The Pacific Ocean is larger than all the dry land of the world put together. I am a Polynesian.
In the heart of this vastness is my home. Polynesia is an immense triangle, 12 million
square miles, bound by Hawaii in the north, New Zealand in the south, and Easter Island
on the east. It was the voyaging canoe that brought us. It was the canoe that carried
our culture to 10,000 scattered islands. We came from the east, we came from the west,
and the ocean became our common highway. From the core wood of Hawaii to the great green
stone we found beyond the glaciers of New Zealand, we shaped our tools and our lives.
The film you are about to see is the story of the Polynesian Odyssey. It is not the story
of one man, or one family, or one time. It is a story told in symbols, like the chants
and legends that linger on the lips of the very old and are then passed on. It is a story
of feelings and facts, and it cannot be otherwise, for it is said, you cannot understand Polynesia
with your head. You must understand it and feel it in your heart.
We came from the west. We stepped across the isles of the sea. We sailed from the east.
We were driven before the winds. The sea became our highway. Our beginnings are lost in time.
We are Polynesians. We are many. We are one.
Every time there was Te Kōrei, the great void, and afterwards Te Pō, the dark. Tāne
Mahuta, son of Papatuanuku, forced earth and sky apart, and life began in Te Ao, the world's
greatest galaxy.
One says the Polynesians emerged from a hole in the earth and have always been upon the
islands of the sea, but the traditions long whispered on the lips of the very old tell
of long voyages of ancestors in the ancient homeland.
But even the oldest of the legends do not recall the beginning, it is but a shadow on
a lost page of history, twelve centuries before the birth of Christ.
Who were they, these first courageous Vikings of the sunrises?
What was in their heart was the vision of a long white cloud called them from the distant
horizon.
They traveled left to the rising sun, the moon and the stars showed them the way, the
sea became their home, strange winds became their friends, the sky covered them, waves
and currents whispered to them, winged creatures bid them follow and they remembered.
Why do we look beyond the near horizon, what drives us to a destiny that lies beyond reason?
The fire of life that burns in the human heart is kindled by curiosity and carried by courage,
we are driven by fear and sustained by faith.
Our Odyssey is an epic of departures and arrivals, our journey is but a shadow of eternity and
endless progression, we pass in a moment and are gone, but mankind remains.
The voyages of the ancient Pacific were unknown to the world and the world was unknown to
us.
Who were these strangers, why did they venture forth on their baffling Odyssey?
By what power did they move upon these waters?
The genius of the ancient Polynesians is cast in monuments of stone that stand as solemn
guardians to mysteries that cannot be solved and secrets that will never be discovered.
The unending Odyssey of the Polynesians began with a canoe, but it was not the canoe that
carried them, it was something born in their minds and living in their hearts.
It was the voyagers themselves who set the bounds of Polynesia, wherever they ventured
they made the physical world a part of their spiritual universe.
The Odyssey is an epic of departures and arrivals, our journey is but a shadow of eternity
and endless progression.
The supreme God created the world when he rolled great stones from heaven to the earth
and let them fall into the tropic sea.
Amen.
Before Columbus set sail upon the open sea, the Polynesian had discovered every uninhabitable
island in the awesome isolation of the South Pacific.
Their extraordinary Odyssey stands unique among the greatest achievements of man.
Amen.
The memory of the Odyssey remains alive, it is etched on the mind of the very young and
past father to son, generation to generation, forever.
Amen.
I will tell you the story of Tevai, a great hero of Tahiti, and I will tell you of his
marriage to Hina.
Hina came from the island beyond the sunrise.
Her hair was the color of the black coral and her skin was soft as the flesh of a young
man.
Hina came from the island beyond the sunrise.
Her hair was the color of the black coral and her skin was soft as the flesh of a young
man.
Hina came from the island beyond the sunrise.
Her hair was the color of the black coral and her skin was soft as the flesh of a young
man.
Her hair was the color of the black coral and her skin was soft as the flesh of a young
man.
Hina came from the island beyond the sunrise.
Her hair was the color of the black coral and her skin was soft as the flesh of a young
man.
Her hair was the color of the black coral and her skin was soft as the flesh of a young
man.
Hina came from the island beyond the sunrise.
And so it was that Hina and Tafai were married.
Their love was deep and lasting.
Tafai launched his great and magical canoe and sailed away.
It is said, the coconut will grow, the coral will spread, and man will cease.
But the Polynesians did not cease.
They persevered, they increased, they survived.
Their lives were governed by Mana.
Mana was power, the power that let them survive.
Mana was their character, their status, their strength and good fortune.
It was Mana that powered their universe.
It was Mana that flowed from God to man.
Mana was power, the power that let them survive.
Come on, come on.
No!
It'll never be the same. May God judge us kindly.
There are old ways and new ways.
Some things have changed and some things will forever remain the same.
For all things are spiritual and all things are part of a consciousness that never ends.
No!