February 05, 2024
Paddle passed down for Waitangi regatta
This Waitangi Day is the 50th anniversary of the repair and refit of Te Tai Tokerau’s premier waka – Ngātokimatawhaorua.
In 1974 it led a procession of waka during a visit by Queen Elizabeth – and it will lead up to 20 waka and 400 kai hoe after tomorrow’s Waitangi Day service.
Regatta organiser Joe Contrad says it will be a special event for some paddlers – who are now fourth-generation.
“Some of these paddlers, their grandfathers paddled Ngatoki in 1974 – and great grandfathers. so they’re just amazed to be sitting or holding a hoe – a paddle – that their great grandfathers probably held themselves,” he says.
Joe Conrad says as men and women paddlers from many Aotearoa iwi, plus paddlers from Holland, and an indigenous group from Portland, Oregon, and even some with polynesian connections will make the 50th anniversary a memorable one.