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| Vaka - photo courtesy Te Ara - Cook Islands Museum of Cultural Enterprise, Muri Rarotonga, 2017 |
When at
school, I was taught the" great fleet
scenario " It was enshrined in the learning culture at school and throughout New Zealand. Great
pictures were conjured up in my child's mind of canoes, filled with paddlers,
frantically paddling to reach distant shores, thousands of kilometres away..
Never did I dare to question what other methods of navigation, did these people
of the eight canoes use. I puzzled and
puzzled, where this place Hawaiki was ( modern scholars are now of the thought
that Hawaiki might just be Tahiti).
My
education on the " Great fleet
scenario" was on the cusp of change, when there was another " great migration" taking place in New
Zealand - when rural communities were
seeing their communities experience,
their people moving to the cities and the large housing areas, for work in the
cities. Even a song was written about it and can be seen on John Archer's
" the New Zealand Folk Song"
It
was not until going on to University, out to work and finally in later years
travel across Asia and the Pacific, that it was suddenly realised the myth of
the " great fleet scenario" Now in 2018 it is a generation of
genealogy, finding one's roots and the answers in DNA for everything. During
travel across and around the Pacific and hearing stories from many different
peoples of their ancestors journeys across the seas and from continents way,
way back in time. Visiting the new Te
Ara -Cook Islands Museum of Cultural Enterprise at Muri, Rarotonga in 2017, suddenly there came, a eureka moment.
There was not one " great fleet scenario" coming to New Zealand. There were in fact a number of visits of canoe to and from New Zealand by people who knew what they were doing with navigation. Their stories were passed down verbally and in whakapapa or genealogy. Yes there were some historical facts in the stories, including that of Kupe said to have visited about 925 AD. Kupe is said to be a Chief of Hawaiki ( Tahiti) whose father was from Rarotonga, and whose mother was from Raiatea There is an island in Tahiti said to be called Raiatea. Kupe is said to have voyaged to New Zealand aboard the double canoe, Matahourua. Kupe is attributed within stories passed down among Iwi for generations, with having visited the south Wairarapa, Cook Strait, Northland regions, Arahura on the South Island’s West Coast, and to the Coromandel Peninsula - Taputapuātea and Te Whitianga-o-Kupe ( Kupe's crossing place).
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| Sign at Muri Te Ara - Cook Islands Museum Cultural Enterprises - photo Chris Ball 2017 |
There was not one " great fleet scenario" coming to New Zealand. There were in fact a number of visits of canoe to and from New Zealand by people who knew what they were doing with navigation. Their stories were passed down verbally and in whakapapa or genealogy. Yes there were some historical facts in the stories, including that of Kupe said to have visited about 925 AD. Kupe is said to be a Chief of Hawaiki ( Tahiti) whose father was from Rarotonga, and whose mother was from Raiatea There is an island in Tahiti said to be called Raiatea. Kupe is said to have voyaged to New Zealand aboard the double canoe, Matahourua. Kupe is attributed within stories passed down among Iwi for generations, with having visited the south Wairarapa, Cook Strait, Northland regions, Arahura on the South Island’s West Coast, and to the Coromandel Peninsula - Taputapuātea and Te Whitianga-o-Kupe ( Kupe's crossing place).
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| North end of Buffalo Beach, Whitianga not far from Taputapuātea Stream and looking out toward cliffs where Captain Cook observed transit of Mercury - photo August 2015 courtesy Chris Ball |
Today in
2018, we know this place - Te
Whitianga-o-Kupe on the Coromandel Peninsula ( Te Tara-o-te-Ika a Maui ) as Whitianga.
Taputapuātea Stream flows into
the Northern End of what is known as Buffalo Beach. On the island of Raiatea
there is Taputapuatea marae - "tapu" meaning sacred and
"atea" faraway. This marae was a special place for polynesian
voyagers for it was a place of learning. Navigators from all over the Pacific
would gather to share their knowledge of the genealogical origins of the
universe, and of deep-ocean navigation. Note on map below that "Havaii" was the ancient name for the island of Raiatea.
In
Handy, E.S. Craighill. 1892. History and culture in the Society islands.
