Te Mana o Te Moana draws near
‘There’s nowhere like Aitutaki’
Textile art on show
Vaka TV free tunes 700 sets
Cleaner aircon service
Precious tivaivai for show in Spain
CI village busy at Pasifika
From stage to Te Papa
Passionate jazz and blues at Little Poly
Sunny Stroll among Pasifika
Sea Eagles stop the Sharks
Local remembers Hawaiian pioneer

Crew members – both new and returning – after a first aid course they attended yesterday. The crew is preparing to sail at the end of the month to Tahiti and ultimately to Hawai’i and down the coast of the US – a voyage that will not end until the middle of next year. 11031132

Harry Goodwin (left), Angelie Robinson (centre) and Jamaal Pakitoa (right) have been designated ‘watch captains’ for the upcoming voyage. All have extensive at-sea experience and nautical knowledge – each will be responsible for a particular group when it’s on watch. At all times, watch captains must be aware of how many people are on deck and below deck and what the members of their group are doing. They act as intermediaries between captain and navigator and the rest of the crew. 11031134

In recent weeks, Marumaru Atua captain Peia Patai has been stepping up the crew’s training regimen. Crew have been doing swim tests and regular jogs through town, first aid courses, day sails and overnight trips.

Those who didn’t already have a boat master’s qualification finished a two-week course with Steve Simpson, the Ministry of Marine Resource’s maritime training centre tutor manager, earlier this month.

Patai says crew – new and old, younger and more mature – have been on the water three days a week on average in preparation for the big voyage, which leaves at the end of this month for Tahiti, and will then travel to Hawai’i and beyond. The vaka is not expected to return to the Cook Islands until mid-2012.

Last weekend, some crew members did an ‘overnighter’ – which Patai said was for some a markedly different experience than a day sail. During that trip, crew did tacking and jybing drills, practiced raising and pulling down the sails and generally started to get a feel for being on the open ocean.

“At the moment I feel very confident with the crew turning up,” Patai said. “It feels good to see the crew ‘getting it’.”

The crew leave for Auckland on Monday night to complete their applications for US visas.

- Rachel Reeves

Voyage ‘Te Mana o Te Moana’ will drag Marumaru Atua captain Peia Patai away from his home and his wife Tapita for 18 months.

It will be Patai’s first time skippering Marumaru Atua on a long-haul voyage, though he has extensive experience skippering other vessels. He says he has the utmost confidence in his crew – both new and returning.

On whether he’s nervous, he said: “It’s good to be nervous! But together with that confidence I’m anxious to leave – to go and do it.” Patai says his wife has been ‘very supportive’ of his decision to do the year-and-a-half voyage and for that he expresses his thanks. - RR

The Cook Islands’ own traditional navigator Tua Pittman will be coordinating and briefing navigators from all seven vaka during upcoming voyage Te Mana o Te Moana.

Such a high-pressure responsibility will keep him awake at nights and during most days – he was only half-joking when he said he will be awake for “most of the trip”.

When the navigators of Marumaru Atua, Te Matau a Maui, Uto Ni Yalo, Faafaite, Gaualofa, Hine Moana and Vaatele meet ashore, Pittman will review course lines with them and ensure that ‘everybody has the same understanding’ of the voyage’s direction.

Traditional navigators plot a course using the stars – even on a cloudy night, some stars are likely to be visible – and the swells.

Pittman has been studying the art of celestial navigation for decades – he studied with some of the region’s most prominent navigators and sailed with Hokule’a on her Voyage of Rediscovery in the mid-1980s.

Well-respected in Pacific voyaging circles, he has said that when it comes to traditional navigation, a student is forever learning.

Pittman will sail with Marumaru Atua to Hawai’i, at which point he will fly back to Rarotonga to honour work commitments. He then plans to sail with the voyage on its final leg through the Pacific next year.

During the voyage he will also be training Tahitian navigators and some of the more experienced crew aboard Marumaru Atua.

• Rachel ReevesRachel Reeves

Pacific Resort Aitutaki’s outgoing general manager, Michael Shah. 09060901

Award-winning resort manager Michael Shah prepares to leave

Though he is reluctant to say goodbye, Pacific Resort Aitutaki general manager Michael Shah is leaving on a high note.

Last year he won the South Pacific General Manager of the Year award – which he called the highlight of his experience managing Pacific Resort Aitutaki – and he was in charge when the resort won Best Overall Accommodation and again clinched the Best Boutique Island Resort award.

