Voyaging into Pacific history
Those Magnificent Voyagers of the Pacific tells the true story in pictures and text, of the meeting of two great voyaging traditions. It spans
5000 years of Pacific voyaging history, switching back and forth between vibrant lifelike scenes in the
Pacific and more abstract sepia spreads depicting the contemporaneous progress of voyaging elsewhere in the world. Two-thirds of the way through the story (some 500 years ago) the two narrative threads meet in Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, where they intertwine.
It is an epic story, created for younger readers, that begins around BC 3000, when the ancestors of Polynesians discovered ways to “see” over the horizon to find and settle new islands.
We asked author Andrew Crowe, who has won numerous New Zealand book awards, some questions:
What inspired you to write this book?
In a way, I see the original exploration and settlement of the Pacific — including Aotearoa — as “the elephant in the room”. The closest we ever got to celebrating this remarkable global achievement is Tuia 250, the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Captain Cook’s Endeavour in Aotearoa, an event billed at the time as celebrating “the meeting of two great voyaging traditions”. Many would agree with me that this national event turned into an awkward add-on to celebrating Cook, skipping over the most significant bit.
Was there a specific reason Rick Fisher was chosen to illustrate the book?
I had seen several large street murals of Rick’s that spoke eloquently of the mana of te ao Ma¯ori, but couldn’t help noticing there were no people in them. A local children’s librarian showed me several detailed portraits of his in charcoal. Then things clicked; I knew the book needed realism and an artist with the story already in their blood — someone respectful of both Ma¯ori and Pa¯keha¯. When I rang Rick, it just felt right.
Do you feel people of the Pacific and their immediate ancestors were ahead of their time in terms of land finding and navigation?
That’s really the core theme of the book, which lays out, in plain terms, how we know. The book achieves this by reviewing the past 5000 years of global maritime exploration, flipping back and forth across the planet to compare the voyaging, navigational and landfinding achievements on both sides of the globe, using a kind of sing-song refrain “Meanwhile, over on the other side of the world . . . ”
How was this book designed with reluctant readers in mind?
To me, it is a marvel that anyone ever masters learning to read, that we learn to distinguish all these strange symbols (letters), associate each with a sound and come to appreciate each combination as having a unique intonation and meaning. For those struggling with this mammoth task, I try to ease the process by making books that are rewarding for both adults and children. While a child can easily follow the main story, I envisage members of an older generation remaining equally engaged, allowing the thrill of discovery to be a shared experience. So, simple language is combined with content rich enough to engage all ages. The type needed to be clear and open and not too small, with plenty of visual clues as to what the words might mean, and lots of hooks to arouse curiosity. So this book includes many captioned photos, maps and globes, giving the book a slightly encyclopaedic feel. The medium is a standard picture book, but the content is multilevel.
Who do you think this book will appeal to?
I see it as a book for all ages — for all the family, both Ma¯ori and Pa¯keha¯. And, with the introduction this year of a more inclusive New Zealand history curriculum, the book has an obvious relevance in helping teachers and students explore the real founding history of the country.