"Not only were Polynesian ancestors traversing the Pacific for thousands of years but after reaching the Cook Islands and Aotearoa there are these other oral traditions of how people also voyaged through the southern oceans", conservation biologist Associate Prof Cilla Wehisaid.
"There are huge waves and really difficult environmental conditions, and they brought back those stories of that experience."
Dr Wehi and five colleagues have charted the history of Maori journeys to the Ice in an article newly published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Their article begins with stories dating back to the 7th century which speak of "rocks that grow out from the sea" and dark places not seen by the sun. There was also archaeological evidence on the subantarctic islands which supported claims Maori reached deep southern waters, Dr Wehi said.
"Some people might say I don’t know how reliable oral tradition is, but the fact there is other forms of evidence as well can give us great confidence that the experiences that are embedded in that oral tradition are based on reality."
As well as voyages recorded only in oral tradition and carvings, the authors recount more conventionally documented trips such as Ngai Tahu Stewart Island whaler William Joss’ cruise aboard the Norwegian whaler Antarctic in 1894, and fellow whaler Buddy Willa’s part in a similar Norse expedition in the 1920s.
Dunedin-trained Whanganui doctor Louis Hauiti Potaka — the fifth Maori medical graduate — was ship’s doctor on a US expedition led by Rear-admiral Richard Byrd in 1934, and set out for the Ice from Port Chalmers. Dr Potaka died a year later, an event which made national news, and was posthumously awarded the US Congressional Medal.
Maori also figured in Sir Edmund Hillary’s Common wealth trans-Antarctic expedition and had taken a variety of roles on the continent since, Dr Wehi said.
"One of the things that we wanted to show in this paper is that Maori participation in the Antarctic has been ongoing for a very long time.
"I think both curiosity and intelligence lead us to explore and wonder what is over the next horizon ... Maori were very observant of the world they lived in and watched the whales and albatrosses and their migrations across the Pacific, right down to Antarctica."
