The Sin at Awarua

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.