View source for Tupaia (navigator)

{{Short description|Polynesian navigator}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Tupaia
| birth_date         = c. {{Birth date text|1725}}
| birth_place        = near Ha'amanino Harbour, [[Raiatea]]
| death_date         = 20 December 1770 (aged around 44–45)
| death_place        = [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]], [[Company rule in the Dutch East Indies|Dutch East Indies]]
| known_for          = Joining the crew of James Cook as a navigator and translator
}}
'''Tupaia''' (also spelled '''Tupaea''' or '''Tupia'''; {{circa}} 1725 – 20 December 1770) was a [[Tahiti]]an [[Polynesian navigator]] and ''[[arioi]]'' (a kind of [[priest]]), originally from the island of [[Raiatea|Ra'iatea]] in the [[Pacific Islands]] group known to Europeans as the [[Society Islands]]. His remarkable [[navigation]]al skills and [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] geographical knowledge were used by [[James Cook|Lt. James Cook, R.N.]] when he took him aboard [[HMS Endeavour|HMS ''Endeavour'']] as guide on its voyage of exploration to ''[[Terra Australis Incognita]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chitham |first=Karl |title=Crafting Aotearoa : a cultural history of making in New Zealand and the wider Moana Oceania |publisher=Te Papa Press |others=Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai, Damian Skinner, Rigel Sorzano |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-9941362-7-5 |location=Wellington, New Zealand |pages=66 |oclc=1118996645}}</ref> Tupaia travelled with Cook to New Zealand, acting as the expedition's navigator to the Polynesian [[Māori people|Māori]], and Australia. He died in December 1770 from a shipborne illness contracted when ''Endeavour'' was docked in [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] for repairs ahead of its return journey to England.

==Early life==
Tupaia was born at Ha'amanino Harbour on Ra'iatea around 1725 and became a leading ''ariori'' priest for the [[Taputapuatea marae]]. Tupaia was trained in the ''fare-'ai-ra'a-'upu'', or schools of learning, about the origin of the cosmos, genealogies, the calendar, proverbs and histories. He was also taught how to be a [[celestial navigation|star navigator]]. His  knowledge included island lists, including their size, reef and harbor locations, whether they were inhabited, and if so, the name of the chief and any food produced there. More importantly, his skills would include the [[bearing (navigation)|bearing]] of each island, the time to get there, and the succession of stars and islands to follow to get there. These islands included the [[Society Islands]], the [[Austral Islands]], the [[Cook Islands]], plus [[Samoa]], [[Tonga]], [[Tokelau]] and [[Rotuma]].<ref name="Anne">{{cite book|last1=Salmond|first1=Anne|title=Aphrodite's Island|date=2010|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520261143|pages=[https://archive.org/details/aphroditesisland00salm/page/36 36–37,175,203–204,288]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/aphroditesisland00salm/page/36}}</ref>

[[Bora Bora]] warriors invaded Ra'iatea around 1763, wounding Tupaia and forcing him to flee to [[Tahiti]], where he sought protection from the [[Papara]] chief Amo and his wife [[Purea]]. Tupaia soon became their advisor and high priest, and eventually Purea's lover. Tupaia befriended [[Samuel Wallis]] during his observation of a solar eclipse, and then Joseph Banks during the [[1769 Transit of Venus observed from Tahiti]]. After which, Tupaia "attached himself to the British," according to [[Anne Salmond (historian)|Anne Salmond]]. Tupaia was also an artist, and ten watercolors of his survive.<ref name=Anne/>{{rp|60–61,175–176}}

== Joining ''Endeavour'' ==
{{Quote box|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|
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 |quote = "The Captain refuses to take ''[Tupaia]'' on his own account, in my opinion sensibly enough, the government will never in all human probability take any notice of him. I therefore have resolved to take him&nbsp;...<br><br>I do not know why I may not keep him as a curiosity, as well as some of my neighbours do lions and tigers at a larger expense than he will probably ever put me to; the amusement I shall have in his future conversation and the benefit he will be to this ship as well as what he may be if another should be sent to these seas, will I think fully repay me."
 |source = — Extract of "The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768{{ndash}}1771.<ref name=Smith139/>
 |align = right
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}}
Tupaia joined ''Endeavour'' in July 1769 when it passed his home island of [[Ra'iatea]] in the outward voyage from Plymouth. He was welcomed aboard at the insistence of Sir [[Joseph Banks]], the Cook expedition's official botanist, on the basis of his evident skill as a navigator and mapmaker: when asked for details of the region Tupaia drew a chart showing all 130 islands within a {{convert|2000|mi|km}} radius and was able to name 74 of them.<ref name="Druett2">{{cite book |last1= Druett |first1= Joan|author-link1=Joan Druett |title=Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator |year= 1987 |publisher=[[Random House, New Zealand|Random House]], New Zealand |pages=226–227}}</ref> Banks welcomed the Raiatean's interest in travelling with ''Endeavour'' to England because of his usefulness for the ship as well as the envisaged conversation and amusement (possibly even genuine friendship according to Australian researcher Vanessa Smith).<ref name=Smith139>{{cite journal|last=Smith|first=Vanessa|title=Banks, Tupaia and Mai: cross cultural exchanges and friendship in the Pacific|year=2009|volume=26|issue=2|journal=Parergon|pages=139{{ndash}}142|doi=10.1353/pgn.0.0186|s2cid=144650702}}</ref> It was also hoped that he could be presented as an anthropological curiosity in England.<ref name=Smith139/> As Cook at first refused to allow Tupaia to join the expedition for financial reasons, Banks agreed to be responsible for the Raiatean's welfare and upkeep while on board.{{sfn|Holmes|2009|page=34}}

