Lars Eckstein & Anja Schwarz

Tupaia’s Map I 

Lars Eckstein

Tupaia’s Map II 

Anja Schwarz

Tupaia’s Map of Oceania is one of the most famous and enigmatic artifacts to emerge from the early encounters between Europeans and Pacific Islanders. It was drawn by Tupaia, an arioi priest, chiefly advisor and master navigator from Ra‘iātea in the Leeward Society Islands in collaboration with various members of the crew of the Endeavour during Captain James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific. Over the past 250 years, the identity of most islands on the chart, and the logic of their arrangement have posed a riddle to researchers. Drawing in part on archival material hitherto overlooked, in this paper, we now for the first time present a comprehensive reading of Tupaia’s Map. We propose a new understanding of the chart’s genealogy and distinct cartographic logic, which not only underscores the extent and mastery of precolonial Polynesian navigation. It also allows us to tell a unique story of epistemic translation between two very different wayfinding systems and their respective representational models.