Rēkohu-Wharekauri-Chatham Island waka excavation site Photo: Supplied/Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage
A new report has shed light on the potential origins of a partially excavated waka in the Chatham Islands.
The report concluded the waka was of pre-European construction and likely from a time before significant cultural separation between Aotearoa and the Pacific.
But questions around the exact age and size of the waka remain, and experts recommend the Chatham Island community be properly resourced to uncover the vast majority of the waka that remains buried in the sand.
The report, He Waka Tipua, was prepared in May 2025 by an expert panel: Professor Sir Derek Lardelli, Kiwa Hammond, Heemi Eruera, Dr Kahutoi Te Kanawa and Dr Gerard O'Regan.
It provided observations and insights on the potential provenance of the waka partially excavated on Rēkohu-Wharekauri.
The panel visited Chatham Island in April, meeting with representatives from Hokotehi Moriori Trust and Moriori Imi Settlement Trust, representatives from Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri, as well as with Vince and Nikau Dix, who first discovered the waka.
Pou Mataaho o Te Hononga Deputy Secretary Māori Crown Partnerships at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage Glenis Philip-Barbara (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Uepōhatu) said they were only beginning to understand the significance of the waka based on the approximately 5 to 10 percent of it that has been recovered so far.
"[It] gives us just an indication of how important it is, but not enough information to draw any reliable provenance theories. So we've got just enough to get our curiosity going but not enough to be able to tell the story."
This was a story of human endeavour that had the potential to be something extraordinary for Rēkohu/Wharekauri to contribute to the world and what we think we know about human settlement, she said.
"We are hugely curious to understand how we came to be in the places we are, so we've got just a little indication here and a very clear direction from the experts... that we need to recover the rest and get on with uncovering the rest of the story because there is more to come."
Kiwa Hammond, the imi Moriori representative on the expert panel, described the waka as 'our Hawaikitanga' - an embodiment that tīpuna and karapuna carried for thousands of years as they migrated across the Pacific.
"It really did challenge things that we as indigenous peoples of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa that we have accepted... but it also made us go, 'What is that? Why is that? Why is that there and what is it telling us?'"
The rediscovery of the waka was of global significance because it will help us to better understand how the ancestors of Moriori operated, and exactly what went into them getting here, he said.
"I mean let's be very clear - there was nothing accidental about any of their voyages," Hammon said. "The whole notion that people drifted from one location to another is a fallacy when you understand the scale of this enterprise and what was involved and what we've seen is a fraction of this waka."
Hammond said it was a privilege to be able to look at the pieces of the waka and appreciate how much work and knowledge went into them. It helped the panel to appreciate just how much planning - not just weeks or months, but years - would have gone into the creation of this waka, he said.
And Hammond believed it was quite likely the people who built the waka worked on more than one at a time and had whole production lines.
"I liken them to a cruise liner, an ancient cruise liner, because when you consider that these waka could have anything up to 100 people, that's how big they were and I think that's something we don't quite comprehend.
"As our tīpuna were traversing Te Moana Nui a Kiwa they were doing this on massive crafts, these were huge vessels."
Dr Kahutoi Te Kanawa, Professor Sir Derek Lardelli and Nikau Dix at the creek near the excavation site. Photo: Supplied/Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage
'Waka tuitui' - a planked waka
Based on what had been recovered to date, it was clear the Chatham Island waka was unique. The panel named it as a 'waka tuitui' - an old term for planked waka that had been stitched or lashed together.
On the New Zealand mainland, the availability of large trees such as giant kauri and tōtara saw planked waka technology give way to the large single-hull dugouts that early European voyagers observed.
Hammond said often there was a misconception around the type of technology and techniques that were used when constructing the ships that brought Moriori and Māori ancestors from the Pacific.
"As they were travelling around different parts of the world they made use of resources that were there and they honed their knowledge, they honed their understanding of what was the best way of making use of the resources they had at hand."
The planked waka was a kind of technology that had not been seen in Aotearoa for a very long time, he said.
A plank of a stitched waka recovered from a swamp in Anaweka, north Westland, was the only fragment found in Aotearoa confidently identified as of a 'voyaging' waka until the Chatham Island find.
'Burden of responsibility' - what happens next?
Philip-Barbara said she was hugely grateful to the whānau of Wharekauri Station who discovered the waka, and who - with community on the island - poured their heart and soul into uncovering its story.
"I'm in awe, quite excited but also feeling there is a burden of responsibility here that we have to work through."
There was a day-to-day role in caring for what had been uncovered and the people of Rēkohu/Wharekauri continued to do that mahi on behalf of the entire country, she said.
Hammond said it was very clear this find was a major kaupapa to the local community, and they need to be supported to see it through.
"No matter who we spoke to they said, 'Look, if this is so significant then it needs to be supported.' The fact of the matter is it needs to be resourced."
The panel recommended that "emphasis now should be on the urgent recovery of the remainder of the waka and ensuring the island is supported for its long-term care."
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