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Ko Aotea te waka, Ko Turi tangata ki runga, Ko Te Rōku-o-whiti te hoe. Piri papa te hoe! Awhi papa te hoe! Toi tū1 te hoe! Toi rere te hoe! Toi mahuta te hoe! Toi hapakapa2 te hoe! Kai runga te rangi.	White Cloud is our voyaging craft, Turi is the person in command The Log-for-changing-direction is the steering oar. Keep this oar close to the hull, Hug the hull with this oar! Quickly set in place is the steering oar!1 Quickly gliding along is the steering oar! Quickly rising is the steering oar! Quickly moving back and forth is the oar2 As it steers us up to the sky's edge.
Ko te hoe na wai? Ko te hoe na Te Kahununui; Ko te hoe na wai? Te hoe na Te Kahuroroa. Ko te hoe na wai? Ko te hoe nō Rangi-nui-e-tu-nui. Tena te waka, Ka tau ki Tipua-o-te-Rangi, Ki Tawhito-o-te-Rangi, Nga turanga whetu o Rehua. Hapai ake au I te kakau o taku hoe, I Te Roku-o-whiti. Whiti pātatō,3 Rere pātatō, Māmā pātatō. Te riakanga, te hapainga, Te komotanga, te kumenga, Te riponga, te awenga A te puehutanga O te wai o taku hoe nei. Kei te rangi, hikitia! Kei te rangi, hapainga, Kei te aweawe nui nō Tū! Tena te ara ka totohe nui, Ko te ara o tenei ariki, Ko te ara o tenei matua iwi, Ko te ara o Rangi-nui e tu nei,	Whose steering oar is it? It's the oar from The Great Hawk Whose steering oar is it? It's the oar from The Long-enduring Hawk Whose steering oar is it ? It's the oar of Great-sky-so-vast. Now our voyaging craft is heading towards the scariness of the unknown towards the primeval unknown. Our bearings are set on the star Antares. I raise on high The handle of my steering oar, The Log-for-turning. Rattling3 as we turn, Clattering as we flow forward, Tap-tapping lightly. The straining, the lifting up, The inserting, the pulling out, The swirling, the white plume from the spray of water of my steering oar here! Here's to the unknown. May it be lifted up! Here's to the unknown. May it be raised aloft! Here's to the great expanse belonging to Tu! This is the sea-path that was much-argued about but it's the path of this commander, it's the pathway for this crew, the path of the great unknown all about us.
Nguha te kakau o taku hoe nei, Ko Kautu-ki-te-Rangi. Ki te rangi, hikitia; Ki te rangi, hapainga; Ki te rangi tu torona atu, Ki te rangi tu torona, mai. Ki te rangi tu te ihi, Ki te rangi tu te kōkō, Tu te mana, tu te tapu, E tapu tena te ara, Ka totohe te ara O Tane-matohe-nuku, Te ara o Tane-matohe-rangi, Ko te ara o Te Kahu-nunui,4 Ko te ara o te Kahu-roroa, Ko te ara o tenei ariki, Ko te ara o tenei tauira, Tawhi kia Rehua, Ki uta mai, te ao mārama! E Rongo-ma-Tane! Whakairihia!	Fighting fiercely is this handle of my steering oar named Wading-into-the-unknown. Towards the unknown, may it be lifted. Into the unknown, may it be raised. Towards the unknown that is to be reconnoitered. Into the unknown that in being explored here. Towards the unknown, so scarily exciting. Into the unknown, so windblown. So full of prestige, so set apart. It is the sacred pathway the argued-about pathway of Tane who split land and sky wide open, the pathway of Tane who split the heavens, the pathway of the Great Hawk,4 the pathway of the Long-distance Hawk, the pathway of this chief, the pathway of this navigator. The star Antares guides us to the shores of the world of light! O Rongo and Tane! We raise our offerings!

 

1. Or this could be Toitū te hoe! = The oar is undisturbed!  2. Hapakapa is not in any dictionary. However, among several other meanings, toi = move quickly, hapa = crooked, and kapa = a line. A steering oar moves back and forth, leaving a crooked line in the water so the boat goes in a straight path. Tautahi's version uses kakakapa = flutter. 3. Patatō is not in Te Aka online dictionary, but Tregear, Williams and the Polynesian Lexicon variously give its meaning in Samoan, Tongan, Futunan, Hawaiian and NZ Maori as a repeated dripping, tapping, chopping, knocking, rattling noise. 4. I think Kahu-nunui, Kahu-roroa and Ranginui-etunui are descriptive  names for the the Aotea.

