1/4: Oceania now in a diplomatic battle between the #PRC and #AUKUS: 1/4: Nicholas Thomas, author, Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific; @MAACambridge.

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🗓️ 11 December 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

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1/4: Oceania now in a diplomatic battle between the #PRC and #AUKUS: 1/4: Nicholas Thomas, author, Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific; @MAACambridge.

https://www.amazon.com/Voyagers-Settlement-Pacific-Nicholas-Thomas/dp/1541619838

The islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia stretch across a huge expanse of ocean and encompass a multitude of different peoples. Starting with Captain James Cook, the earliest European explorers to visit the Pacific were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving thousands of miles from continents. Who were these people? From where did they come? And how were they able to reach islands dispersed over such vast tracts of ocean?

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0:00.0	This is CBS I On The World with John Bachelor. Here's John Bachelor.
0:12.0	This is CBS I On The World. I'm John Bachelor and I welcome a great privilege, Professor Nicholas
0:17.7	Thomas, Professor of Historical Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, Director of
0:22.4	the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, to help me with his new book. Wonderful
0:28.4	story about the Pacific Rim Basin, where I've been several times in my life ignorant
0:34.0	of the questions I didn't know existed about where this wonderful culture came from that I visited
0:40.2	in Hawaii, where it's going now in the 21st century, given its history. The new book is Voyagers,
0:48.0	the settlement of the Pacific. Professor, a very good evening to you. Thank you very much.
0:52.3	Congratulations and I take you to a moment in your explication of the vastness of this landscape
1:00.4	called Oceania. This is, I believe, 1821. A missionary John Williams is a deploying Christianity
1:10.4	throughout the islands, the Cook group, if I read correctly. And at one point he comes across a
1:16.7	chief, Rongo Montani, who offers to demonstrate to him how to sail to the next point where he wants
1:24.5	to go. And herein lies the secret of the vast voyages across the Oceania. What do we need to know
1:32.2	about what Rongo Montani told John Williams that he recorded so dutifully in the early 19th century?
1:38.9	Good evening, Professor. Good evening and it's a pleasure to talk to you. And John Williams,
1:44.8	himself, was actually a fascinating character. I mean, people often think missionaries must be
1:51.7	narrow-minded, dogmatic, just out, away from Europe to try to convert people. And John Williams
2:00.5	was in some ways like that, that he was also somebody who had a great ability to build rapport
2:07.6	with islands people in the Pacific. He listened to them. He was interested in what they had to say.
2:15.0	He was interested in their knowledge. And this is really a case in point. He was in search of
2:23.5	the largest island in the Cook Islands archipelago, Rarotona. He had heard of it. He had heard of
2:30.0	the population. He knew it was a great Pacific island society. And he was immensely eager to
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