Pacific navigation

New Zealand websites

Find out about the peoples who sailed to Aotearoa through Te Moana-nui a Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean), types of ocean transport, and the navigation tools they used. You can also learn about Kupe's legendary journey.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara is an excellent starting point for all questions about Aotearoa New Zealand. The website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage. The information is well-researched and reliable.

• Go to Topics and find Exploration.

• From the list choose Pacific migrations and Canoe navigation.

• Next, choose European discovery of New Zealand.

• The first pages of these stories have a good summary. Explore the other pages under Contents for more.

Tips: Sites that have .govt.nz or .ac.nz are from NZ government or educational organisations. We like sites like this because they’re reliable and relevant to us.

NZ History

NZ History is another great website from the Ministry for Culture & Heritage.

• Use the search word 'voyaging' to find out about the people who discovered New Zealand.

• First look at Pacific voyaging and discovery.

• Then go to European voyaging and discovery.

Tips: Search words are sometimes called keywords eg 'explorers' or 'Pacific navigation'. We can change our keywords or add more if we need to.

Te Papa Collections Online

Te Papa is New Zealand’s national museum. The collections cover Arts, History, Taonga Māori, Pacific Cultures, and Natural History.

• Use keywords like ‘Pacific navigation’ in the search box to find articles and images of waka (canoes), compasses, and octants (a navigation tool).

• Look under Filter Results to choose the Type of information you want to look at like Object or Topic.

• For example, choose the topic Voyagers: Discovering the Pacific. It links to articles about Pacific canoes, The first navigators, and European voyaging and navigation.

• Or search for 'Kupe' to find the topic Kupe. This has the story of his journey to Aotearoa.

Navigation: Kupe, Cook and today - LEARNZ

This site has lots of online field trips. They have photos, videos, background information, and articles. This trip has information about how people navigated the pacific.

• Go to Discover more.

• Choose an article to find out about. For example, Polynesian Navigation, Cook's Voyages and navigation, and

  Modern Navigation at Sea.

Tips: You can select the play button to have the page read out loud.

Videos and images

These New Zealand sites have videos and images about pacific navigation.

Land of Voyagers

This website was put together for rangatahi to follow the Tuia 250 Voyage. It looks at the migration of Polynesian ancestors to Aotearoa.

• Go to Stories.

• Browse through the Videos for something to watch eg The Navigator Prepares.

Tips: Company websites (with .com or .co) can have useful info, but we need to check how reliable it is. Check the About link on the website, if you can find one. That can tell you what the company’s mission and values are.

thecoconet.tv

This site is funded by NZ On Air. It has videos about different Pacific communities.

• Search for 'voyaging'.

• Choose a video to watch like Sail like our Ancestors (Vaka) or Tales of Taonga - Tupaia.

The Kid Should See This

This site brings together lots of videos especially for kids. Each video is carefully chosen and there are videos on all sorts of topics, including history and navigation.

• Select the magnifying glass button and search for 'wayfinding'.

• Choose a video to watch, like How did Polynesian wayfinders navigate the Pacific Ocean.

DigitalNZ

DigitalNZ searches online resources from New Zealand libraries, museums, universities and government sites in one place. It groups results by the type of information and has lots of primary sources.

• You could start with they keywords 'Pacific navigation' or 'Pacific voyaging'.

• Or search for the names of navigation tools, sailing vessels, or explorers. For example, star compass, waka hourua, 'Kupe' and Captain Cook.

• Then select Images or Videos and choose something to look at.

Tips: Before searching, make a list of keywords to use. They can be the name of a person, place, or event you are researching. Or types of objects.

NZ On Screen

NZ On Screen is a collection of television, film, music videos and web series from the past to today. It is managed by the Digital Media Trust and funded by New Zealand On Air.

• Use search words like ‘voyaging' to find videos.

• We liked Kupe – Voyaging by the Stars and Tagata Pasifika – Hine Moana : A Journey Home.

• These videos are about people using traditional skills to navigate the Pacific Ocean.

Books

There are lots of books and stories about navigation in the Pacific Ocean. Check out your local public or school library to see what they have.

Here are some we found:

• Explorers of the sunrise by Jeff Evans, Damon Ieremia Salesa, Elspeth Alix Batt.

• Those magnificent voyagers of the Pacific by Andrew Crowe.

• Pacific explorers by Phillip Simpson.

• Adventures of Tupaia by Courtney Sina Meredith and Mat Tait.

• Kupe and the great octopus of Muturangi by Mat Tait.

• Explore! Aotearoa by Bronwen Wall.

SCIS no: 1886877