Quote by Tāwini Tetuanui: “We read the stars long before the world read us.”

Pacific peoples developed sophisticated astronomical navigation thousands of years before European contact. This line reclaims that history as a point of pride — Polynesian knowledge of the sky was profound and functional long before the West arrived to 'discover' and subsequently dismiss the peoples who built that knowledge.

The 2010s saw a major international revival of interest in traditional Pacific navigation following the Hōkūleʻa's worldwide voyage from 2014 to 2017. Maohi and other Polynesian communities were actively reclaiming navigation knowledge that had been suppressed or marginalised during colonial periods. The voyages became symbols of indigenous resilience and capability.

French Polynesian cultural practitioner and navigator whose work focuses on traditional Maohi navigation and the recovery of indigenous astronomical knowledge. He has worked with Pacific cultural institutions to document and revitalise traditional wayfinding as both heritage practice and living knowledge system.