They first settled by the water and set up farming systems, with a second group of settlers, the Tahitians, arriving hundreds of years later. The Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands were the first to reach the Hawaiian Islands, around AD 300 to 600. However, when they began to travel again, they did so with great gusto and eventually reached Hawaii, Tahiti, and New Zealand. Scientists attribute the “Long Pause” to a lack of boating technology that was able to overcome the wind and natural forces.

For about 2,000 years, no one seemed to go anywhere from the original Polynesian mainland. However, before this settlement, there was a “Long Pause” in Polynesian sailing that is depicted in the Disney movie Moana among other aspects of Hawaiian culture. Polynesians were the first ones who were successful at using ancient technology to bring people across the ocean to inhabit these dots of land that were rife with volcanic activity such as Hawaii and Tahiti. When Captain Cook discovered that indigenous Hawaiians spoke a language closer to the South Pacific Islands than any other language, the mystique of the Hawaiian and Polynesian people in Western lore began.

Polynesian and Hawaiian culture has intrigued the Western world for centuries. Disney’s “Moana” Compared to True Hawaiian Culture

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