Rebbelib Navigation Chart Marshall Islands -19th Century

What state contains the “Native Skywatchers” program?

Minnesota

The Native Skywatchers program consists of what Native American tribes?

Dakota, Lakota, and Ojibwe

What does the Native Sky watchers program produce?

Modern visualizations of Native star knowledge ie. physical location and cultures combine together

What are Aboriginal Australians known as?

Outback

What are the types of customary knowledge that Indigenous groups used for way finding?

Stories, songs, oral history

What did the Outback in Australia use for “orientation”?

Chants and songs

What is “the Dreaming”?

Chants and songs from the Outback that connect personal travel to the journey of Ancestral Beings

What does “the Dreaming” use in their music to convey its knwoledge?

Repetition and call-and-response

What is the first selected work’s name/piece of art?

Rebbelib Navigation Chart

How is Oceania divided?

Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia

How does art historian Nicholas Thomas describe Pacific art?

Effective action is more important that visual communication

How does the Rebbelib Navigation Chart help navigators?

Enocdes a mental map of a region, allowing navigator to steer canoe to safe port

What is a treasure box called by the Maori people of New Zealand?

Wakahuia

What is a drum called in the Marshall Islands?

Aje

Can the navigational message be communicated of the Rebbelib Navigation Chart be conveyed to non family members?

No

What region of Oceania is the Marshall Islands located in?

Micronesia

When was Marshall Islands probably first settled?

1300 BCE

What is the most dominant force in Marshallese life?

Ocean

What types of domesticated plants did prehistoric settlers from Southeast Asia bring to the Marshall Islands?

Breadfruit, coconuts, and poultry

What happened to some of the Marshallese populations in the late 19th century?

Transported for use as enforced labor on Hawaii

When did the German Empire colonize the Marshall Islands?

1885

When did the Marshall Islands come under the influence of Japan?

1914

When was the Marshall Islands under the United States?

After WW2

When did the Marshall Islands gain independence?

1979

What is the population of the Marshall Islands currently?

42,000

What types of occupations did early Europeans have when making contact in the Pacific world?

Travelers, Traders, Ethnographers

Early European contact had Europeans getting goods from what type of communities?

Papuan, Polynesian, and Maori

When did the Pacific world start making art targeted towards Western consumers?

1770s

What region of Oceania has the least natural resources?

Micronesia

Why was Micronesian art not collected as much by Europeans?

Their art were mostly on utilitarian objects

What category of objects unique to the Marshall Islands can be seen in museums all over the world?

Stick Charts used for navigation

How many square miles of land does Micronesia?

1,050

How many square miles of ocean does Micronesia have?

2.9 million

What percentage of territory encompassed by the Marshall Islands is water?

98%

How many major islands does the Marshall Islands have?

5

How many atolls of the Marshall Islands are there?

29

How many outrigger canoes were on a typical fleet when the Marshallese people traveled?

25-30

What type of canoe would the Marshallese master navigators sail on when leading other boats?

Pilot Vessel

What are the islands that make up the two major parts of the Marshall Islands?

Western Ralik and Eastearn Ratak

Why are there no noteworthy landmarks for navigators to use when traveling the Ralik and Ratak island chains?

They are low-lying landforms

How do master navigators traverse the western Ralik and eastern Ratak island chains?

Form and rhythm of ocean swells, behavior of land-based fishing birds, movement of colors and clouds, and currents

Can a successful navigator be female?

NO

What are the characteristics of a successful navigator in the Marshall Islands?

Male, Strong leadership, quick decisions, excellent memory

What are the stick charts made of from the Marshallese elite families?

Cowrie shells, Midribs of coconut fronds, and natural fibers

What are mattang charts?

Diagrams that teach navigators how swell patterns radiate out from islands

What are swell patterns known as in the Marshall Islands?

Dunung

What is the most basic tool for low educated navigators in the Marshall Islands?

Mattang charts

How do Mattang charts teach low educated navigators about the dunung?

It helps them learn the dunung through the hull of the canoe

What are Meddo charts?

Charts that represent small, clusters of islands and their dunung; only used for local navigation

What are Rebbelib charts?

Charts that represent large areas, allows understanding of swells intersecting, and winds/currents guiding people

What does the background of the rebbelib chart do?

Creates a stable framework

What does the Bent sticks of the rebbelib chart represent?

Dunung and wind/water currents

What do small shells on the rebbelib chart represent?

Specific islands

Why did Micronesian navigators create rebbelib charts?

Helps fishing and traveling between islands for trade/connections

How would a rebbelib chart be used?

Only looked at while on land and were memory aids

Why would a rebbelib chart not be taken onto sea and be looked at?

Considered bad luck, and would question the navigator’s knowledge/abilities

Why are there no stick charts that are the same?

It is dependent on the interpretation of a specific navigator with their personal experience

When was our specific rebbelib in the booklet collected?

1892

Who collected the specific rebbelib in our booklet?

Edward Henry Meggs Davis

What ship did Edward Henry Meggs Davis sail on?

HMS Royalist

How many objects did Edward Henry Meggs Davis collect between 1890 and 1893 in Oceania?

700

How many objects collected by Edward Henry Meggs Davis from Oceania are now in the British Museum?

141