TUPAIA'S CHART

Invitation from Nicola Frean, Special Materials Librarian at the JC Beaglehole Library, Victoria University, Wellington:

Kia ora,


I hope you will be able to come and hear our two speakers next Tuesday 25 June 2010, at noon:

Dr. Ian Welch, Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Engineering, talking about the NZTronix collection of New Zealand software and computer games from the 1970s and 1980s (further information at http://nztronix.org.nz/main.php), and
Joan Druett, author of 18 books, talking about a Pacific Islands map drawn by Tupaia (the Polynesian navigator who sailed with Cook on the Endeavour).
Quite different topics, but each a golden opportunity to glimpse the Library's Special Collections and their research community.

I look forward to seeing you, whether in person or via an Access Grid node .

In 1769, Tupaia, with his "own hands," made this chart for Captain Cook.  A remarkable testament to the breadth of Polynesian knowledge of the Pacific, it covers about 4,000 kilometres of the Pacific, extending from Rotuma to the Marquesas.  Two copies of the chart was made, and two were lost.  Is this surviving map the original?  I believe that a book called Charts and Coastal Views held by the library, answers this interesting question.