My First Book Review

By John Ridgway

If you take 12 years off my age, you still end up with a pretty big number.  That number is also how long it has been since my last book review in primary school.  It is never too late …

Anyway, I am sharing my thoughts on what I can only describe as being a watershed publication on the ancestral heritage of the peoples of the Pacific; even though it was first published 5 years ago I recommend to you all Sea People by Christina Thompson, in search of the Ancient Navigators of the Pacific.   Ironically the photo with this review was taken at a James Cook exhibition at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre in Port Vila, marking 250 years since his first visit to Vanuatu (worth a visit incidentally)….and it is exhibitions like that which make you start to think about the earlier thousands of years of navigational expertise developed across the vastness of the Pacific ocean.  (Fun fact - if you put all the masses of land on our planet inside the Pacific Ocean you would still have more than enough room for North America to be re-inserted …. That sort of explains the challenges of the size of this piece of water).

John Ridgway at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre in Port Vila

Let’s start by acknowledging it is a beautifully written work. I admit that I was required to casually reach for the Thesaurus occasionally, but there is no shame in that. Ordinarily you would describe this work as non-fiction.  However, the views espoused by any number of (largely) European historians, explorers, scientists and others on the origins of the people of the Pacific (particularly in relation to what we now call Polynesia), and their navigational prowess can only be described as fiction.  Fair enough, some of these protagonists way back 200 years ago had very little historical or scientific capabilities and can largely be excused for offering ‘educated’ guesses on the origins of the Pacific peoples, and the attendant doubt on the navigational skills of the Polynesian peoples.  However even as recently as the 1980’s (you know, when Dire Straits and Talking Heads were cutting records) some European experts were still proffering the views that the Polynesians were descendants from the Americas and could not possibly have navigated themselves Eastwards from South East Asia thousands of years ago - and it is that bit which is hard to swallow.

There are a few things that I think are fabulous about this work.  Firstly, the factual analysis in the first third of the book of the European follies across the Pacific is fascinating, as they would round the bottom of South America and after travelling up the West coast drift Westward into the Pacific and repeatedly encounter the same groups of small islands, to the exclusion of everything else! Secondly the explanation of the early oral charting of Polynesia and the trans-generational passing of that charting via the oral traditions of the Polynesian people is truly amazing.  The book also then gives a helpful lesson in radiocarbon dating and (spoiler alert) the relevance of the Lapita people’s pottery (yes, pottery) rounds things out nicely.

It is a really good read.

Note: Sea People was Winner of the 2020 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award for nonfiction and the 2019 NSW Premier's History Awards for general history.