Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 10, 1 October 1988 — Ocean-voyaging Canoes Create Pan-Pacific Cultural Exchange [ARTICLE]

Ocean-voyaging Canoes Create Pan-Pacific Cultural Exchange

The voyage of Hokule'a has inspired other Pacific peoples to reconsider their own oeean voyaging traditions and skills. A carver in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and one in Washington State have eome together to help revive their own traditions as well as to share them with eaeh other. Matahi Whakataka Brightwell of the Ngati Porou tribe of Bisborne, New Zealand eame with his eanoe club to participate in the World Sprints in Honolulu in August at Ke'ehi Lagoon. Here he met again with Klallam Indian Joseph Waterhouse of the Salish Nation.

Brightwell is known in the Pacific as the carver of the Hawaiki Nui eanoe whieh accompanied the Hokule'a to New Zealand. This Maori doublehulled eanoe was built in Tahiti and sailed behind the Hokule'a, even surmounting a harsh storm along the way.

Together they are working on a project to build an oceangoing eanoe in Washington State to sail to Hawai'i. The eanoe is to be called "Tubaheydeqwal" whieh in Salish means "to onee again know eaeh other." Joseph Waterhouse and supporters have formed the North Pacific Voyaging Society to assist in the planning and fund raising of this project. The 85-foot "Tubaheydeqwal" and a Maon counterpart, "Te Rina" will cost an estimated $3 million to complete. It is anticipated that this project will eome to pass by 1990-91. However, the eanoe building is only one

important aspect of their dreams. Brightwell hopes that Native Hawaiian eanoe builders and students will be able to go to Aotearoa next year to help with the building of their Maori eanoe, as well as to share Hawaiian building and canoeing techniques with his people. When in Hawaii he was hosted by

the Kailua Canoe Club and sought to meet skilled Native Hawaiians who may be interested in going to New Zealand to help. Both carvers agree that, "We are trying to generate a new feeling in our young people — something from their own identity." They have also noted several similarities between their two peoples, such as the use of single-hulled canoes, the colors and designs used in their carvings and the sense that they live at the extremes of the Pacific island peoples — north and south.

By getting Native Hawaiians involved in this dream they hope to bring a bit closer together three indigenous Pacific peoples. This project may well serve the interest of Native Hawaiians living in the Northwest of Canada and the United States as well a's those living here with ties to New Zealand. Anyone interested in "Tubaheydeqwal" and its planned voyage of 3,400 miles from Washington to Hawai'i should contact Joseph Waterhouse, e/o The North Pacific Voyaging Society, P.O. Box 395, Suquamish, Washington 98502.