==Expedition and Tupaia's map==
[[File:Tupaia's map, c. 1769.jpg|thumb|left|Tupaia's map, c. 1769.]]
As Cook intended to spend several weeks in the Society Islands before heading south, Tupaia assisted the expedition as an interlocutor and interpreter with local tribes. He also worked closely with Banks in compiling an account of Tahiti and its inhabitants.<ref name="O'Sullivan"/> On August 15, 1769, Tupaia began to work on a Chart of the Pacific Ocean in collaboration with Cook, Banks, and several of Cook's officers.

Older research summarized by Joan Druett assumed that Tupaia's own voyaging experience was limited. It holds that Tupaia had navigated from Ra'iatea in short voyages to 13 islands shown on the resulting map. He had not visited western Polynesia, as since his grandfather's time the extent of voyaging by Raiateans had diminished to the islands of [[eastern Polynesia]]. His grandfather and father had passed to Tupaia the knowledge as to the location of the major islands of western Polynesia and the navigation information necessary to voyage to [[Rotuma]], [[Samoa]] and [[Tonga]].<ref name="Druett1">{{cite book |last1= Druett |first1= Joan|title=Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator |url= http://www.joan.druett.gen.nz/tupaia__captain_cook_s_polynesian_navigator_103427.htm |year= 1987 |publisher=Random House, New Zealand |isbn=978-0313387487|pages=218–233}}</ref> It was also assumed that Cook was less pleased than Banks with Tupaia's evident navigational skills, resolving instead to rely on his own exploration of the region.<ref name="O'Sullivan">{{cite book |title =In search of Captain Cook | first =Dan | last =O'Sullivan | year =2008 | publisher =I. B. Taurus | page =148 | isbn =9781845114831}}</ref>

More recent research challenged the view that Tupaia's travels in the wider region were limited, and questioned Cook's failing appreciation of Tupaia as misinterpretations of the source material. In an extended reading of Tupaia's Map, [[Lars Eckstein]] and [[Anja Schwarz]] propose that Tupaia had detailed navigational knowledge that extended throughout the Polynesian triangle (with the probable exception of only New Zealand). The chart he drew for James Cook in August 1769 shows interconnected voyaging routes ranging from Rotuma west of Samoa, via Samoa and Tonga, the southern Cook Islands and the Austral Group, Mangareva and Pitcairn all the way to Rapa Nui. A second major composite route leads from Tahiti through the Tuamotu Group to the Marquesas Group and on to Oahu in Hawai'i. Tupaia invented a cartographic system for Cook and his men which located a northern bearing from any island he drew in the centre of his Chart (marked by the word 'avatea', this is '[the sun at] noon'). This allowed him to translate his own wayfinding knowledge for island-to-island voyages into the logic and terms of Cook's compass. The Admiralty manuscript of James Cook's journal indicates that Tupaia told Cook that he himself (or his ancestors) travelled to most islands drawn on the Chart excepting only Rotuma (north of Fiji) and Oahu in Hawai'i.<ref>Lars Eckstein and Anja Schwarz (2019), “The Making of Tupaia's Map: A Story of the Extent and Mastery of Polynesian Navigation, Competing Systems of Wayfinding on James Cook's Endeavour, and the Invention of an Ingenious Cartographic System”. ''The Journal of Pacific History'' 54(1): 1-95. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2018.1512369; see also Lars Eckstein and Anja Schwarz, "The Making of Tupaia's Map Revisited", ''The Journal of Pacific History'' 54(4). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2019.1657500. For a shorter summary of the research findings, see also: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/iaa-alc/tupaias-map.html</ref>

Tupaia accompanied Cook to [[New Zealand]] and was welcomed by some of the [[Māori people|Māori]] as a [[tohunga]] (an expert).<ref>[[Michael King (historian)|King, Michael]] (2003). ''History of New Zealand'' {{ISBN|0-14-301867-1}}, [[Penguin Books]]. Pages 103 & 106</ref> It seems that they presented him with a precious [[Kurī|dog-skin]] [[Māori traditional textiles#Fine cloaks / kākahu|cloak]].
Many Maori people have tales including Tupaia and his lineage that remains in New Zealand today.<ref name=Anne/>{{rp|230}} The crew of ''Endeavour'' had developed a less favorable impression of their shipmate. One, midshipman Joseph Marra, recorded that:<blockquote>Toobia ... was a man of real genius, a priest of the first order, and an excellent artist: he was, however, by no means beloved by the ''Endeavour''s crew, being looked upon as proud and austere, extorting homage, which the sailors who thought themselves degraded by bending to an Indian {{sic}}, were very unwilling to pay, and preferring complaints against them on the most trivial occasions.<ref name="O'Sullivan2"/></blockquote>

