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Ui-te-Rangiora orHui Te Rangiora is a legendaryPolynesian navigator who sailed to theSouthern Ocean and is sometimes claimed to have discoveredAntarctica in the early seventh century on the vesselTe Ivi o Atea.[1] The legend originates from the island ofRarotonga in theCook Islands archipelago, but this island was not populated until the tenth century.[2]
According to a 19th-century interpretation of Rarotongan legend byStephenson Percy Smith, Ui-te-Rangiora and his crew on the vesselTe Ivi o Atea sailed south and encountered an area he calledTai-uka-a-pia (interpreted by Smith as a frozen sea), "a foggy, misty, and dark place not seen by the sun" where rocks grow out of the sea.[3][1] Smith interpreted this as referring to theice floes andicebergs in theSouthern Ocean, due to the ice floes being similar to arrowroot powder (referring toTacca leontopetaloides, Polynesian arrowroot).[1] This has led others to conclude that Ui-te-Rangiora was the first person to discover Antarctica.[1][4]
The interpretation of Ui-te-Rangiora reaching Antarctic waters has been questioned.[5] Anderson et al. note that there is no mention of an Antarctic voyage in the original legend, and that it is first mentioned in the story of his descendant Te Aru Tanga Nuku, who wished to "behold all the wonderful things on the ocean" seen by his ancestor.[6] AnthropologistTe Rangi Hīroa assessed the legend as having "so much post-European information" that it cannot be accepted as accurate and ancient.[7] As theCook Islands Māori language had no pre-European word for 'ice' or 'frozen', interpretingTai-uka-a-pia as a frozen sea may be a mistranslation, and an alternate interpretation is "sea covered with foam like arrowroot".[8] New ZealandiwiNgāi Tahu considers the legend to be a mythic origin story rather than a historical voyaging narrative.[9]
It has been suggested that the folklore of the islanders reflected an actual event, namely a sea area covered with a dense layer of floating pieces ofpumice resulting from some underseavolcanic eruption. Such a 25 000 km2 sea surface was sighted in 2012 in the area ofKermadec Islands, with a 60 cm thick bright white layer resembling a shelf glacier.[10]
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It has been claimed that in 1886Lapita pottery shards were discovered on theAntipodes Islands, indicating thatPolynesians did reach that far south.[11] However, the claim has not been substantiated; indeed, no archaeological evidence of human visitation prior to European discovery of the islands has been found.[12]
Enderby Island, considerably south of the Antipodes Islands, has been found to have proof of 13th- or 14th-centuryMāori use.[13] Similarly, a craft of 'ancient design' was found in 1810 on the subantarcticMacquarie Island, considerably south and west of theAuckland Islands. It has been suggested that the craft was burnt for fuel that year in the ensuing penguin and seal oil fires, and that it was possibly a Polynesian vessel. However, in the same year, Captain Smith described in more detail what is presumably the same wreck: 'several pieces of wreck of a large vessel on this Island, apparently very old and high up in the grass, probably the remains of the ship of the unfortunateDe la Perouse.'[14]
