From this chart we can see that there is a striking similarity in the languages of people across Te Moana Nui a Kiwa – from Hawai’i to Aotearoa New Zealand in the south and Tahiti in between.

The point of this is to establish cultural and cosmological similarities in Moana and Māori peoples. The terms for sacred, dark/light and Priest reveal. That is important to establish because among these cultures the notion of an interconnected universe is common.

Evidence via the radiocarbon dating record (Wilmshurst, Hunt, Lipo & Anderson, 2011 – see chart below) reveals that there was a rapid period of settlement of the region of Eastern Polynesia (Hawai’i to the north, Aotearoa to the south and Rapa Nui to the east) between 1190 and 1290CE. This is the start of permanent settlement, and it is clear that language and cosmology travelled with the peoples.

Consequently, there is a very strong basis for saying the notion of an interconected universe has been with Polynesians since 1190CE, which is 790 years prior to similar notions being discussed in the West, particularly by Deleuze and Guattari (1987) who are widely cited across several disciplines including Philosophy (Callinicos, 1985), History (Bell & Colebrook, 2009), Science (Bazzul & Kayumova, 2016), Art History (van Tuinen & Zepke, 2017) and the post-Colonial discussion (Huggan, 1989).

The time has come for this acknowledgment to be spread across academia wherever ideas around interconnection are discussed. This is a simple matter of acknowledging precedents.

---

The important part of this chart lies in the dark blue coloured areas. These are Class 1 sample dates, the most certain of all categories of radiocarbon dating. This is the basis for Wilmshurst et al (2011) giving the period 1190 – 1290CE as the period of rapid settlement.

Of note is the long tail of Class 3 (middle blue colour) sample. While having a wide standard deviation (i.e. dating is in a range rather than specific) these go back around 300BCE in the Marquesas, Aotearoa New Zealand and Rapa Nui. This means that within around century of this date, someone was lighting fires and eating food at this early time. In my view, this is evidence of early exploration of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa.

---

What we have here are the dates where there is DNA evidence of intermixing between Moana peoples and South Americans. This means that there was contact to the point of raising generations and look at those dates – South Marquesas and Guatemala 1150CE. Colombia features in two periods. All dates except Rapa Nui fall within the period of rapid settlement as given by Wilmshurst et al (2011).

The chart given by Ioannidis, Blanco-Portillo, Sandoval et al (2020) follows below. This is the work of 31 academics across several fields of academia including DNA researchers, Anthropologists and Archeologists.

---

Native American gene flow into Polynesia predating Easter Island settlement by Ionnadis et al (2020). While there is discusion in the West regarding whether moana peoples went east or South Americans went west, there is ample evidence of voyaging in Polynesia to assert Moana peoples went east. There are Western academics who cite the voyage of Thor Hyerdahl however as Crowe 2018 put it, Hyerdahl drifted to the Tuamotus and was no closer to Rapa Nui than when he set out. The currents near to South America are particularly strong, and require significant skill to navigate, something that has been with Moana peoples since 950CE, which is evidenced by radiocarbon dating.

We now come to two really significant pieces of the thesis – the diffraction of the Samoan concept of Vā against Quantum Theory, and diffracting Electronic Art and the Anthropocene. The Ngaru Whenua Diffractive method in writing consists of honouring the mana or integrity of the authors by using quotations rather than paraphrasing, while looking from one culture through to the other and vice versa. Looking form one culture to another has roots in the diffractive method developed by Haraway and evolved by Barad (2007).

---

In the chart above, light green represents Moana Peoples while dark green represents the Western European Cultural Hemisphere.

We are now ready to explore the diffraction of the Samoan notion of Vā and Quantum Theory, leading to surprises. However, before we can do that, we must safeguard Indigenous Knowledge by allowing Indigenous forms of knowledge room to breathe. Previously, Indigenous Knowledge had often been constrained to being situated within Western Knowledge frameworks, which harms the integrity of Moana thought. The diagram above represents forms of Moana knowledge while also acknowledging Cartesian Duality – based on the subject/object distinction. Once the Knowledge Dimensions have been scoped, we can then review the diffraction.

---

The diffraction of Samoan concept of Vā and Quantum Theory. While the authors are contextually addressing different topics, and the words don’t match precisely, what is apparent is the author’s words point in similar directions: the thrust of what they say overlaps in the way of waves. Waves are the origin of the term ‘Ngaru Whenua’ – it refers to a kind of wave (ngaru) pattern made by an island (whenua). That wave pattern was known to traditional Moana navigators and is called diffraction in the West. So my argument here is that waves of knowledge can be seen as passing across each other in a way they overlap while maintaining their distinct form.

---