Description
Author: Jeff Evans
Format: Hardback
Publication date: 10/08/2023
Imprint: MASSEY UNIVERSITY
ISBN: 9781991151193
THE POWER OF MANA WAKA TO INSPIRE A PEOPLE
This is the biography of the mighty ceremonial waka taua Ngtokimatawhaorua& that rests on the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi.The inspiration for its construction came from Te Puea Hrangi. In the late 1930s& the Waikato leader held a dream to build seven waka taua for the 1940 centennial& commemorations at Waitangi. By 1937 two waka had been commissioned. Carved& in Northland under the guidance of Pita Heperi (Te Tai Tokerau) and Piri Poutapu& (Waikato), Ngtokimatawhaorua was one of them.
But it was to be many decades before the true power of the waka to inspire& a people was realised. In 1974 Ngtokimatawhaorua was refurbished by the& late Sir Heke-nuku-mai-nga-iwi Hec Busby for relaunching during Waitangi& Day ceremonies. It was then that Te& Puea”s dream turned into reality. By 1990,& The Year of the Waka, 22 waka and their 2000 crew gathered at Waitangi.& Ngtokimatawhaorua and others became symbols of Maori unity and pride and& an important part of the renaissance of the traditions of carving and voyaging& around Aotearoa and beyond.
Ngtokimatawhaorua is the story of this great canoe, the longest to be built in& modern times, and those who carved and crewed it over the last 80 years.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.