On Expeditions and Polynesian Colonisation...... Kon Tiki and Easter Island

“Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.” – Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl is one of history’s most famous explorers.  The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by balsawood raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name.

Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times. His aim in mounting the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so. Although the expedition carried some modern equipment, such as a radio, watches, charts, sextant, and metal knives, Heyerdahl argued they were incidental to the purpose of proving that the raft itself could make the journey.

Kon-Tiki is also the name of Heyerdahl's book; upon which an award-winning documentary film chronicling his adventures was based, as well as the 2012 dramatised feature film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.  He later completed similar achievements with the reed boats Ra, Ra II and Tigris, through which he championed his deep involvement for both the environment and world peace.

Walking round the Kon Tiki Museum in Oslo recently, I was captivated by the story of the expedition, how it came into being, the sometimes unlikely chain of events. I had a copy of Heyerdahl's book for a good while before I eventually sent it, along with a number of other books which I selected whilst pruning my collections at Winterborne K, to a charity shop.  My trip to Oslo and the museum re-kindled that instinct that caused me to buy the book originally.  There are numerous editions with a variety of dust jacket designs.   I easily found a second-hand copy and read it. 

What I thought:
I thoroughly enjoyed Heyerdahl's account.  It was so very readable.  I was amazed at the courage and resourcefulness of the six men...….. and the parrot!  Of course they would neither have seen themselves as courageous, or particularly resourceful although it was fascinating the way they managed to source everything they needed and the support of foreign politicians, dignitaries and naval services.   There was almost a Swallows and Amazons feel to an adult escapade!  They survived the crossing with some tales to tell, and the account of their landing on the other side of their 4000 mile sailing was heart in the mouth but humorous too.  For something different, a read out of your normal boxes, try this book.


Also in the Museum there is a section given over to Easter Island.  The connection between Heyerdahl and Easter Island centres around his investigations into the mystery of the Easter Island giant statues, or moai, (created by the early Rapa Nui people)  how they made, how they were oved and what was the origin of the native legend that the statues walked.  Easter Island is one of the most remote places in the world and Heyerdahl wanted to determine whether the island had been originally colonised by people who sailed from South America across 2,000 miles of ocean. 

Returning to the island over thirty years later Heyerdahl investigated the ruins of the island’s unique statues: monolithic human figures carved from rock, and experimented with techniques that could have allowed a pre-industrial culture to create and move such enormous figures. Heyerdahl wrote a unique history of Easter Island, based on his own research, and an interpretation of the mystery of the island’s statues that presents an individual view of world history. 

I have wanted to visit Easter Island ever since I saw a fascinating TV documentary by David Attenborough, entitled The Lost Gods of Easter Island  .  Attenborough’s documentary starts with a small wooden carving which he buys at auction and which he identifies as being one of a pair, that are figured in a publication that links the carving he acquired to another, and which he tracks down to a Museum in Russia (from memory), both being associated with Captain Cook.  Now is the time to revisit this documentary……
  

In the course of scrolling around the internet I found a novel called Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes.  Checked it out.  Here is the Amazon blurb:  

Set on the cusp of World War One, and in the 1970s, EASTER ISLAND tells the passionate, heart-breaking and ultimately redemptive story of two remarkable women.

Elsa, an Edwardian Englishwoman, is forced by circumstance to leave the man she loves and agree to a marriage of convenience. The marriage enables her to fulfil her great dream: to visit Easter Island and to study its mysterious history. But as Elsa becomes bewitched by the island and engrossed in her work, she fails to notice that her beloved sister Alice is becoming caught up in desires of her own, that will threaten not only their work, but also their lives. 

Sixty years later, Dr Greer Faraday, recently widowed, makes her own journey to the island. Born into a different time and country, Greer nevertheless shares Else's passion for this strange and haunting place. Troubled by unhappy secrets, Greer takes solace in her work, making an island of herself. But as the two women's stories begin to entwine and passions are played out, both Greer and Else must struggle against what society expects of them, and what fate has planned...

This title was a lucky find.  It has archaeology, biology, anthropology ………….. themes that interest me very much.  It is also a book that keeps you turning the page, and a rather clever ending I did not see coming.