Taipei — A group of indigenous Taiwanese seafarers have completed a daring quest, braving choppy waters and using the stars for navigation as they paddled a traditional wooden canoe to the Philippines –– in a journey that highlights the astonishing feat of human migration across the Pacific.
Taiwan’s indigenous people –– who nowadays make up just a tiny proportion of the island’s population –– are believed to be the ancestors of many of the groups who came to inhabit lands stretching from Hawaii and Easter Island in the eastern Pacific, to Madagascar, off the coast of east Africa.
They share genetic and linguistic links and the navigational skills of their forebears – who traveled extraordinary distances in primitive vessels, successfully finding their way to tiny land masses – is considered one of the great migrations in human history.
On Monday, 60 Tao people from Taiwan’s Orchid Island set off on a 111-mile voyage, taking turns to paddle against strong currents to reach the Ivatan people on Batan Island, located in the far north of the Philippines, replicating a journey first thought to have been made more than 4,000 years ago.
They were welcomed by drum and dance performances when they arrived the following day.
“This is not only a significant day for the Pacific Ocean but also a day of commemoration for the Austronesian people,” Maraos, chairperson of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation (IPCF), said. Maraos, like many Tao people, goes by a single name.
The journey is meant to revive a sea route not used for 300 years, and one that in the past could’ve been considered nearly impossible –– given the lack of maps and the crude vessels early navigators of the Bashi Channel once used.