Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei welcomes historic waka Hōkūle’a to Tāmaki Makaurau

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hōkūleʻa, the Hawaiian double-hulled voyaging canoe that helped spark a revival of Pacific navigation, returned back to Tāmaki Makaurau after 40 years.

Hōkūleʻa and her sister vessel Hikianalia were welcomed into Ōkahu Bay by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, joined by Haunui, a waka hourua from Te Toki Voyaging Trust.

Waiata, pūtātara and a pōwhiri marked the historic moment, with around 200 people gathering along the shoreline waiting for the waka to appear.

The arrival is part of her six-month stay in Aotearoa during the Moananuiākea Voyage, an 80,000-kilometre haerenga (journey) around the Pacific.

The crew were welcomed to Te Tii Marae in Paihia on Friday, after a 17 day sail from Rarotonga, their last major leg for this year.

It was an emotional occasion as some crew who were in their 20s when the Hōkūle’a first arrived in New Zealand, were now the master navigators heralding in the next generation of Polynesian wayfinders.

A vessel that revived an ancient practice

Hōkūleʻa, whose name translates to “Star of Gladness”, was launched in the 1970s to demonstrate the deep-sea voyaging knowledge of Polynesian ancestors.

Haunui waka Kaihautū Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr (Tainui) said his 1976 voyage from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti showed the world that Indigenous Pacific navigation had never been a myth or accident.

“For centuries, we grew up with stories of how our ancestors sailed to places like Hawaiʻi, Rapanui and South America,” he said.

“But the difficulty for us, is that as we grew up, everybody tells us that those stories are fairy tales. That there’s no way people who don’t have a book and a pen can achieve these kinds of stuff.”

He said for hundreds of years, they grew up knowing that deep-sea navigation was what they could do as a people, “but sometimes you have that belief dropped out of you”.

That changed, he said, when Hōkūleʻa’s founders sought help from Micronesian master navigator Mau Piailug of Satawal.

Mau agreed to lead the historic 1976 voyage, bringing with him ancestral knowledge of reading stars, currents and swell patterns.

“He brought back the practice of how to sail canoes across vast distances without a pen or paper or instruments,” Barclay-Kerr said.

“That voyage reopened an 800-year-old pathway.

“That canoe was only supposed to do one journey. And now, 50 years later, she’s sailing into Auckland.”

Billy Richards (Oʻahu, Hawai’i) is an original member of Hōkūleʻa, and was in Auckland for her arrival and WIPCE.

He is part of what voyagers call the ʻohana waʻa, the “family of the canoe”. A community that has grown significantly since the early years of Hōkūleʻa.

“At one time there was just one canoe,” he said.

“Now there are 27 voyaging canoes in the ocean.”

He told RNZ his interest in voyaging began long before Hōkūleʻa was built. His father kept a copy of Te Rangi Hīroa’s Vikings of the Sunrise, a book he would “sneak in and read” as a child.

“People had always thought that every voyage or every island was discovered by accident, that they drifted there or what not – but no,” he said.

“Once I learned about Hōkūleʻa being launched, I remember thinking I’d love to be part of that.”

He was eventually invited to join the training crew in the summer of 1975, and recalled joining the training crew on Hawaiʻi Island.

“Where they lived there was no wind, so they’d motored around for a month,” he said.

“When we finally reached the breeze, I could see they were lost. I’d sailed before, so I started translating what the captain was asking for… Eventually they said, ‘Get up here!’ and I’ve been there ever since.”

Now 77, Richards said voyaging had shaped most of his adult life.

“I had plans for my life, but they turned upside down,” he said.

“But I like to say that since that time, I’ve lived with one foot in the present and one foot in the past.”

He said he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love this. And I always say that I’m at my healthiest mind, body and spirit when I’m on the canoe.”

Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia will now spend the coming weeks in Tāmaki Makaurau, where Te Toki Voyaging Trust is running daily waka excursions for Indigenous educators attending the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education (WIPCE).

The visit also marked 40 years of voyaging relationships between Aotearoa and Hawaiʻi, a kaupapa that Polynesian Voyaging Society CEO Nainoa Thompson will speak about at WIPCE on Wednesday.

“Aotearoa, land of the long white cloud, I mean, an extraordinary place. It is a powerful definition of our country, Polynesia,” Thompson said.

“They reminded us how connected they are to their earth, to their oceans, to their place, and the things they fortify in their world that they bring into the 21st century.”

He said the next phase of the Moananuiākea Voyage in Aotearoa would focus on strengthening ties between Pacific voyaging communities.

“We want to use this time very wisely in the time that we are there and see if we can do one thing, bring our Polynesian people together, especially from the voyaging communities, train together, work together and look at the transition of leadership to the next 50 years.”

The waka will be docked near the New Zealand Maritime Museum over the next week, with opportunities for public engagement and dockside tours as weather allows.

Later this month, the crew will sail north to Aurere, the home of the late Māori Pwo navigator and waka builder Sir Hector Busby, to honour his role in reviving Māori deep-sea voyaging.

Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia will remain in Aotearoa through the cyclone season before resuming the Moananuiākea Voyage next year.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand