Source: Radio New Zealand
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For the first time in several years the modern Kurahaupō waka has gone on public display after being moved overland from Levin to Aratoi Museum in Masterton.
The waka was built and launched to celebrate 150 years of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1990 and while it was not designed to be a replica of the waka which brought people to Aotearoa it has served as a vessel to bring their descendants together.
Piri Te Tau was one of the kaihoe (paddlers) aboard Te Waka Wairua o Kurahaupō in 1990. He said it was a new experience for many of them.
“I had never been at Waitangi before 1990, and the huge amount of people that were there, but the huge number of waka that was there. I think there was 30-something waka there that year, so that was huge for me. I’m a country boy, totally gobsmacked about the amount of people and the amount of whakawhanaungatanga that goes with that type of thing. It was brilliant.”
The waka was born out of the Kurahaupō Waka Society in the late 80s, a partnership between three iwi descended from the original waka, Ngāti Apa, Muaūpoko and Rangitāne.
The modern Kurahaupō waka has gone on public display for the first time in several years. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Te Tau said the waka was completed around January 1990. And although many of the paddlers from different iwi did not know each other the bond between them was immediate, he said.
“It was launched over in Horowhenua. We did all our training on the Lake Horowhenua, and that was very, very compacted. And most of us were novices. Well, I won’t say novice, we’d never done this before. But it was so exciting and innovative because we had a plastic fantastic, and we knew that we would get some critique from our peers, but we loved it. And so the day we went to Waitangi was the beginning of the real journey to take our waka up to Waitangi, the place where it all happens, in our humble view anyway, we’d never been there before.”
The hull of the waka was made from fiberglass rather than wood which caused some debate, he said. However the wooden embellishments, including the prow and stern, were carved from tōtara by tohunga whakairo Kelly Kereama.
“We weren’t trying to replicate the original Kurahaupō waka, because as we understand the original Kurahaupō waka was a double hull. We weren’t trying to do that, we were wanting to do a contemporary waka … because this was associated with three iwi, we wanted to be able to share it amongst ourselves, and a waka and fibreglass seemed to be the ideal thing for us.”
Piri Te Tau. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Te Waka Wairua o Kurahaupō is usually housed in Levin among the iwi of Muaūpoko.
“One thing that this waka has given us is that faith in our ability to make things happen. It’s not called the Waka Wairua for nothing … First of all we had to go over to tono for it from our whanau in Muaūpoko. They supported the kaupapa, and they assisted us in preparing to transport it over,” Te Tau said.
Te Tau said when they arrived to pick it up he could not stop crying, even once the waka was on board the truck.
“As it happened, it was just like, you know how they say that Moses cleared the waves. Well this happened on the day that we went over to Muaūpoko. It just went so smoothly. It was amazing.”
Te Waka Wairua o Kurahaupō is usually housed in Levin among the iwi of Muaūpoko. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The waka being put on display at Aratoi is a prelude to a Rangitāne iwi exhibition – Tino Rangitānetanga – which opens in May.
Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History director Sarah McClintock said opening a Rangitāne iwi exhibition at the museum had been years in the making.
The waka was being housed in a specially designed space in the museum’s courtyard, with temporary roofing to protect it from the rain.
“As much the waka loves water. We don’t want it to be flooded with water. So we wanted to protect it for the five months it’s here. But getting it from where it lives in Levin, onto the back of a massive truck, through over the big roads in the middle of the night, getting it here, then a crane to get it off because it’s heavy. And then getting it into the space created a lot, it was weeks of work,” she said.
Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History director Sarah McClintock. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
McClintock said the Tino Rangitānetanga will display the history, the present and the future of Rangitāne in Wairarapa.
The waka arriving at Aratoi was a teaser of how exciting that exhibition was going to be, but also a signal of the journey that the community, the museum and the iwi were on together, she said.
“We want this space to be their space, not that they’re occupying Aratoi, but they become part of Aratoi, that it becomes a safe space, a home for Rangitāne. And we know that they’ve felt that to an extent, but this really makes an incredibly strong and powerful message to everyone that we’re not about telling the story through a lens from any perspective other than Rangitāne’s.”
Te Tau said the iwi had been talking about holding an exhibition for about eight or nine years. It would be a chance for whānau to bring their taonga out, because many whānau had taonga at home but did not know how to care for it, did not know how to get it repaired and did not know how to store it.
“So it’s not just about showing our taonga, it’s about caring for them, it’s about when you need to have them repaired or better stored, it’s all of that stuff as well. Plus the feeling that we get from the whānau, and this is only the first four days it’s been on display, is one of a sense of belonging,” he said.
The hull of the waka is made from fiberglass rather than wood. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Rangitāne o Wairarapa kaumātua Mike Kawana said it had been very humbling to open the waka up to the public and see its reaction.
“We’ve had some great, great feedback from the whole community, not just our Māori whānau, not just those who have a connection to the waka and those who descend from the tūpuna of the waka, but from the whole community in terms of the experience that they have … listening to the kōrero, the history.
“You know, although it’s not an exact replica of the Kurahaupō waka, the name we’ve sort of utilised and been talking about over the last couple of weeks is He Waka Wairua and largely because of the journey that it’s taking those of us who are here as far as our own history, our own connection to our waka is concerned, along with other iwi who also connect and that’s Mauaūpoko, Ngāti Apa, and of course our other Rangitāne areas, Manawatū, Tamaki nui-ā-Rua, Rangitāne o Wairau anō hoki.”
Te Waka Wairua o Kurahaupō is on display at Aratoi in Masterton until 19 July, with the Tino Rangitānetanga exhibition opening on 2 May.
The wooden embellishments, including the prow and stern, were carved from tōtara by tohunga whakairo Kelly Kereama. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
