He kāhui waka hourua, waka Pākehā anō hoki ka whakatere i ngā tai o Aotearoa ā ngā marama e heke mai nei, hei tohu i te tūtakihanga tuatahitanga a te Māori me te Pākehā. Ko te mātanga whakatere waka ko Jack Thatcher te Kaitiaki o te ope waka o Tūia, hei tāna he huarahi hou tēnei e puta ai ngā kōrero a te Māori, ka mutu, he whakanui i ngā whakapapa whakatere waka o ngā iwi o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa.
“It can't just be telling the stories of European arrival here and what effect it had on us because from our perspective it wasn't a great first encounter / if you really are wanting a nation to mature then you have to own its history”, tā Jack Thatcher.
Hei tā te tohunga whakatere waka a Kāpene Jack Thatcher, kīhai ia i tautoko i te kaupapa nei timatanga, heoi anō tāna me whakauru atu i ngā kōrero Māori, ka mutu me tautoko atu i ngā hapori Māori anō hoki.
“We've got a thousand years at least of voyaging heritage where our tīpuna arrived in Aotearoa, and up until the time when Cook and Abel Tasman and all those Europeans arrived in Aotearoa and we need to be able to tell those stories”, te kī Thatcher.
Nāwai ka panoni Te Manatū Taonga i te ingoa atu i a 'Cook Encounters 250' ki a 'Tuia Encounters 250'.
He kawenga pūtaiao e pā ana ki te whakatere waka a te Māori me te Pākehā, he hōtaka mātauranga mō te oranga o te moana, me ētahi atu mahi ā-ringa anō hoki, arā, he hanga kapehu whetū te mahi. Hei tā Kāpene Jack Thatcher me whai wāhi atu ngā kōrero waka Māori ka tika.
“And I have to say that we don't see or hear much of that in our schools and if we're able to affect the development of curriculum in our schools where more of our NZ history is actually being taught and it's not a bad thing to talk about maybe Te Maro, being the first one shot by Cook, because that's a story that we have to own”, tā Thatcher.
Tokotoru ngā waka hourua ka whakaterea i te maru o tēnei o ngā kaupapa, arā, ko Haunui Waka, ko Ngāhiraka Mai Tawhiti rātau ko Fa'afaite i te Ao Mā'ohi o Papa'ete, Tahiti.
Ka tatū haere te ope waka nei ki ngā wāhi e whakapapa atu ai ngā waka a te Māori, me ngā waka a te Pākehā anō hoki, puta noa i te motu. Hei tā Thatcher he whakatakoto i te tūāpapa kōrero mō ngā whakatipuranga.
“We know now that Ngāti Oneone are going to get the opportunity to tell that story, for us that's too important not to actually be involved in this opportunity through Tuia to able to tell our story”, te kī a Thatcher.
Atu i te Oketopa ki te Tīhema haere ai ngā waka i tā rātau haere.
