Sustainable Kupe Waka Centre due to open 2021

Sustainability woven into development

Sustainability is one of the key themes woven into the design and development of the Kupe Waka Centre.

Everything starts from how we ensure that the mana of the site and its iconic status is protected.

“We don’t want to overload the site with development, such that the very qualities that make it what it is, are destroyed,” says Kupe Waka Centre project manager, Dr Peter Phillips.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the national and international economy has changed the way we will operate the Centre. The lockdown has also

allowed the project designers to stop and reflect and make sure that what they are planning in terms of the different sources of income, reflects the values of the site.

This includes reducing the numbers of tourists expected on the site and shifting the balance towards people who visit for education, training and awareness of Kaupapa Waka: waka sailing, waka building, traditional navigation and the lore which enshrines the knowledge and wisdom.

There is a trade off in the number of tourists coming to the KWC site because cultural tourism is another way of spreading the message about kaupapa waka, but Dr Phillips believes they have now got the balance right.

The KWC is about sharing the history and stories that go back to Polynesian migration — across the Pacific and waka hourua arrival in New Zealand — sharing stories of voyaging, sharing skills of waka construction, and teaching traditional navigation. Most recently Sir Hek’s two waka hourua sailed to Rapanui and back, a journey of more than 9000 nautical miles.

This realised a dream of Sir Hek that a waka from Aotearoa should sail to the other points of the Polynesian Triangle as “Te Aurere” had sailed to Hawai’i in 1995.

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