Not since the Great Migration 700 years ago has a fleet of Vaka sailed together from Raiatea (Avaiki) – ancestral homeland of the Eastern Polynesian people - to Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

5 Vaka are taking part in this voyage:

Marumaru Atua – Cook Islands
Te Matau a Maui – Aotearoa
Uto Ni Yalo – Fiji
Hine Moana – Samoa, Tonga & Vanuatu
Faafaite – Tahiti

Four traditional double hull canoes left Aotearoa on April 18th 2010 & sail to Tahiti (where they were joined by the Tahitian Vaka ), then on to the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji & back to Aotearoa. It is intended that after the fleet arrives at Rarotonga, Marumaru Atua will stay, Faafaite will return to Tahiti , Uto Ni Yalo will return to Fiji & Hinemoa & Te Matau a Maui will return to Aotearoa.

The purpose of this 3 month voyage for ‘Marumaru Atua’ is to continue the journey that the Cook Islands Voyaging Society began in 1994 – which is to revitalise the traditional art of sailing, navigation and canoe-building and to share this knowledge with our Pacific brothers & sisters in a spirit of polynesian kinship.

‘Marumaru Atua’ (translation: ”under the protection of God” ) is proudly leading the fleet in the voyage to Tahiti utilizing the traditional navigational knowledge of the senior crew members.

The voyage is also about creating awareness of environmental issues faced by the Pacific peoples - issues of climate change, ocean noise, pollution, over fishing and coral degradation.

The 22 metre canoes are modeled on the Cook Islands traditional double-hulled canoe ‘Te Au O Tonga’ and were built by Salthouse Boatbuilders in Auckland with the help of Cook Islands traditional boat building expertise.
The Project was funded by the Okeanos Foundation.

Cook Islands Voyaging Society members involved in the construction project:

• Te Aturangi Nepia-Clamp – Project Manager
• Ian Karika – Construction Manager
• Ti Pekepo –  Construction Foreman
• Alan Sullivan – Construction Foreman
• Paul Mangakahia – Canoe builder
• Curtis Sullivan – Canoe builder