10.4 The Early Migration History of Hawaii
169
for that voyage and that he would have followed the Kuro Shio Current to Hawaii
as he followed the East Australian Current to New Zealand. It is unclear whether
descendants of Maui migrated over the centuries to Hawaii to claim land rights in
his name, as traditions show them to have done in New Zealand till the time of
Rakaihautu and even down to the time of the Heke. What we do know is that tradition records that Irapanga led a fleet of six canoes to Hawaii (in about AD 460 by the
chronology we propose in Chapter 19). The Rarotongan line offered in Appendix 1
shows that Irapanga at least was a descendant of Maui the Navigator.
Southern migrations to Hawaii, established in Chapter 19 from a solar eclipse as
having taken place by AD 1104, led to the overlaying of earlier Hawaiian genealogies and the consequent loss of much of the earlier history of the archipelago. The
Tahitian genealogies that overlaid Hawaiian traditions go back to Wakea, an ancestor
in many Eastern Polynesian lines. Abraham Fornander dates Wakea from imposed
Tahitian lines in Hawaii to the period 230 BC–AD 160 [8]. A more precise dating
for Wakea has recently been suggested by W.B. Masse who claims that “legends
surrounding the progenitor Hawaiian chief Wakea (wa-ke-a, ‘the sparkling period’)
encode a remarkable red-tailed comet in 178 A.D. along with a spectacular supernova in 185 A.D. near Alpha and Beta Centauri” [9]. Both Fornander’s wide dates
and Masse’s more precise dates correspond to the second wave of Pacific explorations and colonizations made possible by a global return to warm conditions after
400 BC.
If, as Fornander says, Wakea was an ancestor in many Eastern Polynesian lines,
he may well have been a Spice Island second-wave explorer and/or migration leader.
Whether he led a migration fleet to Hawaii, however, is not clear. For the imposition of Tahitian history on Hawaii at the time of Tahitian migrations in and after
1096 may have obliterated the early history of Hawaii itself, with the genealogies of
the Tahitian invading chiefs replacing the Hawaiian genealogies that enshrined lines
from their own founding chiefs. The early history recorded in the Tahitian genealogies may have taken place in the Spice Islands or Spice Island region or in Western
Polynesia rather than in Hawaii. But although the Tahitian genealogies preserved
in Hawaii may not record early Hawaiian history, it is nonetheless possible that if
Wakea was a famous second-wave navigator and explorer he might well have led
a migration to Hawaii from the Spice Islands in the period AD 178–185. And it
may have been the preservation of this traditional knowledge in Tahiti that a thousand years later led Tahitian explorers to search for Hawaii in the north and, having
found it, to invade and take possession of it.
H.H. Lamb, who sees the history of human migration as being inevitably tied
to global warm periods, speaks of a continuing pattern of explorers discovering
“new” lands that are already peopled, lands discovered and settled in an earlier warm
period [10]. With reference to Wakea, Fornander notes, “it is obvious from the legends themselves that the islands now held by the Polynesians were already peopled
in the time of Wakea, and that by people of his own race and kindred” [11]. We
would sharpen this statement by saying that tradition supports the idea that secondwave colonists found the descendants of first-wave settlers already established in
the islands to which their ancestors had earlier migrated by following fast warm
169
for that voyage and that he would have followed the Kuro Shio Current to Hawaii
as he followed the East Australian Current to New Zealand. It is unclear whether
descendants of Maui migrated over the centuries to Hawaii to claim land rights in
his name, as traditions show them to have done in New Zealand till the time of
Rakaihautu and even down to the time of the Heke. What we do know is that tradition records that Irapanga led a fleet of six canoes to Hawaii (in about AD 460 by the
chronology we propose in Chapter 19). The Rarotongan line offered in Appendix 1
shows that Irapanga at least was a descendant of Maui the Navigator.
Southern migrations to Hawaii, established in Chapter 19 from a solar eclipse as
having taken place by AD 1104, led to the overlaying of earlier Hawaiian genealogies and the consequent loss of much of the earlier history of the archipelago. The
Tahitian genealogies that overlaid Hawaiian traditions go back to Wakea, an ancestor
in many Eastern Polynesian lines. Abraham Fornander dates Wakea from imposed
Tahitian lines in Hawaii to the period 230 BC–AD 160 [8]. A more precise dating
for Wakea has recently been suggested by W.B. Masse who claims that “legends
surrounding the progenitor Hawaiian chief Wakea (wa-ke-a, ‘the sparkling period’)
encode a remarkable red-tailed comet in 178 A.D. along with a spectacular supernova in 185 A.D. near Alpha and Beta Centauri” [9]. Both Fornander’s wide dates
and Masse’s more precise dates correspond to the second wave of Pacific explorations and colonizations made possible by a global return to warm conditions after
400 BC.
If, as Fornander says, Wakea was an ancestor in many Eastern Polynesian lines,
he may well have been a Spice Island second-wave explorer and/or migration leader.
Whether he led a migration fleet to Hawaii, however, is not clear. For the imposition of Tahitian history on Hawaii at the time of Tahitian migrations in and after
1096 may have obliterated the early history of Hawaii itself, with the genealogies of
the Tahitian invading chiefs replacing the Hawaiian genealogies that enshrined lines
from their own founding chiefs. The early history recorded in the Tahitian genealogies may have taken place in the Spice Islands or Spice Island region or in Western
Polynesia rather than in Hawaii. But although the Tahitian genealogies preserved
in Hawaii may not record early Hawaiian history, it is nonetheless possible that if
Wakea was a famous second-wave navigator and explorer he might well have led
a migration to Hawaii from the Spice Islands in the period AD 178–185. And it
may have been the preservation of this traditional knowledge in Tahiti that a thousand years later led Tahitian explorers to search for Hawaii in the north and, having
found it, to invade and take possession of it.
H.H. Lamb, who sees the history of human migration as being inevitably tied
to global warm periods, speaks of a continuing pattern of explorers discovering
“new” lands that are already peopled, lands discovered and settled in an earlier warm
period [10]. With reference to Wakea, Fornander notes, “it is obvious from the legends themselves that the islands now held by the Polynesians were already peopled
in the time of Wakea, and that by people of his own race and kindred” [11]. We
would sharpen this statement by saying that tradition supports the idea that secondwave colonists found the descendants of first-wave settlers already established in
the islands to which their ancestors had earlier migrated by following fast warm