Indigenous travelers and knowledge production in the Pacific: The case of Kadu and Ludwig Choris

Abstract

Studies of early modern knowledge production have recently shifted the focus away from Europe as a singular center of intellectual power and Europeans as the sole contributors to Enlightenment thought. In the late 18th century, the Pacific Ocean became a vast and diverse arena of scientific and cultural exploration, a waterscape in which European and American expeditions encountered indigenous groups as well as new sites for the study of nature and humanity. The Russian expedition of the Rurik (1815–1818) demonstrates many aspects of knowledge production in a Pacific maritime setting, including the stunning visual representation of indigenous communities by the artist Ludwig Choris, the active collaboration of an indigenous Marshall Islander named Kadu, and the researches of two naturalists on board the Rurik. For an expedition that failed in its stated mission to discover the Northeast Passage, the work of these individuals reveal the process and surprising outcome of intelligence gathering in an ocean world far from Europe.

Rediscovery of Chamisso’s type specimens of Hawaiian Psychotria (Rubiaceae, Psychotrieae) in the herbarium of the Natural History Museum, Vienna

“…With curiosity and the intention of being dropped off closer to home, he joined the expedition and became a close friend of Chamisso and his prime source of ethnographic information on Micronesia. After visiting distant places such as Alaska and Hawaii, the expedition returned to the Ratak Chain in November 1817, where Kadu finally settled in the Wotje Atoll (Chamisso 1818: 203, 1836a: 278–280; Kotzebue 1821: 86–93; Maaß 2016; Igler 2017).…”