‘I haven’t found that feeling anywhere else’: How a waka changed a Dutch paddler’s life
This story was originally published on 6 February 2025.
A Dutch paddler who travels around the world each year to take part in Waitangi Day commemorations says getting involved with waka — and learning about the Māori world — has changed his life.
Koos Wabeke was one of half a dozen Dutch kaihoe [paddlers] joining this year’s cultural exchange between the Netherlands and New Zealand.
The kaihautū, or captain, of the Dutch contingent, Wabeke had been part of the exchange since its inception 15 years ago.
It began when the late Sir Hekenukumai Busby carved a waka [canoe] for a Dutch museum, on the condition a local crew was trained in maintenance, paddling and tikanga Māori [Māori customs].
Wabeke said he had now travelled to New Zealand nine times, with seven of those trips specifically for Waitangi Day.
The 37-year-old said he hugely enjoyed the atmosphere of “Tent City”, the waka training camp set up each year at Bledisloe Domain, near Paihia.
“It’s such a magical feeling to be here, to support the kaupapa, to support practices that have been done for thousands of years by the Māori. When you arrive here, everybody’s practising and the whole camp is buzzing with energy. I haven’t found that feeling anywhere else in the world.”
Wabeke said another thing that kept bringing him back was the friendships he had forged over the past 15 years.
“It’s an insane thing to wrap your head around, but it’s like you have family on the other side of the world. You’re travelling for 32 hours, but you get out of the plane, and you’re welcomed like you just came home, like you’ve walked in your mum’s front door. That’s the embrace you feel here.”
However, Wabeke said the appeal of Māori culture went beyond friendships.
“It’s the connection to the land, the culture, the rituals, the way of being together as a people, looking after each other, and looking ahead long-term to the future. I think that’s something we’ve lost along the way in the Netherlands, and that’s something we’re definitely searching for and hoping to find again.”
Joe Conrad, the Kaitāia-based kaihautū of the great waka Ngātokimatawhaorua, had also been involved in the exchange since the beginning.
Conrad said there were many at the start who doubted whether a group of Dutch students could adopt the culture and the kaupapa.
“There was huge expectation on us from our iwi [tribe] and our critics, about whether we were doing the right thing, and if they would meet our expectations. I think in the last five years they’ve gone above those expectations … and over the years, we’ve not only passed our knowledge on to them, but they’ve been passing their culture on to us. So it’s been a huge experience and I hope it continues to grow,” he said.
Dutch ambassador Ard van der Vorst said he came to Waitangi each year to support the Dutch paddlers, who were taking part in something much bigger than just paddling a canoe.
“There’s so much more depth to it … I see it almost as a holy moment for those paddlers, when they have the opportunity to sit together, to be part of that waka, to go on the water together and unite their strength to move the waka forward.”
Van der Vorst said Waitangi Day was fascinating for him as a diplomat.
“Relationships matter, and at Waitangi there is always a stock-taking of the relationship in Aotearoa New Zealand between communities. It’s always very interesting to see where this is going. I feel very humbled and privileged to witness and be part of that.”
Meanwhile, Wabeke said he hoped the relationships he had forged through kaupapa waka would continue even after he had paddled his last stroke.
“My own son is seven months. I can’t wait to bring him here when he’s old enough and have him sit on the waka at Waitangi. I’m already sharing some of the lessons with him that I’ve learned from this relationship over the last 15 years, because it has definitely changed me. It’s helped me find more of who I am and what’s important to me, and make sure that I connect more with this world.”
The story behind the Dutch waka
The origins of the waka exchange between the Netherlands and New Zealand date back to 2002 when Te Papa requested the repatriation of a mokomokai — a preserved Maori head — from Museum Volkenkunde, the Dutch national ethnology museum in the city of Leiden.
The three-year-long process of returning the artefact fuelled Dutch interest in tikanga Māori, and led to a close relationship between the museum and Te Papa.
A year after the head’s return in 2005, an exhibition by the acclaimed photographer Ans Westra — who was born in Leiden but is best known for her 1960s portraits of rural Māori — led to even closer connections with New Zealand and the idea of “ordering” a waka as a living exhibit.
What had seemed a museum director’s unlikely dream became reality in 2010 thanks to a €425,000 (NZ$780,000) grant from the Dutch equivalent of the Lottery Grants Board.
The grant also meant the museum could expand its wishlist to include a fibreglass-hulled waka tētē [training canoe] and a carved whare waka [canoe shelter] for the museum grounds.
The waka was built by the late Sir Hekenukumai Busby at his workshop in Aurere, Doubtless Bay, and designed for Dutch conditions with a lowered taurapa [sternpost] to fit under low bridges and a hull designed for manoeuvering on narrow canals.
Sir Hekenukumai named the waka Te Hono ki Aotearoa [The Link to New Zealand], and handed it over in an elaborate ceremony as thousands of spectators lined Leiden’s canals.
Arts organisation Toi Māori Aotearoa, which brokered the deal, set a number of conditions.
Those conditions included allowing Toi Māori to retain ownership of the waka, though it would be on permanent loan to the Netherlands, and requiring the museum to make the waka available for special occasions around Europe, such as Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th jubilee river paegant in 2012.
Also, the museum would have to recruit a crew to be trained in waka protocols, so they could maintain the canoe and paddle it when required.
Some of these kaihoe [paddlers] would be expected to travel to New Zealand every year for further training and immersion in te ao Māori [the Māori world].
Museum curators began their search for home-grown kaihoe at the nearby Leiden University rowing club.
The students were quick to embrace kaupapa waka and surprised many with their dedication. The club’s Waka Gezelschap [waka group] now has about 50 members, including some who have been involved since the project’s inception.
During their weekly training nights, as long as the canals aren’t frozen, the students practice in the waka tētē.
They named their training waka Tāhimana, after the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman.
Te Hono ki Aotearoa, which weighs just under a tonne and may be paddled only by men, is used only on special occasions.
Museum Volkenkunde, which hosts an annual Māori Week and holds its own Waitangi Day commemorations, has since been renamed Wereldmuseum Leiden [World Museum Leiden].
This story was originally published as Kaupapa waka changed Dutch paddler’s life by rnz.co.nz on 6 February 2025. I’ve written plenty of stories about the Dutch waka if you want to find out more.
