Or they can convey a message.

This canoe poi was performed by 8 Maori groups from all over NZ at the huge pageant put on for the Waitangi Day celebrations in 1974.

The repeated call to keep paddling in the song was an appeal for everyone to make a continual maximum effort to help them all get through the deep dark waters of injustice, in the hope that some would reach the paradise of a peaceful land (white clouds = peace, paradise).

At the time when Aunty Dovey wrote this, Maori were protesting over abuse of their land rights. For instance, in 1974 the Department of Lands and Survey had designated some areas of coastal land in Northland as proposed public reserves. Much of this land was Maori land. This poi was performed en mass at Waitangi in 1974, and in 1975 there was a hikoi from Waitangi to Wellington. This was the famous Land March on Parliament led by Dame Whena Cooper (photo).

Also look at this canoe poi composed by Pariare Tomona in 1917, Hoea ra te waka nei. It called for total support for the WW1 Maori soldiers away in France, who were fighting and dying in the swamps of Passchendale and the Ypres Salient.