Vā Moananuiākea: Polynesian Ancestral Knowledge Connections: Zero˚ North Temples in Hawai’i, Tahiti, Ra’iātea, Ua Pou, South East Asia, Middle America, and Vā Linguistic Connections that Broaden our Vā to Maluku, Iloko, South America, and perhaps North America.
In the past few years, it has become evident that the Vā Moana Ancestral Knowledge was carried by our Double Hulled Voyaging Canoes throughout all parts of Moananuiakea, or of Polynesia. Most striking and recent examples of this are perhaps found in Hawaiʻi and in Tahiti, where our Polynesian Ancestors built temples, called heiau and marae, that had one wall measuring at Zero Degrees North. Such temples, whether facing East or West, were used to measure the movement of the Sun over the face of the earth from Ala Polohiwa a Kanaloa, or Winter Solstice, to Alo Piko o Wākea, or Equinox, to Ala Polohiwa a Kāne and back. Why would they do so? To predict the change in weather systems and the optime time for planting or for long distance voyaging.
How could our ancestors build temples with a wall measuring Zero˚ North without the use of a compass? Thinking of how the stars are constant, I figured it out. They first built Diagonal Zero North Temples that measured the rising of the first star in the belt of Orion on 0˚ on the Equator. This presentation will discuss the evidence of both Zero Degree North and Diagonal Degree North Temples in various parts of Polynesia, and in other areas to which our Ancestral double hulled canoes travelled.
Please join me in my presentation on observations of Hawaiian Heiau [temples] for the past 20 years, and a trip I went on with our Hawaiian Studies students in 2014 to French Polynesian. We measured 30 Tahitian Marae [temples] in 21 days on 5 different islands. Bishop Museum Archaeologist Eric Komori went with us to help guide our work. We found lots of Zero North and Diagonal Zero North marae!
Finally, I will present some interesting linguistic similarities for the sacred number 5. While the number 4 is important in many ancient cultures, representing the 4 directions, in Hawaiʻi the number 5 is used in many healing prayers. The number 5 combines the 4 cardinal male directions, as well as the conjunction of those 4 directions in a 5th central point that is female. That idea seems to be similar from South East Asia across Polynesia to South America, where there are cognat Polynesian place names as well. How far did the Ancestors travel on their great canoes, sharing their Vā across the great Pacific Ocean?!