Shah officially concludes a two-year stint at Pacific Resort Aitutaki on March 22 – he and his wife Jenni will be moving, their sons Bailey (8) and Jamieson (6) and daughter Sienna (5) in tow, to north Queensland shortly thereafter.

He will take over the position of manager at a luxury boutique resort, part of which was devastated by Cyclone Yasi and is being rebuilt.

Shah started at Pacific Resort Aitutaki in January 2009. The day he arrived was his first time setting foot on the island – though he and his wife had fallen in love with Rarotonga on previous holidays, they had never visited Aitutaki.

Before moving to the Cook Islands, Shah lived for 12 years just north of Auckland. Originally from Australia, he is a professional hotel manager. He has managed properties in four countries and has worked in hospitality all of his working life.

But while he has worked large events like the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, APEC and the Olympic Games, he said that what he loves most about working in the hotel industry is interacting with guests.

“As I have got older I have realised that what I enjoy most is the daily interaction with guests, which you don’t get in big hotels,” he said. “I like it that when I talk to guests, if something is wrong I can fix it immediately. What I do has an immediate and direct impact on the enjoyment of a guest’s experience.”

He said his managing style – he described it as relaxed and approachable – has proved amenable to the work ethic of his staff.

“What departing guests tell me 99 times out of 100 is how delightful, helpful and genuinely charming the staff at PRA are. I have a relaxed and approachable style, which I think is very much the Cook Island way,” he said. “So it has been easy for me to encourage staff to just be themselves, which is being friendly and always wanting to please the guests.”

While he has faced new challenges managing a resort on Aitutaki – among them, a lack of consistent product supply and resources, the high cost of airfreight and external communication – he says there is ‘no place like Aitutaki’.

“Once you settle into Aitutaki you find there is a real easy going attitude. There are not many rules, no traffic lights, no crime to speak of, the people are generous, welcoming and funny,” he said.

“Having a drink down the Fishing Club is like going to a party at a friend’s house. You know everyone – or if not, they know who you are.”

In Aitutaki Shah and his wife also fell in love with oe vaka. Fortunately for them, the beachside community to which they are relocating has an outrigger club.

“It wasn’t until the Aitutaki Happy Feet Golden Oldies rugby Team needed an extra paddler for their cross training that I got in a vaka - I had never paddled until I arrived here and it was a revelation,” Shah said.

“All of a sudden I was out of my office, getting wet, getting fit, making new friends and feeling connected to the lagoon. With oe vaka I became involved with the senior masters, the juniors and tamarikiriki – groups that otherwise I really wouldn’t have met. “Saturday morning paddles from Ootu out to Motu Rapota - stop for break, one of the boys cracks a nu, standing on white sand staring across the most beautiful lagoon in the world, has been a truly spiritual experience....and then for Jenni and I to compete together at Vaka Eiva has been a highlight.”

But even though he looks forward to being back in Australia, starting a new job and joining a new outrigger club, Shah pledges to return to Aitutaki at some point.

“It will be good to be back in Australia but we know, no matter how friendly the locals are, there’s nowhere like Aitutaki,” he said.

• Rachel ReevesRachel Reeves

Mangaian leader Tangitoru (far left) wears the cloak now on display at Te Papa. Museum collections manager Grace Hutton does not know ‘who’s who’, but the rest of the Mangaians he is with are Wiremu, Takiora, Te Kaa, Mata, Ruarakau and Okaoka. Photo Grace Hutton. 11031104

Wellington’s Te Papa Tongarewa Museum is planning a June celebration of Maori and Pacific textiles – loom weavings, bark cloth pieces, examples of plaiting and knotting – and now accepting submissions.

The inaugural Maori and Pacific Textile Symposium, which enjoys support from the Costume and Textile Association of New Zealand, will on June 10 and 11 explore through textile art the genealogical and material connections among Pacific peoples.

This year’s theme is ‘Whatu Raranga a Kiwa’ or ‘Understanding and Uniting Maori and Pacific Textiles’ and focuses on the integral role textile art plays in all Pacific cultures.

“The beating of aute, or tapa, is a heartbeat that resounds across the ocean of Kiwa. The harakeke of Aotearoa, symbolising family, acknowledges the relationship of the Pacific people as one, through weaving,” reads the Te Papa website. The symposium will suggest that tapa beating and weaving interlink Pacific peoples.

Textile artists are welcome to submit pieces accompanied by 300-word abstracts before March 31. Te Papa encourages entrants to visit the museum beforehand for a guided tour of its collections.

Collection manager and Cook Islander Grace Hutton will present Te Papa’s Pacific textiles collection on Thursday, June 9, in anticipation of the symposium that weekend.

