Did Indigenous long-distance voyaging occur below 50°S?

The Southern Ocean and the Antarctic continent present profound challenges to human exploration and settlement. As a result, it is usually understood that, prior to the advent of European sailing technologies, the Indigenous populations of South America, southern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand did not undertake long-distance voyaging south of about 50°. There have been some recent claims, from the Falkland Islands and from the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands, that are contrary to this position. Here, for the first time, we synoptically evaluate the evidence for pre-European long-distance voyaging and colonization in the Southern Ocean. We find little support for such activity originating from any of the mainland coasts in question. This general (rather than culturally specific) pattern suggests that environmental barriers were indeed too substantial, prior to the arrival of square-rigged sailing vessels, for long-distance voyaging below 50°S.