Mystery canoe strake uncovered at Anaweka
The part hull of the canoe found at Anaweka last week. Photos: Gerard Hindmarsh.
What is thought to be a substantial component of a traditional Pacific canoe was recovered last week near the mouth of the Anaweka River, after the most recent heavy rains washed away silt and sand and exposed one end of it.
Waitapu Engineering’s Tony Nicholls was holidaying down there with his extended family and said one of the younger members had been off investigating behind a big wash-up of driftwood when he came back to tell them that protruding from the ground was a strange-looking bit of wood with holes. The party spent two-and-half hours digging mostly by hand in the old sand layer to get the 6.5m long relic out.
“It was pretty obvious once it was out that it was part of a canoe,” said Tony. “And that it had probably been buried there a long time.”
They soon had it securely loaded on a big double innerspring mattress sitting atop a trailer, and towed it back home to Takaka, definitely their best Christmas beachcombing find for years.
Of particular note are its big and precise lacing holes for tying the hull bottom, prow and stern sections, and the carved, raised relief of a long-tailed turtle on its side. Tony promptly phoned Te Papa to report his find and maybe find out a thing or two about it in the process, but all the canoe experts are on holiday. It gave Tony a bit of time to search the internet and see that his grand find was most likely the main strake from a traditional Polynesian canoe, as constructed throughout much of the Pacific right up to the late 19th Century. Like most canoes, these could be paddled or sailed using one of two V-shaped sails made from hoisted pandanus leaves. Mainly used inside lagoons and around the edges of atolls, they were typically made from wooden sections lashed together with coconut fibre through holes drilled in the wood. This method did not prevent leakage, and bailing was a constant necessity.
“I’m no expert, but it’s easy to think this canoe piece has nothing to do with Maori. Just the look of it and the carved turtle—although sea turtle sightings are not that uncommon down the Kahurangi coast, I’ve seen two myself boating down there. There’s even Turtle Bay just south of Westhaven Inlet where a big sea turtle once washed up. But this carved turtle definitely looks more Pacific.”
Anaweka landowner Dave Harwood said Pacific wash-ups were not uncommon along his stretch of coast thanks to a current that comes all the way from the shores of South America.
“Months after the Battle of the River Plate [13 Dec, 1939, Britain vs Germany, Rio de la Plata in Argentina], some aluminium wreckage washed up at Turimawiwi that came from the battleships involved. It’s quite possible this canoe could have just washed up here from somewhere far away.”
While carbon dating should indicate the age of the tree this canoe hull was made from, it may shed little light on when or where it was actually made. Steve Bagley, the Department of Conservation’s Nelson/Marlborough Conservancy technical support officer for Historic Heritage, says the actual context of where it was found may give far better clues.
“The ‘stratigraphy’, or layers or whatever it was uncovered from, will probably reveal some important clues to its history. From the photos it’s almost certainly the carved hull strake of a planked-up canoe from the tropical Pacific. At this stage I am unable to determine from the photos whether steel or stone tools had been used, but the timber does look in very good condition and this suggests to me (without knowing the matrix from which it was recovered) that is probably not ancient. If it was found in naturally deposited soil or gravels and there were no other associated archaeological evidence or parts, the scenario that it is jetsam from the tropics does at this stage seem most likely.”
He also said DOC would only have an interest if it was found on DOC-administered land, which it wasn’t.
Gerard Hindmarsh
So is there the slightest chance this exciting new artifact was connected with the earliest-known people in this area?
The Ngati Ara arrived in about 1450AD, then the Ngati Tumatakokiri, who were in occupation from around 1600AD until they were decimated by Ngati Tama and Ngati Rarua at Paturau in 1830. According to local archaeologist Jack Walls, there is more evidence of continuous and significant occupation around Whanganui Inlet than any other place around Golden Bay. Coincidentally, Jack’s son, Simon Walls, who works for DOC in Golden Bay, has just completed an inventory of archaeological sites around the Anaweka, well known for its early occupation.
In 1846, explorer Charles Heaphy wrote of passing ‘old potato and taro cultivation grounds’ around both the Anaweka River and Raukawa Stream, indicating Maori kainga or settlements had still existed along that coast not that long before.
One canoe story (as told by the late Darcy McPherson of Parapara, who was well versed in local Maori history) that does relate to this Te Tai Tapu coast is about the battle of Paturau fought on the river mouth flat there around 1830. It started when Te Puoho of Parapara sent a canoe-load of men around to this coast to get crayfish, but their craft foundered on the reef just north of the river. The local Maori investigated from the shore, but did not offer any help, and Te Puoho’s crew had little option but to cling to the two parts of the canoe, which had split apart until they washed ashore with the tide that evening. Utterly exhausted, they walked back to Parapara via the Maori Trail through the bluffs of Te Hapu and then onto the southern end of the inlet and over Pakawau Saddle.
When they reported their woeful story to the fierce Te Puoho, he flew into a rage and immediately organised a war party that travelled over to kill all those living at Paturau, thus giving the place its name – “to lie in a long heap”, or “killed by the hundred”.
