Adventures in murky waters: The enactment and commemoration of Kon-Tiki

In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmembers accomplished a 6900-km sea voyage on a reconstructed balsa wood raft to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia. This short subject addresses the meanings of authenticity, enactment and cultural memory in relation to the expedition film by Heyerdahl and Nordemar, Kon-Tiki (1950). The film’s production history and its international success are part of a post-war media event, in itself a trans-Atlantic adventure that has only recently been the subject of scholarly attention.