Anthropologist Wade Davis’ famous dictum in The Wayfinders on the wisdom of indigenous cultures hit home when we heard a talk off the coast of Fiji this week onboard Lindblad Expeditions’ National Geographic Orion.
It was about how the Polynesians discovered thousands of islands across the Pacific Ocean hundreds of years before European explorers dared to take their own boats beyond their home shores. The Polynesians, who had come from the area around what is now Taiwan, navigated an ocean that is larger than the landmass of all the continents combined.
They did it by sighting the stars, watching the clouds, following the birds, feeling the currents and tracking the waves. They didn’t have sextants or scientific instruments of any kind. Yet even before they set out in their gigantic outriggers and canoes, they had a map in their minds of where a new found land could be. This was not “let’s send out 100 ships and hope one bumps into an island” on an ocean where there are 25,000 islands covering far less than 1% of the Pacific. No, they were engineers and natural scientists completing what’s comparable to successive moonshots over hundreds of years.
But their ways weren’t their conquerors’ ways: the British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Americans. So their ancient wisdom died out.
Then in 1976 the Hōkūle‘a sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti using only traditional navigation techniques. But the trip almost never happened because there was only one person still alive and willing to share the secrets passed on for scores of generations.
In other words, this ancient wisdom was one funeral away from disappearing forever.
The Polynesian navigation system wasn’t like a small language under threat, it was an entire way of seeing the world and our place in it.
So, far from being failed versions of us, Polynesians were successful versions of us, with a vision that could far surpass our own.
Meanwhile…..
1. Antidepressants or Tolkien? Take this quick quiz and see how fluent you are in Tolkien characters, or in antidepressant drugs. Prize for a perfect score? The self-satisfied glow of serenity.
2. Warren’s All-You-Can-Read Buffet. For 59 years now, Warren Buffet has personally written the CEO’s Letter to Shareholders for Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report. The letters are a treat to read, not just because he makes the reasons behind complex investments easy to understand, but because he writes in clear folksy English, unlike virtually every other annual report on earth, which is written in passive, clichéd, virtue-signaling CEO-ese.
This year’s letter, released last week, is written to a family member. “In visualizing the owners that Berkshire seeks, I am lucky to have the perfect mental model, my sister, Bertie,” he wrote. “She is smart, sensible and nobody’s fool—but isn’t ready for a CPA exam and doesn’t consider herself an economic expert.”
3. Where do people live longer now, and shorter? Between 1971 and 2021, people’s life expectancy rose worldwide from 58 years to 71 years, or 19%. Life expectancy fell pretty much everywhere during Covid, but is bouncing back. The outlier here is America. The US has the lowest life expectancy among large, wealthy countries, while it far outspends its peers on healthcare.”
4. First, AI was all about words. Then it let you create images. Now, Open AI has a way you can create videos. It’s not quite ready for prime-time, but you can already glimpse the magic. And don’t forget, every time you use AI, you’re using the worst AI you’ll ever use.
5. Save 25% on two brilliant young Canadians. Mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, a BBC New Generation artist who’s sung with Staatskapelle Berlin, and fresh off her stunning debut at the Canadian Opera Company’s Cunning Little Vixen, is accompanied by Chopin Piano Competition Silver Medalist, Charles Richard-Hamelin. Their North American concert tour kicks off at Koerner Hall on Sunday, March 24, at 3:00 p.m. Just key in this promo code, OGEMA, for a 25% discount on up to two tickets.
6. There’s money in pretending. “Pretendian” is a new word to describe someone who falsely claims to be Indigenous. But Toronto Life writer Sarah Treleaven wrote about a new kind of Pretendian fraud, where an ambitious Tanzanian-Canadian mother claimed Indigenous identity for her two daughters so they could get financial aid earmarked for Indigenous kids.
7. Big new magazine. No one produces an actual magazine made of paper these days. But next month, Family Style will debut as a quarterly magazine with a big always-changing website. It’s about “Food with an insatiable appetite for culture,” and it’s produced in New York by alumni from the New York Times, Vogue, and the UN.
8. A very short story about a long-singing tribe. The kind of story a grandfather tells his granddaughter to send her on her way in life. And speaking of speaking, here are the languages most used on the internet.
9. How surprise attacks succeed. Israel learned that in October, America in 1942, and Russia a year later. History is filled with surprise attacks, none of which happened from lack of intelligence or information.
10. Footballet. Danced by the best…. Plus the pianist Yuja Wang, in a documentary on the road. Plus the catchiest tunes from classic music musicals.
11. What I’m liking. “Airplane movies” are what we watch on long flights with nothing better to watch. Our standards slump as we do into our seats. I saw a great airplane movie last week, because it stars two of my favourite actors, Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones. The Burial is a courtroom drama that turns race on its competitive head. Worth watching, plane or not.
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FEELING ANXIOUS ABOUT FINDING YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE?
HERE ARE 2 WAYS TO GET THERE.
AND 1 PARTY TO CELEBRATE.
1. FIND YOURSELF OFF THE COAST OF ITALY.
Join us on the Sea Cloud II sailing from Nice to Naples from May 29 to June 5.
2. FIND YOURSELF IN THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST.
There’s no more gorgeous place in Canada than BC’s West Coast, and no more immersive way to explore it aboard the National Geographic Venture on a Lindblad Expedition.
This isn’t an end-of-the-earth trip; it’s a week in the Great Bear Rainforest from September 2 to 9 — the perfect way to bookend your summer.
Thirty of our friends have already signed up to join us. They share a curiosity about the world, a desire to see parts of our home and native land few others get to, and a taste for immersive Indigenous travel.
If you’d like to be part of our growing band of gentle adventurers, please join us for an information reception on Monday, March 25. You’ll hear from Jean and me over wine and nibblies, and the expedition’s leader, Oren Frey, and Lindblad executive Karen Kuttner-Dimitry will beam in via Zoom to detail the itinerary and answer your questions.
So exercise your right to great adventure by guaranteeing you’ll be having one this summer.
***Join us on Monday, March 25 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. ET at a friend’s gorgeous downtown Toronto home. We’ll send you the address when you RSVP, which you can do right now to bob@ramsayinc.com.
Onward,
Bob Ramsay