Land of Voyagers part 3: How Pacific navigators traversed oceans using nature

For thousands of years, people have been crossing the Pacific ocean and finding new pieces of land - like Aotearoa.

How did they do it?

Host and waka navigator Noenoe Barclay-Kerr explains in part 3 of the Land of Voyagers video series.

"They created special groups of people called navigators - the Jedi knights of their time," Barclay-Kerr says.

"Just like Jedi knights, they were trained from birth and what they were taught was how to read the natural world around. To read it so well that they could accurately cross the biggest ocean on the planet.

"They used the sun, the moon and the stars. They used the ocean currents, swells and clouds and the movement of birds, whales, dolphins and fish. All to find pathways between islands, and back again."

The Land of Voyagers

The Land of Voyagers video series is part of Matauranga, an online learning platform set up by Sir Ian Taylor and his team.

The video series tells the story of how people arrived in Aotearoa.

Taylor and his team are on a mission to teach tamariki (children) about the innovation, science and technology early Polynesian navigators used to sail waka across the Pacific, guided by only the natural world around them.

The platform then links the innovation of early Polynesian navigators to the number-eight-wire thinking of today's America's Cup sailors.

Taylor is renowned for his work revolutionising the way people watch sport, including the America's Cup, and golf, cricket, motorsport and baseball, with 3D, data-driven graphics over live pictures.