What is Polynesian navigation?
[[File:Priests traveling across kealakekua bay for first contact rituals.jpg|thumb|right|Hawaiian navigators sailing multi-hulled canoe, c. 1781]] '''Polynesian navigation''' or '''Polynesian wayfinding''' was used for thousands of years to enable long trips across thousands of kilometers of the open [[Pacific Ocean]]. Polynesians made contact with nearly every island within the huge Polynesian Triangle. Navigators travelled to small islands using wayfinding [[Skill|techniques]] and knowledge passed by oral tradition, often in the form of song. Generally, each island maintained a group of navigators who had very high status; in times of widespread death from starving or difficulty, they could trade for aid or evacuate people to neighbouring islands. [[Category:Navigation]] [[Category:Polynesia]] [[Category:Migration]]