A prayer to hold lashings and fittings close

amid the swelled guts of Tangaroa.

A prayer to scoop out sustenance –

sweet fish caught by divers in bright saltwater

marinaded in coconut and hunger. A prayer

to keep food for the two week trip to Aotearoa,

gourds intact, yam and taro and kumara gods alert

to the slap and grab of a restless swell –

whether in the breast or seabed. A prayer, a declaration,

for quick land, straight seas, and health

of all parts celestial, temporal and divine:

food music and drink of this star waka –

the chanted rhythms

hoea hoea ra

storms

hoea hoea ra

a thousand years

hoea hoea ra

fleet mothers of tales

hoea hoea ra

I greet you in prayer oh star oh waka …

and pray for your combination here.

He karakia mo korua, e te waka, e te whetu o te ao nei.

Star and waka, a prayer for you both.

i

Men rest their oars at night –

sailing into paua, plump fowl, sweet

water, miracles of earth, land rolling

from hills into skies, land large enough

for lakes, enough to gather people in,

a feast for a forest of gods hitting sky.

Star waka is a knife through time. Crews

change, language of each crew changes,

as fast as sun burns ground, and tongues curse him.

Crews take longer, yet learn less about makers

of waka, meanings of star. Inheritors

of body, watched by spirits watching star.

Star hangs on ears of night, defining light.

Hear sounds of waka knifing time – aue, again,

what belongs to water belongs to blood. Crews leap aboard

leap out, with songs of relations and care

to send them. Whole families have journeyed here,

they continue the line. The bottom line

is to know where to go – star points.

Kaituki counts stroke. Tohunga,

who dwells beyond law, finds star.

System is always there for waka.

Star rises and falls with night.

So guidance system attached.

Belief system of heart. And tide.

In ancient days navigators sent waka between.

Now, our speakers send us on waka. Their memories,

memory of people in us, invite, spirit,

compel us aboard, to home government, to centre:

Savai‘i, Avaiki, Havaiki, Hawaiiki, from where we peopled

Kiwa’s Great Sea. We left home by a thousand

different stars, but just one waka takes us back.

Let us regroup. We have never travelled further –

just one star stays familiar in the heavens now.

Tamanui sun dribbles from sky. How will we ever settle

this cold place? Makariri. Will our high magic work here?

ii

And when waka reaches Aotearoa again,

empty, we know it has come for more –

and when waka reaches Europe

we know it has lost some more –

and when craft work on waka

descends into varnish and paint it has lost some more –

more times the waka leaves full

we lose more –

and more

iii About some of the crew

He takes notes about his history and culture, even his own family