Case 3
- Polynesian Voyaging, 20th century sources 2
Peter Buck. Vikings of the Sunrise. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1938.
Written for the general reader and first published in 1938, Peter Buck’s Vikings of the Sunrise was an immensely popular account of Polynesian migrations, history and culture. By emphasising the competence of traditional navigators, Buck’s work to some extent marked a shift away from 19th century views of Pacific voyagers.
In concurrence with earlier writers, however, Buck wrote that Polynesians may have originated in the Middle-East and “probably did live in some parts of India.”
Buck traced the deliberate settlement of all the islands of the Pacific and argued that fairly frequent two-way voyaging contact between distant islands of the Pacific continued for centuries after settlement – a view not then shared by many of Buck’s scholarly contemporaries.
A.W. Reed. Treasury of Māori Exploration: Legends Relating to the First Polynesian Explorers of New Zealand. Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1977.
Alexander Wyclif Reed (1908-1979), the junior partner of the iconic New Zealand publishing firm A.H. & A.W. Reed, wrote numerous books on aspects of Māori culture, aimed at a general and often younger readership.
His Treasury of Māori Exploration (1977) was a popular retelling of tales of Māori exploration through myth.
A.W. Reed. Treasury of Māori Exploration: Legends Relating to the First Polynesian Explorers of New Zealand. Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1977.
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A.W. Reed. Reed Book of Māori Exploration: Stories of Voyage and Discovery. Revised by Ross Calman. Auckland: Reed, 2006
In this 2006 revision of Reed’s Treasury by Ross Calman, the stories have been rearranged by tribal area or iwi, and the artificial distinction between the waka of myth and history has been removed.
A.W. Reed. Reed Book of Māori Exploration: Stories of Voyage and Discovery. Revised by Ross Calman. Auckland: Reed, 2006
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