Honolulu: Bernice P Bishop Museum no.79 1930. Hathi Trust
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Even Captain Cook of the HMS Endeavour, when he visited Te Whitianga-o-Kupe in 1769 to observe the
Transit of Mercury at Te Whanganui A
Hei, (the Great Bay of Hei) was to bring a link to this place in forward
years - in the person of Tupaia. Also from
Raiatea Tupaia - navigator and
map maker -who encouraged by Joseph Banks, joined Endeavour in July 1769. Banks
was appointed to a joint Royal Navy/Royal Society scientific expedition , on
HMS Endeavour. Tupaia it is said, proved to be of great value, despite being
overlooked and with little to say by Captain Cook. Able to understand and speak
the language of Maori met, Tupaia was able to act both as an interpreter along
with a mediator role, helping to avert what may have proved disastrous for
Captain Cook and the crew of the
HMS Endeavour.
Cook recorded in his log
about the first map of Aotearoa
being drawn on the deck of Endeavour by
Ngati Hei ancestor Toawaka. Ngati Hei are said to be descended from Hei - a
navigator aboard the canoe Te Arawa.The tribe took its name in the 13th
Century from Hei, the elder brother of Tama Te Kapua, Captain of the Arawa
canoe.
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| Purangi Estuary off Cooks Beach - photo courtesy ASB 2012 |
Other
stories and histories have been passed down of
other canoe and people arriving in New Zealand. Debate amongst scholars
continues over the exact date that Maori arrived in New Zealand with varying opinions. It is said that
between 1000–1100 AD, the Polynesian
explorer Toi arrived in New Zealand. Also from Tahiti as Kupe was, Toi is said
to have met the tangata-whenua in the Hauraki Gulf. Intermarriage took place
and Toi finally settled at Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty.
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| At Entrance to Whakatane November 2015 photo courtesy Chris Ball |
At Tairua
on the Coromandel's Eastern Seaboard, a fishing lure was found in an
Archaeological site in 1964. The
significance of this fishing lure made from th black lipped oyster shell is
that it is thought to have been bought to New Zealand by Polynesian arrivals to this shore. The lure thought to be around to be around
1250 - 1300 A,D gives support to the
theories which tell of migrations from the islands of the Pacific to New
Zealand.
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| Tairua Harbour - where the tree Tutuaki is said to be standing guard over the place where the pearl shell fishing lure was found - photo 2018 courtesy Chris Ball |
Not far
from Te Ara Museum at Muri, Rarotonga is a place marking the spot, said to be where seven vaka ( canoe) left in
about 1250 - 1350 A.D from the bay of Ngatangiia. This was a favoured location for
there is a gap in the reef which fringes the widest part of the island's
lagoon. It is said these vaka voyaged to
Aotearoa ( New Zealand)
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| In the Bay of Ngatangiia, Muri , Rarotonga -
photo 2017 courtesy Chris Ball |
The seven
vaka leaving the Bay of Ngatangiia, were Takitumu, Te Arawa, Mataatua, Aotea, Kurahaupo, Tokomaru
and Tainui. Whether these seven left at
the same time or over a period of time
is still a point of conjecture and debate amongst scholars of polynesian migrations.
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| Modern Day Vaka anchored in the Bay of Ngatangiia - photo 2017 courtesy Chris Ball |
After
visiting the Te Ara museum at Muri, Rarotonga, another " eureka
moment" gave realisation that these early polynesian voyagers to New
Zealand were in fact great navigators. It was not paddle, paddle, paddle. A vast
knowledge about currents, winds, seasonal weather changes and the stars enabled
these navigators to move across the vast
Pacific Ocean ( Te Moananui-a-Kiwa ). Te
Moanui - a-kiwa said to be 70 million square miles of ocean.
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The stars - photo courtesy Andy Holmes
On the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand those stars that helped guide those early navigators. Guiding their canoe to the coastal places of the Coromandel Peninsula: Te Tara-o-te-Ika a Māui (the jagged barb of Māui's fish), It is in the Maori place names of the Coromandel Peninsula and oral stories and song passed down thorough Iwi and whanau that is found those of ancestor navigators who came and travelled back home in many waka ( canoe) over several hundred years. Or settled in place enjoying the bounty of land and sea.
Many of those stories are now being written and recorded - a very relevant part of the past New Zealand history that marks a long history of many canoe rather than one great fleet coming to the shores of New Zealand. 
Reference
Sources:
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