The Sin at Awarua
Date
1999
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University of Hawai'i Press
Center for Pacific Islands Studies
Center for Pacific Islands Studies
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Abstract
By focusing on the invented, socially constructed aspects of cultural revival in the
Pacific, analysts have slighted the right of indigenous peoples to recall their remembered
past and employ elements from it for contemporary purposes. The
article contextualizes this issue by examining a ceremony conducted at the ancient
temple of Taputapuâtea on Ra‘iâtea Island, in which reconstructed voyaging
canoes from around Polynesia came together in 1995 to commemorate the recent
revival of canoe voyaging. According to oral traditions, centuries before Taputapuâtea
had hosted meetings of a “Friendly Alliance” of peoples from around Polynesia.
However, that alliance had been broken when a local chief killed a visiting
priest, and the canoes ceased sailing to Taputapuâtea from Rarotonga, Aotearoa,
and other distant islands. By inviting canoes from all over Polynesia to come together
once more at Taputapuâtea, and then having a tribal elder from Aotearoa
chant words of forgiveness for the long ago murder of their priestly delegate, the
planners sought to create a new alliance of voyaging peoples. Although this event
did not exactly follow ancient protocol, it nonetheless effectively served to dramatize
the current renaissance in Polynesian voyaging and how it is bringing longseparated
Polynesian peoples together again.
Description
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cultural revival, globalization, invention of tradition, oral traditions, Pacific Islands, Polynesia, voyaging, Oceania -- Periodicals.
Citation
Finney, B. 1999. The Sin at Awarua. The Contemporary Pacific 11 (1): 1-33.
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