The “Dutch waka” Te Hono ki Aotearoa is paddled on a Leiden canal during the handover ceremony in 2010. Photo / Peter Hilz / NZME
By Peter de Graaf, Northern Advocate
Matariki might be only a year old as an official national holiday — but already the Māori New Year is an international event with a festival planned in the Netherlands this month.
The celebration is being hosted by Museum Volkenkunde, the Dutch national ethnology museum in Leiden, a city about halfway between Amsterdam and The Hague.
The museum is the focus of Matariki festivities because it has an extensive collection of Māori artefacts and, more importantly, it is home to the only Māori waka in Europe and an ongoing cultural exchange with New Zealand.
The fully carved waka taua (war canoe) Te Hono ki Aotearoa (The Link to New Zealand) was built for the museum in 2010 by the late Sir Hekenukumai Busby and is crewed on special occasions by trained members of Leiden University’s Njord Royal Rowing Club.
Koos Wabeke, kaihautū (captain) of the Dutch waka group, said it was the second time Matariki would be celebrated in Leiden.
This year it would be combined with the museum’s annual Māori Weekend.
Those taking part in the two-day event would include a 10-strong group from New Zealand, the Dutch branch of Kiwis Abroad, the New Zealand Ambassador, the London-based cultural group Ngāti Rānana, and about 20 Dutch waka paddlers.
Wabeke said the first day would be modelled on a “typical New Zealand family fun day” with kids’ activities, a sausage sizzle, raffles, poi-making, waiata lessons, talks about Matariki, haka and paddling workshops, and waka displays on the canal in front of the museum.
The second day would have a greater focus on the waka project, with lectures and discussions about the connection between New Zealand and the Netherlands.
Wabeke said he was looking forward to spending time with Māori who had become like family to him.
“I’m also looking forward to the exposure for Māori culture, that’s always amazing, and seeing the event grow. The museum is putting a lot of effort into it. In the first year we had about five people organising it, now there’s a team of 15-20.”
The waka exchange had captured the imagination of Leiden residents, he said.
“People are in awe of what we have here and they really love the connection. It’s really special and humbling to be part of it, and see it grow and touch more and more people.”
Many Kiwis based in the Netherlands joined last year’s festivities, including some who were present when Te Hono ki Aotearoa was ceremonially handed over in 2010, he said.
Wabeke said Matariki had become a meaningful time of year for the Dutch paddlers.
“It’s not just a hollow celebration like other events have been turned into. It’s about being together, farewelling those who have been lost, and welcoming the new. For me that’s really special.”
Dutch kaihoe (paddlers) perform a haka for Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni during this year's Waitangi Day festivities. Photo / Peter de Graaf
The New Zealand delegation will include the kaihautū of the great waka Ngātokimatawhaorua, Joe Conrad of Kaitāia; Ngā Waka Federation chairman Robert Gabel, of Kawkawa; kaihautū, voyagers and waka builders Rutene Gabel, Tamahau Tangitu, Billy Harrison and Anaru Irwin; and female kaihautū Waimirirangi Conrad and Christine Gabel-Davis.
The group will be led by the chairman of arts organisation Toi Māori, Trevor Maxwell, of Rotorua, and general manager Tamahou Temara.
Conrad said the group would leave Aotearoa on June 20 and return on June 29 with six days on the ground in the Netherlands.
The Covid pandemic had disrupted what had been planned as an annual exchange between the two countries, and many of the original museum staff had moved on since the Dutch waka was delivered in 2010.
This month’s visit was a chance to reconsolidate the relationship and make sure waka protocols were understood by the museum’s new leadership.
The contract placing the waka on “permanent loan” to the museum would also be re-signed, Conrad said.
“We’re looking forward to the event with the Dutch paddlers and our Leiden connection, as well as catching up with Ngāti Rānana.”
Toi Māori chairman Trevor Maxwell said the waka taua was a potent symbol of Māoridom.
“The artistry of the carved features on the waka taua celebrates our ancestral links and heritage to Aotearoa. With our team re-establishing the link with the Netherlands after three years of Covid affecting global travel, we can rise again to the international challenges that await us,” he said.
The “Dutch waka” Te Hono ki Aotearoa is carried to the water for the first time at Aurere, in Doubtless Bay, in 2010 by John Thompson of Whakatāne (left) and Robert Gabel, of Kawakawa. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Te Hono ki Aotearoa has also been paddled in the City of London Festival in 2011, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in 2012, and the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium in 2017.
It was the 27th waka built by the late Sir Hekenukumai Busby of Aurere in Doubtless Bay. He was knighted in February 2019 and died later that year.
■ The weekend-long Matariki celebration at Museum Volkenkunde will start with a powhiri at the museum's whare waka at 12.15pm on Saturday, June 24.