Canoe Rafts of the Maori in the Chatham Islands
Description of the raft type canoes sometimes used by the Maori in their early history.
From: 1400 C.E. To: 1936 C.E.
Location: Chatham Islands, New Zealand
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Canoes of Oceania by Alfred Cort Haddon, 1936.
The Chatham Islands, which are believed to have been colonized from New Zealand by the ancestors of the Moriori (Maori) people, who were the inhabitants when the islands became known to Europeans, are without any timber suitable for making canoes, whether dugouts or of planks sewn together. The only materials available and suitable are the flower stems of flax (korari), the stalks of tree ferns, the pliant withies of the supplejack, and short pieces of wood obtainable from two large shrubs, the ake-ake and the matipo; the sea furnished bladders made from the bull kelp (rimu) for use as floats.
With these scanty and unpromising materials the Moriori (Maori) made cratelike boat rafts ranging from a one man raft 9 feet long by an extreme width of 20 inches (waka korari or waka puhara), up to deep-sea craft (waka pahii, also called pepe) 50 feet long, having a width of 8 feet and a depth of 5 feet; the waka pahii were used to cross between the islands, the minimum distance of such trips being 12 miles. They were esteemed safe even in rough weather (Shand, 1894, p. 86).
These curious craft were punt-shaped structures with truncate sterns, propelled by oars. Except that the fore end was broad instead of pointed, the smaller sizes, viewed from the side, were not unlike the form of an Arab sambuk or of a machwa of the Bombay coast of India; there was the same long grab bow and steeply sloped transom stern. In the small examples preserved in the Dominion Museum this resemblance is emphasized, owing to the greater relative elevation of the stern as compared with what it was in the larger sizes.
The particulars which follow and summarize the knowledge of these strange craft, long extinct, are derived entirely from the invaluable works of Shand (1871, 1911) and of H. D. Skinner (1919, 1923, 1928), wherein is to be found all that is known with certainty of Moriori (Maori) ethnology; to these the reader is referred for further details.
The general construction of the framework, apart from specialized features due to local necessities and materials, is surprisingly like that of framed vessels; in many respects the design shows a remarkable comprehension of the principles of advanced marine architecture. It seems probable that this type represents a specialized development of a form of raft used by the Moriori (Maori) when they lived in New Zealand, and lends weight to the hypothesis that much of the earliest movement in the Pacific was effected by men who employed some form of sailing raft in their voyaging from island to island.
Haddon, Alfred C. (Alfred Cort), 1855-1940, and James Hornell. Canoes of Oceania. Honolulu: The Museum.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
