Kua rite ngā kaihoe e 800 ki Waitangi.
Ko Joe Conrad o Muriwhenua, te kaihautū o te waka tauā pakeke ake, arā ko Ngātokimatawhaorua.
He mea tuku iho ki a ia e te mātanga whakatere waka, e Hekenukumai Busby, ā, kua tīmata tana pupuri i te kakau o te hoe i te tau 1973.
Ko te taenga mai o te Kuīni o Ingārang i te tau 1974 ki Waitangi, te take i eke atu ia ki te hoe waka, ā, i reira hoki i whakahoungia ai te waka rongonui nei a Ngātokimatawhaorua.
Hai tāna, kua huri te ao, nā reira, me huri hoki ko ngā tikanga.
“We slowly evolved right up to today. The waka has been a huge influence in mental health healing process, giving our young Māori boys and Māori kids a way to find their way in this world, I suppose, and become important or productive within the community,” he says.
Along with evolving tikanga, over 800 paddlers have joined for this year’s Waitangi week, with paddlers from all across the globe participating.
Countries such as Holland, islands in the Pacific, and even Native Americans have joined in the week’s events.
Conrad says Waitangi celebrations have changed dramatically from when he began and when Ngātokimatawhaorua was the only waka tauā on the water.
“We’ve got all the iwi in the motu coming to tautoko the day, to support the day and obviously our connections that we’ve made along the Pacific coast of America. First Nations people are here, people from Europe are here from Holland.”
Hai tāna, arā hoki ngā aupiki me ngā auheke i runga i te wai.
I ia rima tau ka rerekē ngā tai o te moana, ka pari te tai hai te ata pō, hai tōna rua karaka i te ata, ka timu hai te ata hāpara.
Hai tā Conrad anō, kua eke ki te wā ka huri ngā tai o te moana, ā, ko te mahi uaua inaiānei, ko te whakarerekē i ngā āhuatanga, pērā i te whāngai i te tinana, te moe, me te whakarite hoki i te waka.
“It’s always a headache to feed people just to get them ready for the waka. It takes two hours just to feed all these paddlers and get all the dishes washed. Then get down there get our waka into position to be loading. If we are to use the tide this year, we have to leave at 2:30 in the morning.”
E 37 tau a Conrad e hoe waka ana ki Waitangi.
Ko tōna Pāpā ake te kaihautū o te waka, o Ngātokimatawhaorua i tōna wā, ā ko ngā arikinui o taua wā, ngā tohunga o runga, pērā i a Tā Hēmi Henare me tērā reanga whakaheke werawera kia ora ai ngā tikanga a te Māori.
E whakapono nui ana a Conrad kai te aro tika te ihu o te waka ki te pae tawhiti e wawatatia ana e te tohunga whakatere waka, e Hekenukumai Busby.
“Today we cater for all ages of paddlers. We’ve followed Uncle Hector and his vision and created more waka so that everybody can enjoy the kaupapa, and hopefully one day, I’m sure that one day a prime minister will walk out of this kaupapa.”
