eye astronomical observations used for navigation. Daily reports will include information about the position of the canoe (longitude and latitude); wind, weather, sea conditions, and ocean swells; fishing; sailing strategy; celestial bodies used in navigation; landfall clues.

Geographic and Ecological Perspectives--Small Islands as Microcosms of the Planet: students could research the cultures, histories, and ecologies of islands on the voyaging routes--Hawai'i, the Marquesas, Mangareva, Pitcairn, Rapa Nui, the Tuamotu Archipelago, and Tahiti. The small islands of the world have come under extreme pressures of modern Capitalism's expansion of population, consumption, and waste production and pollution. Many are suffering from environmental degradation and overcrowding. They are also in danger of losing land mass to rising seas that may be caused by the melting of the polar icecaps under global warming. Could these islands, like the canoe itself, be microcosms of the planet? Have they begun to manage the problems of limited resources and limited space and overconsumption and waste? If so, how? (See the Website for the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme [SPREP].) Are the industrial nations of the world doing anything about their wasteful consumption habits or the pollution that may be causing global warming? If so, what?

Ecological Pespectives--Taking Care of the World's Oceans/Current Issues for Reserach: (1) Decline or Collapse of of Fisheries Due to Overfishing and Pollution of Breeding Habitats; (2) Damage to/Loss of Coral Reef Habitats due to Global Warming, Pollution, and Human Use; (3) Pollution of the World's Oceans from Shipping: Garbage and Oil Slicks Accumulating in Areas such as the Equatorial Doldrums.

Sustainable Cultures?: How did the Polynesians manage their resources to survive and flourish for ten or twenty or thirty centuries on their small islands? What cultural values and resouce management strategies did they use? What was the state of the different islands groups visited by European explorers, beginning in the sixteenth century? Were all the islands equally successful in protecting and conserving resources? What was the minimum land-base area needed to sustain a Polynesian settlement? What were the factors that brought about Rapa Nui's "tree-less" landscape? Students could then be asked to apply their ideas to their own homes: What resources are being consumed daily in the places where they live? What resources are renewable? unrenewable? What steps would they take to insure that the resources they have would be available to their children, grandchildren, and future generations in perpetuity? What groups in their communities have been active in working for a sustainable future? What sacrifices have to be made today? What measures have been proposed to protect resources? Do the students agree with the proposals? Why or why not? What could students do, or what have they done, to insure that their children will have today's resources available to them? To find out more about what is being done to keep Hawai'i's forests healthy, diverse, and productive, click here.

Cultural Revival: students could research and write about the devastation of Polynesian population, cultures, and landscapes after the arrival of European and American explorers, imperialists, and colonialists; they could research the modern political and cultural movements to restore native culture and sovereignty in islands that have become colonies of Europe and America. For information and links about Hawaiian sovereignty, see the Nation of Hawai'i Website.