Ko Aotea Waka

"In Taranaki I have watched and listened to poi acts of a quality differing greatly from the action-songs of other tribes. When I stayed at Parihaka one night, the venerable Te Whiti invited me to accompany him to his meeting-hall and see his poi parties rehearse their songs and dances for the coming March assemblage of the faithful. The women and girls, numbering about thirty, wore a profusion of white feathers - the raukura, Te Whiti's badge - in their dark glossy hair. "They gave one poi after another, and the earnestness and fire with which they chanted their songs made it seem more like a sacred religious ceremony than anything else. And that indeed was what it was; the poi chants were legendary, historical, and ritualistic; they recited the coming of the Taranaki people's ancestors from Hawaiki in the traditional canoes, they described the grievances of the Maori under pakeha rule, the tragedy of the war, the confiscation of the land, and they embodied some of the figurative utterances and cryptic “sayings” in which Te Whiti delighted ... "This is one of the legend-poems chanted by the Taranaki poi women; it is a paddling song traditionally handed down for six centuries, the chant of the chief of Aotea canoe to his crew on the voyage from Ra'iatea Island  to New Zealand:—
Ko Aotea te waka, Ko Turi tangata ki runga, Ko Te Rōku-o-whiti te hoe. Piri papa te hoe! Awhi papa te hoe! Toi tu te hoe! Toi rere te hoe! Toi mahuta te hoe! Toi hapakapa te hoe! Kai runga te rangi. Ko te hoe na wai? Ko te hoe na Te Kahununui; Ko te hoe na wai? Te hoe na Te Kahuroroa. Ko te hoe na wai? Ko te hoe nō Rangi-nui-e-tu-nui. Tena te waka, Ka tau ki Tipua-o-te-Rangi, Ki Tawhito-o-te-Rangi, Nga turanga whetu o Rehua. Hapai ake au I te kakau o taku hoe, I Te Roku-o-whiti. Whiti patatō, Rere patatō, Māmā patatō. Te riakanga, te hapainga, Te komotanga, te kumenga, Te riponga, te awenga A te puehutanga O te wai o taku hoe nei. Kei te rangi, hikitia! Kei te rangi, hapainga, Kei te aweawe nui nō Tū! Tena te ara         ka totohe nui, Ko te ara o tenei ariki, Ko te ara o tenei matua iwi, Ko te ara o Rangi-nui-e-tu-nei,	Aotea is the Canoe, And Turi is the Chief. The Roku-o-whiti is the Paddle. Behold my paddle! It is laid by the canoe-side, Held close to the canoe-side. Now 'tis raised on high—the paddle! Poised for the plunge—the paddle! We spring forward! Now, it leaps and flashes—the paddle It quivers like a bird's wing This paddle of mine! This paddle—whence came it? It came from the Kahu-nunui, From the Kahu-roroa, It came from the Great-Sky-above-us. Now the course of the canoe rests On the Sacred Place of Heaven, The dwelling of the Ancient Ones Beneath the star-god Rehua's eye. See! I raise on high The handle of my paddle, Te Roku-o-whiti. I raise it —how it flies and flashes! Ha! the outward lift and the dashing, The quick thrust in and the backward sweep The swishing, the swirling eddies, The boiling white wake And the spray that flies from my paddle! Lift up The paddle to the sky above, To the great expanse of Tu, There before us lies our ocean-path      of strife and tumult, The pathway of this chief, The danger-roadway of this crew; 'Tis the road of the Great-Sky-above-us,
Nguha te kakau o taku hoe nei, Ko Kautu-ki-te-Rangi. Ki te rangi, hikitia; Ki te rangi, hapainga; Ki te rangi tu torona atu, Ki te rangi tu torona, mai. Ki te rangi tu te ihi, Ki te rangi tu te kōkō, Tu te mana, tu te tapu, E tapu tena te ara, Ka totohe te ara O Tane-matohe-nuku, Te ara o Tane-matohe-rangi, Ko te ara o Te Kahu-nunui, Ko te ara o te Kahu-roroa, Ko te ara o tenei ariki, Ko te ara o tenei tauira, Tawhi kia Rehua, Ki uta mai, te ao mārama! E Rongo-ma-Tane! Whakairihia!	Here is my paddle, Kautu-ki-te-rangi; To the heavens raise it; To the heavens lift it; To the sky far drawn out, To the horizon that lies before us, To the heavens, sacred and mighty. Before us lies our ocean-way, The path of the sacred canoe, the child Of Tane, who severed Earth from Sky. The path of the Kahu-nunui,                  the Kahu-roroa, The pathway of this chief,                        this priest. In Rehua is our trust, Through him we'll reach the Land of Light. O Rongo and Tane! We raise our offerings!

Also read this other voyaging moteatea Tua Tua Koi Ranginui

Maori songs - Kiwi songs - Home

  Placed on NZFS website May 2021