Jack Thatcher joins TV show using artefacts to 'adventures through time'

Jack Thatcher features on Artefact, a six-part television series which airs on Māori TV next week. Photo / File

Tauranga man Jack Thatcher will feature in a new television show where he shares his knowledge of celestial navigating.

Artefact is a six-part series made by Greenstone TV and will launch on Māori TV on Monday.

Greenstone TV researcher Nicole Crofskey said the show would take viewers on "adventures through time", with a focus on artefacts and taonga [treasures] at the heart of historical dramas.

The show is presented by Dame Professor Anne Salmond and challenges viewers to think about what sort of Aotearoa we want to leave our children, Crofskey said.

"It is all about connecting today's New Zealanders with our ancestors' experiences and aspirations, through the powerful stories of the artefacts that have survived them."

Crofskey said each episode had a distinct theme and had a "hero artefact" which would feature at the beginning and the end of each episode.

"Throughout each episode, we trace the stories of several taonga that relate to the theme.
Some are in world-famous collections, others are in small local museums or are cared for by whanau," she said.

Thatcher features in the first episode, Star Travel, in which the history of Polynesian navigation and the old myth that Polynesians ended up in Aotearoa by chance is investigated.

Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times from Doubtless Bay in Northland, Thatcher said he was approached by Greenstone TV last year to be a part of the show.

He said it was important to showcase celestial navigating to the public and the work he did of teaching the next generation of navigators to safeguard and pass on the knowledge he had.

On the show, Thatcher talks about Pius "Mau" Piailug, a master navigator from Micronesia who taught him everything he knows about celestial navigating.

"For me, it's about keeping Mau's knowledge alive. He is the man who gave us the tools we need to trace our ancestral pathways," he said.

Bringing awareness to the importance of safeguarding the ocean is also a positive of being a part of the series.

During the episode, which was filmed in Tauranga Moana, Thatcher explains what it is like to "commune with the natural world".

"When you know that these winds are going to help you, when you see something on the horizon that might not be too good, but you prepare yourself for whatever's coming.

"And if you know how to prepare yourself then you'll know how to survive in the environment. It's a harsh environment but it's also a beautiful one," he said.

Thatcher, who had not seen the episode himself, said he was looking forward to seeing it air next week.

Artefact is a new six-part series made by Greenstone TV will launch on Maori TV on Monday at 8.30pm.