Where Did The Polynesians come from?

http://www.chin.gc.ca/haida/java/english/canoe/contemp.html

From: Yuri Kuchinsky 
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology,alt.mythology,soc.culture.pacific-island,alt.culture.hawaii
Subject: original homeland of Polynesians?
Date: 2 Mar 2000 18:27:33 GMT
Message-ID: <89mbql$14bn$1@news.tht.net>

Greetings, friends,

Was the original homeland of Polynesians really in the American Pacific
North-West? Did Polynesians really originate... in Canada? Actually,
this is what the Polynesian traditions, themselves, seem to say.

			____________________


KAHIKI-KU: the Polynesian homeland

This is where the Polynesians themselves say they come from.

Abraham Fornander, a noted historian of Polynesia, describes this
Polynesian homeland Kahiki-ku as "that ancient, well-remembered, and
often quoted home of the Polynesians". 

According to Fornander (1878, Vol I, 22ff), the actual discovery of
Hawaii is ascribed to Kane, a mythical wandering chief, who "came from a
vast island or mainland", alluded to as the "lost home of Kane".

About this lost homeland, Fornander says, that 

"In the Hawaiian tradition its situation was vaguely indicated to be in
a north-westerly direction". 

Taken literally, to north-west of Hawaii are Aleutian Islands, which is
close enough to the American Pacific North-West. But professional
Polynesianists would like to see this homeland in the opposite direction
in central Polynesia!

But there's also another way to read this direction "to the north-west
of Hawaii". Because of the predominant direction of ocean currents
around Hawaii (they mostly flow west in the area), the _sailing
direction_ from Hawaii to the American Pacific North-West will need to
be exactly to the north-west! This is so because the big current towards
the NW Coast flows in the northern Pacific, and in order to catch it,
the mariner will first need to sail from Hawaii in the north-westerly
direction.

In addition, Fornander describes this Polynesian homeland Kahiki-ku as
"a subdivision of a large continent", which would agree very well with
this having been America.

And now let's look at some more evidence to the same effect.

-	Percy Smith, W. W. Gill (1876:17), and Steinen (1933:19)
consider Kahiki (also known as Tawhiti, Tefiti, or Tahiti) as associated
with the Polynesian hiti = east.

Large continent to the east from Polynesia is America.

-	Also, many scholars of mythology are aware that in traditional
religions older deities are often reduced in status and made into
malevolent spirits or underworld deities. 

J. M. Brown (PEOPLES AND PROBLEMS OF THE PACIFIC, London, 1927: 113,
153) writes,

"Most of these Polynesian gods and demigods of the underworld have
indications in their careers of having come from a land of bitter
winter." 

Which would indicate the American Pacific North-West, and certainly not
tropical Pacific islands west of Polynesia.

Now, the following is based on the Hawaiian traditions.

- 	Emerson (1909:37) records a sacred Hawaiian chant that mentions "the
swell that rolls from Kahiki from Wakea's age enrolling [from the most
ancient age]."

A permanent ocean swell reaches Hawaii only from America.

-	Another traditional chant found in Emerson specifies the _exact
location in Hawaii_ that receives the waves from Kahiki,

"...like waves from Kahiki that beat on the front of Kilauea."

Kilauea is the great volcano on the east coast of Hawaii facing America.
Driftwood from NW Coast regularly arrives to Hawaii carried by the ocean
waves.

-	Polynesian traditions record that their ancestors came to
Polynesia carried by the winds and the waves. They do not record
struggling against the elements to come to Polynesia.

According to the Society Islanders, their ancestral deities left their
original homeland, and arrived to the Society Islands carried by the
wind,

"There came a time when the gods mounted upon the wind and were wafted
over the ocean...". "Upon the winds did the gods fly to Tahiti." (T.
Henry, ANCIENT TAHITI, 1928:443,444)

This can only mean from America.

The worst legacy of mainstream Eurocentrist academic scholarship is that
they trample on these sacred ancient traditions of the Polynesians.
These are the oppressors of aboriginal peoples. They are robbing the
Natives of their history. And they also habitually dismiss the talents
and creativity of Native Americans. So these Eurocentrists "kill two
birds with the same stone", so to speak...

Best wishes,

Yuri.

  


This debate is not new in Usenet, so here is some background. Some
of my previous posts, all attacked with great anger, as was to be
expected, of course,

 Subject:
	       art parallels between Polynesia and NW Coast
 Date:
       01/14/1999

 http://x33.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=432662444 


			____________________

 Subject:
       cultural parallels between Polynesia and NW Coast
 Date: 01/19/1999 (as posted originally) 

			____________________

Subject:
       Hill-Tout's comparisons (Polynesia and NW Coast)
 Date:
       01/24/1999

 language comparisons

			____________________

 Subject:
       more from Hill-Tout
 Date:
       02/14/1999

 more linguistic comparisons between NWC and Polynesian languages 

			____________________

Subject:
       NW Coast disputes summary
 Date:
       02/19/1999

 http://x33.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=446163580 

			____________________

A general overview:

 Subject:
       NW Coast
 Date:
       03/08/1999

 some general info about these disputed issues. 

			____________________

Numerals:

 Subject:
       more from John Campbell: NW Coast
       Austronesians?
 Date:
       02/17/1999

 http://x36.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=445391885 


Yuri Kuchinsky  

  

Hunter Harpooning (11-32) 

And here's some additional information (added in April 2000).

Still more Native Polynesian traditions seem to support American
North-West Coast as the original homeland of Polynesians,

- homeland of Polynesians - Part 2 (March 16, 2000),

 http://x22.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=598417099 

			____________________

Could such similarity in petroglyphs be accidental? And what about all
those giant NW Coast logs? Hawaiians made their best canoes from them,

- homeland of Polynesians - Petroglyphs and drift-wood (March 24, 2000),

 http://x22.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=601890248 

			____________________

The noted Menehune ditch . . . is the acme of stone-faced ditches...

- homeland of Polynesians - Stonework (March 22, 2000),

 http://x22.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=600925818 

Haida canoes. These are old archival images: "Prints contained in "The North American Indian" by Edward S. Curtis". For plenty more of them, see,

http://www.curtis-collection.com/tribe%20data/volumeindex/volume11.html

Tenaktak Canoes (10-15)

Click here to go one level up in the directory.