Part of Maori history

Press, 5 February 1981, Page 15

Part of Maori history

By

JOHN WILSON

Most people get their impression of what Maori canoes are like from the specimens preserved in the country’s museums, where they sit high and dry in unnatural surroundings. This is most unsatisfactory. The canoes — perhaps

the noblest achievements of pre-European Maori design and craft —- were designed to glide swiftly across the water. Seen in their proper element, Maori canoes made a remarkable impression on the first European visitors to New Zealand’s shores. I. the South Island today, it is only on Waitangi Day at Okains Bay that a Maori canoe can be seen in its proper element. The 20-metre totara canoe which is one of the prize exhibits in the Okains Bay museum, is launched on the river there each year to take part in the re* enactment, vf. the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

It has become an annual event at Okains Bay. The canoe is not a modern reproduction. Its hull has an interesting past, although its actual origins are unknown. It came

from the Waitotara district, near Wanganui. Its name — Kaukaka — may be a mispronunciation of a local family in the district (Kahukaka), and the canoe may have been built by members of that family, possibly as early as 1870. Its history is known from 1910 when it was sold to a Mr McGregor, In 1915, he installed an inboard engine and used the canoe for trading up the coast from Wanganui as far as New Plymouth, supplying road gangs with stores. Some time around 1928 it was sold back to the Maoris, who used it for some years to transport bales of wool down the Wanganui River, The canoe first came under the eye of Mr Murray Thacker of Okains Bay (whose collections of Maori artefacts formed the basis of the Okains Bay museum collections) while he was on a survey of

canoes on the Wanganui River. On this private trip to look at canoes, 37 were seen. Two 'decades later only two or three remain on the river. Of the ten 'canoes in the collection at Okains Bay, eight have come from up north. One of the other two, now being restored, is owned by a local Little River, family and the other

was given to Okains Bay museum from the Canterbury Museum several years ago. The canoe Kaukaka is the largest of the eight which have come south to Okains Bay. In 1958, the canoe had not been used for . many, years. It was lying derelict on. land, full of soil, and with a tree growing out of it. On the deaths of its owners it was sold for one hundred pounds to the

Rev. Keith Elliot and another Wanganui man. They planned to use it as a tourist launch ■ on the Wanganui River. In 1968, ten years after he had first seen it, Mr Thacker came across the canoe again, lying in a yard in Wanganui. He- approached its owners with a plan to restore it for the Okains Bay museum. They

. sold.it to him for the one hundred pounds for which they, had bought it. The canoe was shipped to Christchurch by rail in 1968, arriving, sadly, smashed into many pieces in transit. Restoring it to its present splendid condition took five years. Mr John Rua,.a Maori carver, was employed to carve'the stern and prow and the side panels.

Mr Rua, a 28-year-old carver who lives in the Bay of Plenty, attended the school for the deaf in Sumner and the school of carving in Rotorua; He has done so much work for the Okains Bay museum that he is ' now all but one of the Thacker family.

He also carved the Maori meeting house, Whakaata, which is part of the museum, and did all the carving of the storehouse (pataka) .. which was completed in time to go on show at last year’s, Waitangi Day celebrations. The canoe has . been launched on the river each Waitangi Day* since the mid 19705. This year it will .be steered by Mr Patuki Robinson, who is a member of the Okains Bay Museum. Trust Board. It will' be manned. by young men from the Te Kahanga and Rehua hostels m

Christchurch. (Its full complement is 30 paddlers.)

The canoe .is scheduled to come up the river, at 4.30 p.m. tomorrow, to be greeted by the Te Waipounamu concert party and the representative of the Governor-General who attends each Waitangi Day, Celebration at Okains Bay. This will be just before the re-enactment of the ceremony at Waitangi on February 6, 1840. (Also taking part in the reenactment is a pakeha navy boat, far outclassed, at about 9 metres, -by) the 20-metre Maori canoe.) The paddling "of the canoe up the river and the re-enactment : of the’ signing of the treaty' is ' only ; the climax of a; full day of. f activities at Okains Bay. T There will .be a traditional ‘ - Maori welcome at 11 a.m., and the opening of a l harigi at 12.30 p.m. ' Throughout the day there will be demonstrations by Mr Rua, and of various j pakeha colonial crafts — | printers, potters, saddlers, |i smiths, wheelwrights, « bakers, and shearers among them.