Wellington (AFP)
Polynesian Maori sailors probably had already discovered Antarctica several centuries before Western explorers who are generally credited with the 19th-century discovery of the frozen continent, according to a study published in New Zealand.
This study, published last week in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, reveals that the Maori had reached Antarctica long before the first Westerners in the 1820s.
"There is a very long history of connection with Antarctica ... We have found traces of voyages to Antarctic waters since the first voyages at sea," said Priscilla Wehi, of the government research institute of New Zealand Manaaki Whenua.
New Zealand scholars have drawn on Maori artwork and traditional oral histories, among other things, to establish these indigenous peoples' long-standing journeys to Antarctica.
Maori sailors traveled vast distances between the Pacific Islands in their boats.
Researchers believe that the first voyage to Antarctic waters even predates the arrival of the Maori in New Zealand in the 14th century.
"We found Polynesian accounts of voyages to Antarctic waters by Hui Te Rangiora and his crew on the ship Te Ivi O Atea, probably at the beginning of the 7th century", explains the researcher.
The Maori oral histories studied by the researchers refer to "a misty, dark place that the sun does not reach" and peaks resembling icebergs "piercing the sky without vegetation."
Maori sculptures and weavings also bear witness to these explorations in Antarctica.
The researcher was pleased that this study took out of invisibility a part of Maori "indigenous history".
© 2021 AFP