An Hour With Joan Druett at the AWRF

Siobhan Harvey reports:

Sunday May 13^th – 11.30am – 12.30 pm

Lower NZI Room, Aotea Centre

In spite of the hustle and bustle of Sunday morning’s turnout for the AWRF, the second Sunday morning session which took place in the Lower NZI Room saw a smaller turnout of people than expected. Here, ‘An Hour with Joan Druett’ saw the titular maritime author discuss not just her most recent book, Tupaia: The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator but also her wider oeuvre and lengthy literary career.

Founding director of the National Maritime Museum, Dr. Rodney Wilson took the role of chair and began with a thorough overview of Druett, her new book and its stellar, complicated protagonist, Tupaia. “This isn’t history which is good for you. It is history which is a rollicking good read,” commended Wilson at the end of his introduction.

Druett (right) then took centre-stage, kicking off with how Tupaia first came to Cook’s attention. Of particular interest here was Druett’s summarising of the minutiae of the initiation of Tupaia as a traditional navigator and priest and the insights offered into the author’s research methods.

Some beautiful moments ensued as Druett discussed Captain Cook, the mapping of Aotearoa and the first interactions and clashes of temperament between Cook (the great European navigator) and Tupaia (the great Polynesian navigator). Ditto how upon Cook’s arrival in Gisborne, it was Tupaia who communicated with local Maori, helping to make the second meeting between Cook, his crew and Maori harmonious. Those moments of reconnections - of language, homeland and past - between Tupaia and Gisborne Maori were magically evoked for us by Druett.

Tupaia’s artistry and adaptability; the multiple reasons why Cook should have taken Tupaia’s navigation advice; the expose of Druett’s close attention to historical deck-logs; the lasting connections Druett made with academics and librarians in Australia and at Yale in the US along the way towards completing the new book: these and other topics cropped up during the resultant discussion between author and host. They offered the audience some rich asides.

The only downside to the session lay in the fact that, for this non-maritime person at least, this session was at times quite technical in aspect and debate. Irrespective, Druett’s attention to detail and accessibility gave a lasting impression.