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| Lecturers | Mr. Peter Crawford Mr. Peter Crawford, Author and Film Producer from the United Kingdom - spent three years travelling through the islands of Polynesia, researching for his book ‘Nomads of the Wind’ and producing the epic five-hour television series for the world-renowned Natural History Unit of the BBC. Together, the five films retrace the dramatic story of the Polynesian people and the islands of the Pacific which they discovered and settled. The series was screened in the UK and many other European countries and shown coast-to-coast in the USA by WNET New York and the PBS network. Peter’s book ‘Nomads of the Wind’, first published in 1993 by BBC Books (ISBN 0 563 36707 5) became a best-seller in the UK and USA. It was translated into German as ‘Nomaden des Windes’ (1995 Verlag VGS, Köln) While writing the book and making the TV series, Peter and his wife Pat met many of the pioneers in Polynesian studies and culture, including the late Thor Heyerdahl and Bengt Danielsson of the Kon-Tiki expedition, and many other much-respected anthropologists, historians and experts in the natural history of the Polynesian islands, such as Dr Yoshiko Sinoto of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii. It was with their guidance and encouragement that Peter Crawford embarked on the writing of his book and the making of his award-winning television series – bringing the fascinating story of Polynesia to a world-wide audience. Since making ‘Nomads of the Wind’, Peter and his wife Pat have continued their personal exploration of the South Pacific – researching, photographing, filming and writing. Once or twice a year, Peter Crawford is a guest lecturer aboard Aranui on its voyage to the Marquesas Islands, for which he has a special passion. With extracts from his films and pictures from his book, he entertainingly describes (in both English and French) how he and his film crew ‘turned back the clock’ to recreate the remarkable Polynesian voyages of discovery and the unique island way of life that flourished long before the arrival of Europeans who came to Polynesia in the wake of Captain Cook. Peter Crawford is Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter. His website is: www.petercrawford.co.uk |
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