The project

over a period of six months, to retrace the history of a migration which commenced six millennia ago

The ancestors of the Polynesians carried out a unique exploit in the history of humanity: the systematic colonization of the largest ocean of the world, the Pacific, with 20,000 km separating Asia from Central America. Since then, this ocean has remained the hub of exchanges.

The Pacific is usually subdivided into three large cultural areas: Micronesia, Melanesia  and Polynesia. However, linguistically and archaeologically, only the Polynesians can be identified as a unified group: “…only in Polynesia do we find a robust grouping, one that is meaningful in terms of a set of peoples and cultures that share a common history”[1].

All the known Polynesian cultures share a common ancestral and cultural heritage: Asia.

Using a traditional outrigger sailing canoe, the project consists of retracing in six months, but in a reverse direction, the route of settlement which began over 6,000 years ago.

 The canoe will trace back this slow migration, from east to west, from the Pacific islands towards China, the country of origin[2]. The important settlement areas will thus become the stopovers on the return voyage: Tahiti, Avarua, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, China Hong Kong, and China Shanghai.

The canoe will arrive at the closing of the Expo Shanghai 2010, in front of the world press