A chilly reception

Did Māori reach Antarctic waters centuries before Europeans? Opposing views on the issue have reignited the debate over mātauranga and “Western” scholarship.

- YVONNE VAN DONGEN

It was hardly surprising that a research paper which claimed Māori may have voyaged into Ant-arctic waters at least 1000 years before Europeans made headlines around the world last year. The explosive claim, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, meant Maori would have shattered the previous record set by a Russian ship in 1820.

At the time, the report’s authors expressed surprise at the media attention, saying they did not intend to popularise what they saw as an imperial narrative of people discovering new land. Lead author Dr Priscilla Wehi said it wasn’t about which humans were in Antarctica first, but about “linkages that have gone on for many hundreds of years and will go on into the future”.

Wehi and her research team went on to write a paper arguing for a stronger case for future indigenous management of Antarctica, and this, too, received considerable attention.

What never made global headlines was the response a few months later, also in the RSNZ journal, of a group of distinguished Māori scholars, including Sir Tipene O’Regan. The article was titled: “On the Improbability of pre-European Polynesian voyages to Antarctica: a response to Priscilla Wehi and colleagues.”

The lead author was archaeologist, and emeritus professor at the Australian National University, Atholl Anderson. He attributes the lack of media interest in the subsequent paper to the disproportionate appeal of the new. New claims in science and scholarship typically receive a great deal of attention, he says, while responses challenging such claims tend to be ignored.