Art Section II: Wayfinding Without Maps/Rebbelib Navigation Chart

What did people rely on to orient themselves before printed or drawn maps?

Oral histories, celestial alignments, use/modification to the land, etc

What helps humans make a mental map of a place or route?

Narratives, sensory cues, and natural features

What is map-making?

Recording spatial knowledge in a physical or graphical way

What have humans used for navigation for thousands of years?

Stars and constellations

What was the significance of star knowledge to North American groups?

It was a narrative tool for conveying cosmology

Who runs the Native Skywatchers progam?

Dakota, Lakota, and Ojibwe artists, scientists, linguists, and elders

What does the Native Skywatchers program produce?

Visualizations of Native star knowledge

How did Aboriginal Australians navigate?

They developed chants and songs

What is the Outback?

The interior of the Australian continent

Besides aiding navigation, why were Indigenous Australian chants and songs important?

They connected personal travels to the journeys of the Ancestral Beings who shaped the land

What was this knowledge also called?

the Dreaming

What are some elements of Indigenous Australian chants?

Repetition and call-and-response

What two things do Indigenous Australian chants relate?

Specific sites and their mythic storylines

How did physical modification of the landscape contribute to these stories?

It solidified the narratives and produced visual landmarks to go with the spoken ones

What features were indicated by patterns and shapes?

Water holes, campsites, rivers, and areas of spiritual/ancestral power

How did rock art contribute to Aboriginal society?

It allowed Aboriginal peoples to navigate to safe places

Before the creation of navigational tools, what did people use to get to their destinations?

Senses, landmarks, stories, and memories

What geographic feature dominates Oceania?

the Pacific Ocean

What regions are part of the Pacific Ocean world?

Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia

What makes up the Pacific Ocean world?

Thousands of islands across millions of square miles of water

What is the role of Oceanic art?

It encodes social relations, serves religious and ceremonial functions, and gives objects of daily use utility and beauty

According to Nicholas Thomas, what does Pacific art suggest?

Effective action is more important than visual communication

Where and when was the Rebbelib Navigation Chart made?

the Marshall Islands in the late nineteenth century

How is the Chart useful to navigators?

It is a map of the Marshall Islands that helps navigators steer their canoes to a safe port

To whom can the navigational message of the Chart be communicated?

Only the family of navigators it was made by

When was Micronesia settled?

1300 BCE

Where did migrants to Micronesia come from?

Southeast Asia and Polynesia

What did Southeast Asian settlers bring to Micronesia?

Domesticated plants and animals like breadfruit, coconuts, and poultry

What have Oceanic cultures been impacted by since the eighteenth century?

Colonial exploration

What was a source of conflict between the Marshall Islands and colonial powers?

The transportation of Marshallese people for use as enforced labor on Hawaiian plantations

Which countries previously controlled the Marshall Islands?

1. German Empire (1885-1914)

2. Japan (1914-WWII)

3. USA (end of WWII-1979)

What occurred in the Marshall Islands under US control?

Military occupation and nuclear testing

When did the Marshall Islands gain independence?

1979

What is the current population of the Marshall Islands?

42,000

What groups of people made early contact with the Pacific world?

European travelers, traders, and ethnographers

Which Pacific communities made early contact with Europeans?

Papuan, Polynesian, and Māori communities

When did art targeted toward Western consumers start to be made?

the 1770s

How does Micronesia compare to Polynesia and Melanesia in terms of natural resources?

It doesn't have as much

What kind of objects make up Micronesian artistic production?

Utiliarian objects

Why is Micronesian art poorly represented in Western collections?

It was not collected as vigorously by Europeans

Which Marshallese objects can be seen in museums around the world?

Stick charts used for navigation

How many square miles of land are in Micronesia?

1050 square miles

How many square miles of ocean does Micronesia have?

2.9 million square miles

What percent of the Marshall Islands' territory is water?

98 percent

What systems do Marshallese people rely on?

Ancient systems of ocean navigation

How many islands and atolls make up the Marshall Islands?

5 islands and 29 atolls

How many canoes did Marshallese fleets have?

25 to 30

What is a pilot vessel?

A canoe sailed by master navigators that led the rest of the flotilla

What are the two major clusters of the Marshall Islands?

The western Ralik and eastern Ratak chains

Why is it difficult to navigate the Marshall Islands?

The islands are low-lying, making them hard to spot, and there are almost no landmarks that can be used as guides

What do Marshallese navigators rely on instead of technological instruments?

Ocean swells, behavior of land-based fishing birds, movement of colors and clouds, and currents

Is navigating a male or female task?

Male

What is required to be a successful navigator?

Leadership, quick decision-making, and good memory

How did elite families cultivate the knowledge required for navigation?

They passed down the secrets of navigation using stick charts

What are the stick charts made of?

Cowrie shells, dried midribs of coconut fronds, and natural fibers

What are mattang charts?

Diagrams of how swell patterns radiate from islands

What is dunung?

Swell patterns

What can an amateur navigator learn from mattang charts?

How to feel the vibrations of dunung and use them to guide a boat

What are meddo charts?

Maps of small clusters of islands and their dunung patterns

What are meddo charts used for?

Local navigation

What do rebbelib charts represent?

Large areas

What are rebbelib charts used for?

Understanding how swells intersect and how winds and currents guide travelers

What is the role of the background grid of a rebbelib chart?

It creates a stable framework

What do the bent sticks of a rebbelib chart represent?

Dunung and wind/water currents

What do shells represent in rebbelib charts?

Specific islands

Do rebbelib charts accurately mark the locations of islands?

No, because they are schematic representations, not literal ones

What activities did stick charts support?

Fishing and traveling for trade, provisioning, or making political/familial connections

Where and how did navigators use stick charts?

They consulted them on land and reinforced knowledge by feeling the chart and reciting what it represented

Why did navigators not bring charts with them on canoes?

It was considered bad luck because it cast doubt on the navigator's skills

Why is each stick chart unique?

They represent the interpretation of a specific navigator, which is based on personal experience

When was the selected work collected and by whom?

1892 by Edward Henry Meggs Davis

What ship did Davis sail on?

HMS Royalist

How many objects did Davis collect from 1890-1893?

Over 700

How many objects collected by Davis are in the British Museum?

141

What information do we lack about the objects collected by Davis?

How they were collected and who originally made and used them

What do Marshallese stick charts provide us?

A tangible representation of how Marshall Islanders conceptualize their world