Dutch kaihoe at the tent city on Bledisloe Domain, from left, Eliza Jordaan, Justus Hamann, Francisca Duijs and Annerie van Dalsen. PHOTO / PETER DE GRAAF
Dutch kaihoe at the tent city on Bledisloe Domain, from left, Eliza Jordaan, Justus Hamann, Francisca Duijs and Annerie van Dalsen. PHOTO / PETER DE GRAAF
Friendships and a desire to bring deeper knowledge home to Europe's only Maori waka group drive a group of Dutch paddlers to return to Waitangi year after year.
As many as 300 paddlers took part in a four-day training camp at Bledisloe Domain, Haruru Falls, in the lead-up to Waitangi Day's waka display off Tii Beach.
Among them were four paddlers from the Njord Royal Student Rowing Club, based in Leiden in the Netherlands.
The club's waka group is responsible for looking after Te Hono ki Aotearoa, which was built by Doubtless Bay's Hekenukumai Busby for the Dutch national ethnology museum and is the only waka taua (war canoe) in Europe.
Club members have to learn waka protocols, chants and haka, and a few travel to New Zealand every year as a condition of the waka's "permanent loan" to the Netherlands.
Of this year's batch of Dutch kaihoe (paddlers), one was on her third visit, two were on their second, and one was a newbie.
Annerie van Dalsen, a doctor, has paddled in three Waitangi Day waka fleets.
"What keeps bringing me back is the friendship and being part of this amazing family. Every day we learn new things we can take home to improve our group."
As one of the group's senior members, aged 30, she said she felt a responsibility to keep bringing new knowledge back to Holland.
Justus Hamann, who works in heavy construction, was on his second visit. He was also drawn back by "amazing friendships" and, as one of the kaihautu (captains) of the Dutch waka, a sense of responsibility.
Mr Hamann said, when he first came to Waitangi, he wondered how he would be treated as a non-Maori treading in a Maori world.
"But everyone is very friendly and very interested. They're amazed by the fact we are spreading Maori culture in Europe, just as we are honoured and amazed to be here, and to be spreading Maori culture in Europe as non-Maori."
First-timer Eliza Jordaan, a cultural anthropology student, said she was amazed by the size of the tent city at Bledisloe Domain and how everyone knew their role.
Dutch paddlers Francisca Duijs and Eliza Jordaan learn how to weave flax between waka training sessions. Photo / Peter de Graaf
In Holland the waka group focused on paddling but here she had experienced more, including singing, prayers, blessings and flax weaving.
Ms Jordaan said one of the most impressive things had been hearing the way people talk about their waka.
"The care they have for their waka is really moving. It's beautiful."
Francisca Duijs, a forensic lab technician, said she was trying to learn as many calls, haka and waiata as she could, so she could pass the knowledge on to club members who were unable to travel to New Zealand.
Other participants in the waka camp came from around the North Island as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde (Oregon, USA), the Great Lakes (USA), France, Austria and Argentina.
It was led by experts such as Robert Gabel, chairman of Nga Waka Federation; Joe Conrad, kaihautu of the great waka Ngatokimatawhaorua; and Stan Conrad, who has captained voyaging waka around the Pacific.
