A Northland man regarded as one of the world's greatest waka builders and navigators is building a ceremonial waka for a museum in the Netherlands. Doubtless Bay's Hekenukumai Puhipi, better known as Hec Busby, is making the waka for the Volkenkunde Museum in Leiden, which is about halfway between The Hagueand Amsterdam. Toi Maori - the national organisation for Maori art and artists - has commissioned Mr Busby to build the waka, which will be paid for by the Bank Giro Lottery in the Netherlands. The fully fledged waka taua (war canoe) will be 14m long with space for 18 paddlers. The whakairo (carvings) are being created by a Porirua-based team headed by Takirirangi Smith. The waka is due to be launched on June 26 at Aurere in Doubtless Bay. Toi Maori operations manager Tamahou Temara said a team of carvers led by Mr Smith would be sent to Holland in August to complete a waka shelter on the museum grounds. Toi Maori would retain ownership of the waka, which would be on permanent loan and available for use anywhere in Europe it was needed. The official hand-over will take place on October 14, coinciding with the opening of a major exhibition featuring Dutch interaction with Maori since the arrival of the explorer Abel Tasman in 1642. "He, of course, left Aotearoa with a name - New Zealand," Mr Temara said. The word "Zealand" is a partly Anglicised version of Tasman's home province of Zeeland, meaning "sea land". Leiden's Volkenkunde Museum is the Netherlands' national museum for ethnology and traditional arts. Toi Maori representatives will travel to Leiden to sign a waka deed on June 10.
