Historic Maori canoe voyage re-enactment
PA' Wellington Two Maori canoes will re-enact the historic trip from Hawaiki to New Zealand by the early Maoris. It is the dream of three brothers, Greg, Alan, and Kim Whakataka-Bright-well, who began building and carving the 19m canoes at Pahiatua last year. Greg is from Masterton and the others from Rotorua.
The two canoes will be lashed together as one
vessel which is so far insured for about $lOO,OOO. It has taken seven months to construct and has been built almost entirely with voluntaryflabour. The vessel will be called the Hawaiki-Nui, but all the carved panels, the fittings, the masts, and even the paddles will have their own names relating to different tribal areas in New Zealand.
The carvings themselves depict the , people who have worked on the canoes.
The canoes are now only 11 weeks from completion and the finishing touches are being added at the Maraeroa marae, Porirua.
. Greg Whaka-taka-Brightwell and . a team of carvers are working on some of the remaining panels and the canoes will then be joined by the traditional platform ready for the journey. The first stage of the journey will be easy enough; the canoes will be packaged and shipped to Tahiti where they will be tested and fitted out for the 40-day journey.
The location of Hawaiki is a mystery and so the voyagers can but follow what is believed to be the route from Tahiti to Rarotonga and then to New Zealand — a 4800 km voyage.
The .vessel will be skippered bv a Tahitian, Francis Cowan, who sailed in a similar expedition from Tahiti to Chile in 1957 aboard the . TahitiNui.
Mr Cowan will hand pick eight or nine crew members for the journey. They are expected back in New Zealand about November.
After that the future of the Hawaiki-Nui is uncertain.
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Press, 25 February 1981, Page 11
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307Historic Maori canoe voyage re-enactment Press, 25 February 1981, Page 11
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