Voyagers from the Havai‘i diaspora : Polynesian mobility, 1760s-1850s

This chapter traces a century of voyages by Polynesians following the great wave of European intruders from the mid-eighteenth century. It focuses especially on Islander voyages from the archipelagos of Tōtaiete mā (or the Society Islands), Mokupuni o Hawai‘i (or Hawaiian Islands), and Aotearoa (or New Zealand). Between the 1760s and the 1850s, Islanders in all three archipelagos shared common experiences of contact that went on to bind their identity tighter together in the modern era. They all suffered from the deadly pathogens brought by Europeans; later, they all had to negotiate Europe’s theologies to a greater or lesser extent, and eventually they all had to face varying degrees of economic and political threats. Less often acknowledged, however, all three island groups also shared a common reinvigoration of their ancient voyaging practices. European ships brought opportunities to extend established Polynesian sailing customs. Society, Hawaiian, and Aotearoa Islanders took up these opportunities, on the whole, with gusto. Most Islander voyagers on European ships in this period were self-motivated, designed to further an Indigenous-centred goal in an Indigenous-centred world. Some were forced, but even these voyagers usually managed to reclaim some Indigenous agency over their circumstances. The chapter deploys a micro-biographic and comparative methodology.