Kaitaia man Chappy Harrison (Ngati Kahu), who captained the waka Te Hono ki Aotearoa (The Link to New Zealand) on London's River Thames last month for the Queen's 60th jubilee, will fly to the United States next week to take part in an epic Native American canoe journey.
A largelyNorthland crew paddled Te Hono ki Aotearoa 27 kilometres down the Thames as part of a 1000-strong fleet in last month's Diamond Jubilee River Pageant with an estimated 1.3 million people lining the river's banks to watch the spectacle.
Now Mr Harrison and fellow crew member Joe Conrad are preparing to join the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde on a 200-kilometre Tribal Canoe Journey in Washington State that will take them to Squaxin Island in Puget Sound, near Canada's Vancouver Island.
Nga Waka Federation established an exchange programme with the Grand Ronde in 2009, which has seen Native American paddlers taking part in the annual waka pageant at Waitangi every February 6.
Mr Conrad, who, like Mr Harrison, is a kaihautu (captain) of Waitangi's great waka Ngatokimatawhaorua, organised the waka display on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour for the start of the Rugby World Cup.
The waka taua Te Hono ki Aotearoa was built by waka master Hekenukumai Busby at Aurere, Doubtless Bay, for the arts organisation Toi Maori. It is based at the Volkenkunde Museum in the Dutch city of Leiden.
