Architecture of an ocean
PACIFIC ISLAND ARCHITECTURE IS increasingly talked about and illustrated but what is it? In the past, it has consisted of gestures and motifs in an attempt to appeal to a certain regional relevance, in spite of regionalism having attracted continued theoretical criticism. One of the issues is the question of what constitutes a region.1 There is something strange about a Pacific regionalism that consists of ocean stretching from pole to pole and covering one-third of the surface of the planet. However, for maritime people, the ocean between islands is not necessarily a barrier but, instead, a connection. Epeli Hau’ofa talks of ‘a sea of islands’ and proposes:
“It is probably true to say that no major geographical region in the world is as integrated as the South Pacific. We are, for all practical purposes, a single economy and, increasingly, a single society.”2
Traditional Pacific maps attempt to deal with the nature of the ocean, such as wave patterns and currents, while European charts are obsessed with the land – even when it is under the sea. There has long been a tripartite division of Pacific islands, initiated by Dumont d’Urville 200 years ago in an address to the Geographical Society of Paris. Incidentally, d’Urville had said about Māori settlement in Tokomaru Bay:
