Lecture: Sam Low presents “Polynesian Starpaths - Ancient Polynesian Voyaging and Navigation”

Thor Heyerdahl believed South American people settled Polynesia after drifting aboard primitive rafts into the Pacific with prevailing winds and currents. Writer, filmmaker, and Vineyard resident Sam Low believes the opposite is true. Polynesia was settled by a seafaring people who voyaged against the winds from southeast Asia aboard powerful sailing vessels and navigated accurately without charts, compasses, or instruments of any kind. Low has sailed aboard Hokule’a, a replica of an ancient Polynesian double-hull voyaging canoe, and will explore Hokule’a’s 35-year, 120,000 mile sailing history throughout the Pacific. He will reveal how ancient canoe navigators found their direction and determined their latitude by the stars, and he will share how these journeys are inspiring a cultural renaissance among Pacific peoples.