Waka (canoe)

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In the Maori language and New Zealand English, waka or Waaka are Maori watercraft, usually canoes. Waka range in size from small canoes used for fishing or river travel by individuals or small groups through to very large waka taua (war canoes) manned by up to 80 paddlers and large double-hulled canoes for oceanic voyaging. (note: As with most loan-words from the Maori language, the plural of "waka" is simply "waka", not "wakas").

Many waka are single-hulled vessels made from hollowed tree trunks. Small waka consist of a single piece while large waka consist of several pieces lashed together. A waka ama is an outrigger canoe. Some waka, particularly in the Chatham Islands, were not canoes but were constructed from raupo (bulrushes) or flax stalks.

Small utilitarian waka are usually plain and unornamented. Larger canoes, waka taua in particular, are elaborately carved and decorated. Waka taua are no longer used in warfare but are used chiefly for ceremonial purposes.

The Polynesian settlers of New Zealand from Hawaiki who became the Maori, migrated to New Zealand in large waka. The names and stories associated with those waka were passed on in Maori oral history (korero nehera) as the descendants of the settlers multiplied and separated into iwi (tribes), [(hapu)] (sub-tribes). The word waka is used to denote confederations of iwi descended from the settlers of a single migratory canoe.

The word waka is also used in broader senses which can be translated as 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 which are worn as ornaments in the hair. The neologism waka-rere-rangi (literally: waka (or vehicle) that flies in the sky) was coined for aircraft.

The word also has five other meanings in Williams Maori Dictionary, but only this definition has entered New Zealand English.