She says new submissions will complement the Cook Islands textile collection Te Papa currently has on display, which includes some prominent and historical pieces.

In a large purpose-built case with push-button lighting is a cloak Te Aia presented to New Zealand government officials as a token of his gratitude for their kindness. Then-Native Minister Donald McLean presented the same cloak to the Colonial Museum in 1873.

Te Papa also has two tivaivai – one sewn by Mere Tapaeru Tereora and the other by Bateseba Daniels. Side by side, the tivaevae occupy a high wall.

The museum also has a tiputa (poncho) and a pair of tamaka that Cook Islanders presented to the Christchurch Exhibition in 1906.

Hutton reports that the tiputa apparently belonged to Mangaian leader Tangitoru, as photographs show him wearing it. She says that Te Papa has several other Cook Islands textiles acquired in 1906.

• Rachel ReevesRachel Reeves

Vaka Television chief executive Dave Reuther (right) and maintenance manager Tali Ofa use the company’s mobile tuning equipment to get reception of the new free-to-air station at a Tupapa residence. 11030450

Vaka Television chief executive Dave Reuther says he has tuned between 600 and 700 television sets into the company’s new free-to-air station since it started to be broadcast in Rarotonga late last year.

Reuther has turned his work truck into a mobile tuning device, and is fielding requests from television owners throughout villages in Rarotonga for the free service.

“I try to allocate at least one day each week to tuning television sets to Vaka Television.”

Despite being in direct competition with Cook Islands Television, Reuther also tunes televisions into the rival station.

“We want people to have choice.”

Reuther and general manager Greg Parker established Vaka Television last year and are in the final phase of fine-tuning transmitters in order for the station to be received in each village on Rarotonga.

At present they estimate between half and two thirds of the island can receive Vaka Television, although some people may need external antenna on their homes to do so.

Two of the company’s seven transmitter poles located around the island require filters in order for signals to work properly, although the rest are operational.

The poles at Avana Harbour near Muri and in Arorangi need band pass filters, which will enable the amplifiers to be used at full capacity – in turn generating full coverage across the island and clearer reception.

“Our amplifiers are running at about one third of their capacity now.”

Reuther is travelling to New Zealand this week to collect a four-metre fibreglass satellite dish, which will be installed at the station base in Tupapa.

“That will enable us to get TVNZ content really well. We need to confirm whether we can get TV3.”

At present Vaka Television broadcasts CNN news each morning, cartoons in the afternoon, and its own mix of programming with local advertising in the evening.

It is able to source BBC news and Australia Network, although the latter will hardly be used as it forms the bulk of programming on Cook Islands Television.

“Everything’s in place – we are running 24/7 and we just need to tweak the technical side of things. I think it took Cook Islands Television two years to get around the island and I’m hoping to have our station done sooner than that – we are only about nine months old so we’re doing alright – Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Reuther says public response to Vaka Television has been overwhelmingly positive.

“A lot of people have walked up to me and said how much they love the programming and they’re really enjoying a second choice. It’s exactly what we want it to be – family television – and we know people are watching it because if there’s ever a glitch in our programming people call us.

“The advertisers are starting to come in now and that’s a big help. We just want to make sure that everyone enjoys Vaka Television and thank everyone who has given us their support – we really appreciate it.”

• Rosie Manins

A new addition to the fleet of machines at Eric Short Automotive – an air conditioning servicing machine – makes the Avarua shop the only place on Rarotonga that can service vehicle aircon systems and properly dispose of the gases they emit.

Air conditioning gas – or R-134a (1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane) – is an inert gas used as a refrigerant for automobile air conditioners. It is more environmentally friendly than its predecessors (like R-12, on which aircon systems once operated), but still its release into the atmosphere has a devastating impact on the ozone layer.

“In New Zealand it’s against the law to release air conditioning gas into the atmosphere because it harms the ozone (layer). In New Zealand if we’re caught releasing it, we’re prosecuted,” Short said. Such regulations are not enforced on Rarotonga.

But Short, who advocates environmental consciousness, chose to purchase and import the AECS Ltd machine so he can properly deal with R-134a.

The machine flushes the automobile’s air conditioning system and extracts the R-134a gas, which Short bottles and sends via boat to a gas company in New Zealand.

“We are the only place now that can safely extract gas, put it in a bottle and send it to New Zealand,” he said.

Short says air conditioning systems should be checked for leaks and functionality every 12 months.

“Customers bring in their cars to get serviced but never think about the air conditioning – but those need to be serviced, too,” he said.

Failure to check the air conditioning system can result in damages which require expensive repair.

