The boat, known as a waka, was unearthed in the Chatham Islands. Researchers say it could be one of the most significant discoveries of its kind
Sonja Anderson - Daily Correspondent
March 6, 2025
Beginning some 3,000 years ago, Southeast Asian peoples began voyaging out into the Pacific and settling the islands of Polynesia. These ancient sailors navigated by the stars, traversing the ocean in large canoes carved from trees.
Now, one of those boats, known as a waka, has been found in hundreds of pieces in New Zealand’s Chatham Islands. Experts say the artifact could be one of the most significant discoveries of its kind.
“No matter how old it is, we can’t overstate how incredible it is,” Justin Maxwell, the archaeologist leading the investigation, tells the Guardian’s Veronika Meduna. “It will go down as one of the most important finds of all time in Polynesia.”
The boat’s remains were first discovered last year by a young man and his father, Nikau and Vincent Dix, in a creek near their home on the main island, known in the Indigenous Moriori language as Rekohu.
“My son and I were just loading the boat up and taking the dogs for a run up the beach, … just after a big rain,” Vincent, a local fisherman, tells Radio New Zealand. Then, Nikau saw pieces of timber in the river. The wood sported strange holes, and it appeared to be well preserved.
“We were like, ‘Sweet, some new timber for us to use,’” Nikau tells Myjanne Jensen and Hikurangi Jackson of the TV series “Te Ao With Moana.” “We took it all home [and] started putting it together, just trying to find out what it was about. … And we were like, ‘Hey, this is starting to form the shape of a boat.’”
More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-fisherman-and-his-son-noticed-strange-pieces-of-wood-on-a-beach-they-turned-out-to-be-fragments-of-a-polynesian-canoe-180986166/
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