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Waka taua (war canoes) at the Bay of Islands, 1827-8

In the Māori language and New Zealand English, waka (IPA:wɔka) are Māori watercraft, usually canoes, ranging in size from small unornamented canoes (waka tīwai) used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes (waka taua) up to 40 metres long. In recent years, large double-hulled canoes of considerable size have been constructed for oceanic voyaging to other parts of the Pacific.^[1]

Waka taua (war canoes) were large canoes manned by up to 80 paddlers and up to 40 metres in length. Waka taua . Many are single-hulled vessels made from a hollowed-out tree trunk. Large waka, which are usually elaborately carved and decorated, may consist of several jointed pieces lashed together. Waka taua are no longer used in warfare. The resurgence of Māori culture has seen an increase in the numbers of waka taua built, generally on behalf of a tribal group, for use on ceremonial occasions.

A waka taua displayed at the Otago Museum, Dunedin

Ocean-going waka, whatever their size, could be paddled but achieved best speeds when propelled by sail. The Polynesian settlers of New Zealand migrated to New Zealand in large waka; some of these were waka hourua, double-hulled vessels. The names and stories associated with those waka were passed on in oral history (kōrero o mua) as the descendants of the settlers multiplied and separated into iwi (tribes) and hapu (sub-tribes). Consequently the word waka is used to denote confederation of iwi descended from the people of one migratory canoe.The waka had many uses as of which there is fishing. The waka was used in everyday life for the maori, to search for food.

It is a little known fact that early European explorers saw Māori using waka ama (outrigger canoes). "Sydney Parkinson, an artist on Captain James Cook’s first voyage to New Zealand in 1769, and the German scientist Johann Reinhold Forster, who sailed with Cook in 1773, described waka fitted with outriggers (ama, amatiatia or korewa)".^[2] Already rare in Cook's time, waka ama had largely faded from memory by the early 19th Century (Howe 2006:87). However the term 'waka ama' occurs in old stories, such as the story of Māui published by in Grey in 1854 and in a few old waiata; Tregear also mentions the waka ama as 'a possession of the Maori', adding that 'It was beneath the outrigger of such a canoe that the famous Maui crushed his wife's brother Irawaru before turning him into a dog. Both the double canoe and that with the outrigger have entirely disappeared from among the Maoris, and it is doubtful if any native now alive has seen either of them in New Zealand' (Tregear 1904:115). The Māori words for the parts of the outrigger, such as 'ama' and 'kiato', recorded in the early years of European settlement, suggest that Māori outrigger canoes were similar in form to those known from central Polynesia. In recent years, waka ama racing, using high-tech canoes of Hawaiian or Tahitian design, has become an increasingly popular sport in New Zealand, often performed as part of larger festivals.

Some waka, particularly in the Chatham Islands, were not conventional canoes but were constructed from raupo (bulrushes) or flax stalks.

The word 'waka' is also used in broader senses that can be translated as 'container', 'vessel' or 'vehicle'. A 'waka huia' is a hollowed and carved vessel used for storing of taonga (treasures) such as the prized tail feathers of the now-extinct huia bird that are worn as ornaments in the hair. In current Māori usage, waka is used to refer to cars, along with the transliterated term 'motokā' (motorcar). The neologism 'waka-rere-rangi' (literally: waka (vehicle) that sails the sky) was coined for aircraft. A 'waka hari hino', (vessel that carries oil) is an oil tanker; a 'waka niho' (gear container) is a car's gearbox.

1. ^ The plural is also waka. Similar craft are encountered elsewhere in Polynesia, with cognate names such as vaka, wa'a, or va'a
2. ^ Barclay-Kerr, 2007

• Outrigger Canoe
• Waka-jumping
• Hōkūleʻa
• Polynesian Voyaging Society

• Barclay-Kerr, Hoturoa (2007). Waka – canoes. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 13 April 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
• G. Grey, (1971). Nga Mahi a Nga Tupuna, fourth edition. First published 1854. Reed.
• K.R. Howe (Ed.), (2006). Vaka Moana - Voyages of the Ancestors. David Bateman.
• Edward Robert Tregear (1904). The Māori Race. Archibald Dudingston Willis:Wanganui. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.

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