Canoe Races

Auckland to host Canoe Races

Sarah Kennett previews the fourth World Polynesian Canoe Sprint Championships

IN JANUARY next year, competi

tors from as far away as Canada, Ireland and Spain will gather in Auckland for the fourth World

Polynesian Canoe Sprint Cham

pionships.

The canoe sprints are a ‘theme set ting’ feature of the Festival of the XIV Commonwealth Games, and cultural exhibits will line the foreshore of the Orakei Basin where the sprints are to be held. The festival is being billed as a reflection of New Zealand s increas ing recognition of its place as a Pacific nation, but outrigger canoes are an uncommon sight in New Zealand and racing them is a sport that is only now

catching on.

The country’s first four clubs got together in 1988 to launch a national federation called Tatou Hoe o Aotearoa. At that time, several more clubs were in the process of forma tion; there are now a dozen or more scattered around New Zealand and more are being brought into being, in remote rural communities as wen as the cities, with Maori, Pakeha and islander members.

The dream of two of the founding members of Tatou Hoe o Aotearoa, Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell (a New Zealand Maori) and Pih Muaulu (a Sa moan) was to see a revival of canoe culture in New Zealand: a recognition that the canoe is the connecting factor in all Pacific cultures. Herb Kawainue Kane, Hawaiian artist, carver, canoe builder and amateur anthropologist, says that among Pacific Islanders, the canoe is the symbol of their mutuality: “It lies at the heart of island culture, for without it neither the people nor their culture would have come into ex istence. It reminds them of the cour age, resourcefulness and excellence of the skills their ancestors possessed

qualities worthy of emulation today,

and on which future survival may de

pend.”

Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell says his intention “is a family reunion be tween Polynesian peoples of the Paci fic. New Zealand can find its identity in the Pacific through the canoe. Pake has? They’re part of the Pacific; it’s only natural/ He agrees that the

World Canoe Sprint Championships

will do much to raise the profile of the sport in New Zealand. “After these sprints, the sport will rocket,” he pre dicts. It is also hoped that the sprints will help to present the canoe as a

unifying symbol, “drawing people

together with peaceful intentions to ward each other and society.”

With the recent confirmation of sponsorship and the formulation of canoe designs, clubs affiliated with Tatou Hoe o Aotearoa are flat out building canoes. Nga Hoe Horo o Pawarenga Canoe Chib, situated in a remote Northland harbour, has built six-person and single prototype hulls and, unable to obtain official moulds from Tahiti due to transport difficul ties, Tatou Hoe o Aotearoa used a 1984 World Sprints mould and adapted it to new specifications, in cluding some New Zealand features since approved by the International Polynesian Canoe Federation.

An Auckland-based construction company, Wilkins and Davies, is a ma jor sponsor of the fourth World

Polynesian Canoe Sprint Cham

pionships and is setting up the venue for the sprints at Orakei Basin on Waitemata Harbour. Nestled beside one of Auckland’s most scenic seaside drives, Orakei Basin will be lined for the event with displays of visual, liter ary and performing arts and crafts from around the Pacific and the Com monwealth. Spectator accommodation for upwards of 2000 people will be constructed, and the races will finish in clear view of the shore. □