September 17, 2019
Waka leaders set terms for Tuia 250 encounters
The kaitiaki for the Tuia 250 flotilla says concerns about celebrating Captain Cook have been thoroughly debated, and the kaupapa now is to ensure all histories are told.
There have been objecting to the flotilla, with protests planned in Tūranganui a Kiwa and Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Kahu saying the Endeavour was not welcome in Mangonui.
Jack Thatcher says the voyaging waka which will accompany the Endeavour to places where Cook landed rejected an initial request to tag along with the initial Cook 250 First Encounters programme, and demanded a new name and a new purpose.
The aim now is to celebrate the joining together of two voyaging heritages and to gather and tell the stories of those encounters, good and bad.
"It's not that we won't acknowledge the encounters of Cook and the Endeavour while they were in Aotearoa, that's not part of what we were wanting. We still need to own all the history and bring out all that history that creates a truer picture of our nation's development in the last 250 years," Mr Thatcher says.
The arrival in Tauranga of the Tahitian waka Fa'afaite on the weekend is a significant contribution to the event because it adds a direct link the the story of Tupaea who navigated Cook to Aotearoa and provided an essential bridge to Maori.
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