Waka (canoe)

The earliest remains of a canoe in New Zealand were found near the Anaweka estuary in a remote part of the Tasman District and radiocarbon-dated to about 1400.

The gunwale is raised in some by a continuous plank, which gives increased freeboard and prevents distortion of the main hull components when used in a rough seas.

[6][7] The resurgence of Māori culture has seen an increase in the numbers of waka taua built, generally on behalf of a tribal group, for use on ceremonial occasions.

No cooked food was allowed in the craft and the waka had to be entered over the gunwales, not the bow or stern, which were highly decorated with powerful symbols.

Sometimes a waka would be placed upright as a marker for a dead chief with the curved bottom of the hull carved.

This would include the removal of bark from one side of the trunk and the clearing of the ground and the planting of food crops for workers.

Once felled, the head of the tree and branches were removed, then the hull was roughly shaped in situ, using fire and hand adzes, under the guidance of the chief designer.

Once the shaping was complete, the log of 3–4 tonnes was pulled by teams of men to a stream or river, using multiple ropes made from raupō.

A waka could take a year to make if the construction went smoothly, but it could be abandoned if there was an accident or a death of an important person.

A noticeable feature of a loaded waka taua was its very low freeboard of 400–500 mm, which made the vessel unseaworthy in all but good weather, despite the presence of one or two young men on board dedicated to bailing.

The roughly triangular sail, usually made from either flax, tī leaves or raupō (bulrushes) or a combination, was set about one-third back from the bow.

The head of the triangle sail was the shortest—about 2 metres (6.6 ft)—and often decorated with tufts of feathers that may have served as wind indicators.

[13] This type of triangular sail, with straight mast and high angled sprit, is identical to that used in the Marquesan Islands.

Use of ship's boats became common, as many Māori worked on a wide variety of sealing, whaling and trading sailing vessels, both in New Zealand and in the Pacific.

In 1992, Hekenukumai Busby built Te Aurere, a waka hourua, using traditional methods and materials.

[16][17] Already rare in Cook's time, waka ama had largely faded from memory by the early 19th century.

[18] However, the term waka ama occurs in old stories, such as the story of Māui published by Grey in 1854 and in a few old waiata; Tregear also mentions the waka ama as "a possession of the Māori", adding that "It was beneath the outrigger of such a canoe that the famous Maui crushed his wife's brother Irawaru before turning him into a dog.

[21] Since the 1990s, waka ama racing, introduced from Pacific nations into New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s, using high-tech canoes of Hawaiian or Tahitian design and with the ingenious support of work schemes,[clarification needed] has become an increasingly popular sport among Māori, often performed as part of cultural festivals held in summer.

[22] Some waka, particularly in the Chatham Islands, were not conventional canoes, but were constructed from raupō (bulrushes) or flax stalks.

In 2009, the Okeanos Foundation for the Sea and Salthouse Boatbuilders built a fleet of vaka moana / waka hourua with fibreglass hulls.

The "Tupperwaka", as it was dubbed, was a small conference facility for well-off visitors during the world rugby competition held in New Zealand in September 2011.

[citation needed][needs update] The waka taua Te Tuhono in the National Museum of Scotland was restored and partially reconstructed by the Māori craftsman George Nuku, using carved poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) to recreate missing sections.

Waka may also refer to a kinship group descended from the crew of a canoe which migrated to New Zealand and occupying a set territory.