Tupaia landed at [[Botany Bay]], Australia, in late April 1770. Cook said of Tupaia, "...by means of Tupaia...you would always get people to direct you from Island to Island and would be sure of meeting with a friendly resception and refreshments at every Island you came to."<ref name=Anne/>{{rp|232–233}}

== Death ==
[[File:A Maori man and Joseph Banks exchanging a crayfish for a piece of cloth, c. 1769.jpg|thumb|right|''[[A Māori and Pākehā man trading a crayfish]]'', drawing by Tupaia, {{circa|1769}}]]
Tupaia died on 20 December 1770. This date is confirmed in the muster records of ''Endeavour''.<ref>Muster of Endeavour Bark. ADM 36/8569. Held at The National Archives, Kew, London.</ref> Other dates are suggested by the journals of Joseph Banks and James Cook. Joseph Banks's journal has an entry for 11 November, in which he wrote “We {{sic|rece|ivd}} the news of Tupias death”. However, Banks was ill for much of his time at Batavia, and wrote many entries later on, using incorrect dates. James Cook's journal has an entry for 26 December, in which he wrote “we lost... Tupia”. However, this entry is a summary of several events that occurred during the stay in Batavia.

Tupaia died from either [[dysentery]]<ref>{{cite book |title =Captain James Cook | first =Richard | last =Hough |author-link=  Richard Hough| year =1994 | publisher =[[Hodder and Stoughton]]| page=201 | isbn = 978-0-340-82556-3 }}</ref> or [[malaria]],<ref name="O'Sullivan2">{{cite book |title =In search of Captain Cook | first =Dan | last =O'Sullivan | year =2008 | publisher =I.B. Taurus | page =150 | isbn =9781845114831}}</ref> both of which were present aboard ''Endeavour'' during its berthing for repairs in Batavia. Cook recorded his passing in his journal: "He was a Shrewd, Sensible, Ingenious Man, but proud and obstinate which often made his situation on board both disagreeable to himself and those about him, and tended much to promote the deceases that put a period to his life."<ref name="O'Sullivan2" />

==Legacy==
When Cook returned to New Zealand in 1773, the Maori approached his ship shouting "Tupaia! Tupaia!". As Cook noted, "...the Name of Tupia was at that time so popular among them that it would be no wonder if at this time it is known over the great part of New Zealand."<ref name=Anne/>{{rp|262}}

===In popular culture===
In 2021, a trilingual [[Tahitian language|Tahitian]]-[[Māori language|Māori]]-English opera was made of the life of Tupaia titled ''[[Ihitai 'Avei'a - Star Navigator]]'' co-composed by [[Crowded House]]'s [[Tim Finn]] and Tim McLeod for [[New Zealand Opera]]; it opened in Auckland March of that year.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tim Finn: 'Tupaia had a different way of seeing the universe' |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018785463/tim-finn-tupaia-had-a-different-way-of-seeing-the-universe |website=Sunday Morning|publisher=Radio New Zealand |access-date=3 July 2025 |date=28 February 2021}}</ref>

==Notes==
<references />

==Further reading==
{{Commons category|Tupaia (navigator)}}
* [[Joan Druett|Druett, Joan]] (2011). ''Tupaia'', Random House, New Zealand; {{ISBN|978-0313387487}}
* Eckstein, Lars and Anja Schwarz (2019), “The Making of Tupaia's Map: A Story of the Extent and Mastery of Polynesian Navigation, Competing Systems of Wayfinding on James Cook's Endeavour, and the Invention of an Ingenious Cartographic System”. ''The Journal of Pacific History'' 54(1): 1-95. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2018.1512369; see also: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/iaa-alc/tupaias-map.html
* Lars Eckstein and Anja Schwarz (2019), "The Making of Tupaia's Map Revisited", ''The Journal of Pacific History'' 54(4). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2019.1657500.
* {{cite book|first=Richard|last=Holmes|author-link=Richard Holmes (biographer)|title=The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSLJnGMUw9wC|year= 2009|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-37832-3}}
* [[Michael King (historian)|King, Michael]] (2003). ''History of New Zealand'', Penguin, {{ISBN|0-14-301867-1}}
* [https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/name-101191.html Tupaia] at the [[New Zealand Electronic Text Centre]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tupaia}}
[[Category:Polynesian maritime navigators]]
[[Category:Polynesian explorers of the Pacific]]
[[Category:Participants in James Cook's voyages]]
[[Category:1725 births]]
[[Category:1770 deaths]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Deaths from dysentery]]
[[Category:Tohunga]]
[[Category:Deaths from malaria]]
[[Category:People from Raiatea]]