UU 204 REFLECTIVE WRITING ON OCEANIA
“Oceania is a territory centred on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Opinions of what comprise Oceania vary from its three subregions of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Due to colonial abandon and historical separation, the Pacific islands, habitat to the world’s largely varied range of native culture, persist to maintain many ancestral life-ways. As being the first voyager to settle islands in Oceania, this writing will focus mainly on the way finding, migration theories, archaeological and linguistic evidence and oral history. Thus, there have been many challenging theories and tales that try and explain how it was that Oceania came to be established by a range of humans coming into the region different period”.
“To begin with, way-finding is cosmique problem solving where you are in an environment, making out where your desired position is and understanding how to get there from your present site. The key to the survival and nourishment of the people of Oceania was their capability to navigate through the ocean from island and their craftsmanship in crafting and constructing seaworthy vessels. Way-finding engages in navigating on the exposed ocean without sextant, compass, clock, radio reports or satellite reports. It requires the observation of stars, the sun, the ocean rise and fall and other best clues that are there. The idea of fluid time-space has much in common with the Pacific way-finding technique of moving island termed “e tak” in the Caroline island of Micronesia. “E tak” is a polydimensional arrangement that includes both direction and time and therefore movement. (Brathwaite, 2007)”.
“Migration theories are theories that demonstrate how Oceania was settled. The Pacific was in fact the first of world’s greatest oceans to be discovered whereby the stories of the migration could verify a strong “origin myth” to join the people of many nations. (Spriggs, 2009). Europeans who explored Oceania proposed their individual viewpoint and
“To begin with, way-finding is cosmique problem solving where you are in an environment, making out where your desired position is and understanding how to get there from your present site. The key to the survival and nourishment of the people of Oceania was their capability to navigate through the ocean from island and their craftsmanship in crafting and constructing seaworthy vessels. Way-finding engages in navigating on the exposed ocean without sextant, compass, clock, radio reports or satellite reports. It requires the observation of stars, the sun, the ocean rise and fall and other best clues that are there. The idea of fluid time-space has much in common with the Pacific way-finding technique of moving island termed “e tak” in the Caroline island of Micronesia. “E tak” is a polydimensional arrangement that includes both direction and time and therefore movement. (Brathwaite, 2007)”.
“Migration theories are theories that demonstrate how Oceania was settled. The Pacific was in fact the first of world’s greatest oceans to be discovered whereby the stories of the migration could verify a strong “origin myth” to join the people of many nations. (Spriggs, 2009). Europeans who explored Oceania proposed their individual viewpoint and
Bibliography: Brathwaite, K. (2007). Tidalectics. In Routes and Roots (p. 3). University of Hawai‘i Press. Gifford, E. (1924). Tongan Myths and Tales. BPB Mus. 8. Honolulu, Hawaii. Green, R. C. (1998, July 20). Patterns of prehistoric human mobility in Polynesia indicated by mtDNA from the Pacific rat. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from PNAS Online: http://www.pnas.org/content/95/25/15145.full Ridgell, R. (2006). Pacific Nations and Territories. Honolulu, Hawaiÿi: Guam Community College. Smith, G. (2008). Making History. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from The Institute of Historical Research: http://www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/articles/oral_history.html Spriggs, M. (2009). Oceanic Connections in Deep Time. Thinking Oceania, 1(1), 7,14.