Polynesia - The Wayfinders

Ancient Polynesians settled 10 million square miles of the Pacific by navigating sailing canoes from island to island. But their tremendous story was almost lost. Can a single sailing canoe from Hawaii restore the pride of the Polynesian culture after years and years decay and denial? Centuries before European explorers ventured beyond their shorelines, the ancestors of today’s Polynesians had sailed to every habitable island in the far corners of the Pacific. This ancient Polynesian sea voyaging tradition comes to life again in "Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey." A journey to the ancient Inca's sacred Andean peaks, wayfinders in Polynesia, a spiritual odyssey in the Himalayas of Nepal and vanishing ice's impact on Inuit life in the Arctic are all explored by Canada's only National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis in the four-part documentary series "Light at The Edge of The World" airing weekly, beginning February 7, 2007 on the National Geographic Channel.

"You know, the year that I was born, there were six thousand languages spoken on earth," says anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis, at the beginning of the 90th Parallel's four part series Light at the Edge of the World.

"And of the six thousand languages spoken on earth, fully half aren't being taught to children, which means, that effectively, unless something changes, they're dead." "Half of humanity's repertoire will be lost in a generation or two…an unprecedented pace of change. I don't think this has to happen."- Wade Davis.