Eric Short Automotive also has the only automatic transmission servicing and cooling system servicing machines on Rarotonga.

• Rachel ReevesRachel Reeves

Atiuan chief Ada Rongomatane Ariki lent Eimke this family heirloom tivaivai taorei (mosaic piecework) to be displayed in the International Patchwork Festival. Photo Andrea Eimke. 11031106

Atiuan Fibre Arts Studio owner Andrea Eimke tonight boards a plane for Spain with several travel companions – Atiuan and Rarotongan tivaivai that have never before seen Europe.

From March 17 to 20, Eimke will display her collection of tivaivai at the International Patchwork Festival in Sitges, Spain. She has also agreed to teach four tivaivai workshops.

Eimke was invited to participate in the fair by the president of the Spanish Patchwork Association, Rosario Casanovas. She will spend the next week in Sitges, a romantic Catalonian town on the Spanish coast that for the past eight years has hosted the International Patchwork Festival.

Her trip was born of a 2002 encounter – nine years ago, Eimke and Sonya Kamana went to the Patchwork and Quilt Expo VIII in Barcelona to represent the Cook Islands Tivaivai Association. Widespread interest in their collection earned them an invitation to a similar exhibition in France in 2005.

After the Barcelona expo, Eimke, a fluent Spanish speaker, was also invited to teach tivaivai sewing to the Spanish Patchwork Association. Later that year, the association’s then-president, Mara Jos Conde, and a group of quilter friends travelled to New Zealand to visit a Tauranga tivaivai exhibition, and en route stopped over in Rarotonga and Atiu.

Thus a relationship was born, and the association has again invited Eimke to represent the Cook Islands at this year’s international festival.

The majority of the tivaivai Eimke is taking with her are from Atiu. Prominent Atiuan chief Ada Rongomatane Ariki lent Eimke her family heirloom tivaivai taorei (mosaic piecework), made in the 1920s by her grandmother and passed on to her father and later to her as wedding present.

Eimke’s collection will also contain two tivaivai tataura (embroidered appliqu) on loan from Cook Islands National Council of Women president Vaine Wichman. Though some of the works have been exhibited abroad, none has yet been displayed in Europe.

The Europe office of Tourism Cook Islands intends to send promotional material to Sitges, as the exhibition will represent an opportunity to advertise the Cook Islands as a holiday destination to the international audience who will visit the fair.

Eimke is grateful to Air Rarotonga and Air New Zealand, which sponsored the transport of the tivaivai, for their help and continuing support of Cook Islands traditional textile art. She’s also thankful to those who lent her their tivaivai.

“In these fast times, tivaivai making has become rare. Many tivaivai have left the country with migrating family members. Others have been buried with loved ones. They are irreplaceable works of an art form that is threatened to disappear. Some owners/collectors preferred not to lend their heirloom pieces for fear of loss or damage.

“Even though the exhibits will be fully insured from the day they leave the country to the day they return, money will not suffice to replace a treasured work of art that has been passed on in the family for generations.”

As such, Eimke wants to thank the Atiu and Rarotonga mamas for trusting her with their ‘precious textile treasures’.

• Rachel ReevesRachel Reeves

Cook Islanders selling local products at the 19th annual Pasifika Festival in Auckland are celebrating a successful day.

Of the 40-odd stalls within the festival’s Cook Islands village, 11 boasted traditional and contemporary merchandise made within the Cook Islands.

As well as the 11 stall vendors, Business Trade and Investment Board (BTIB) trade and marketing manager Danny Williams travelled to New Zealand from Rarotonga for the event.

Speaking from the action at Western Springs yesterday, Williams said it could not have been a better day.

“The weather couldn’t be more perfect – it’s absolutely stunning – and there are crowds of people everywhere. My guess is well over 200,000 people are here, every village is packed with people buying from stalls, eating food, watching performances, and getting involved in activities.

“The Cook Islands village has been busy all day. People have been buying products nonstop from 9am, and about midday it was difficult to walk through – it’s been that way ever since,” Williams said. He says black pearls from Manihiki and traditional pareu are among the best-sellers from Cook Islands stalls.

“Most of the stalls have done very well in terms of income and I think everyone will go home happy. The Cook Islands village is better than most in terms of the range of products available – we’ve got a good blend.

“It’s definitely a success,” Williams said.

The week-long New Zealand festival comprises live performances, food, cultural workshops and debates, art exhibitions, and markets of retail products from nations throughout the Pacific region.

This year it officially began on Sunday March 6 (NZT), with live performances and traditional blessings at Aotea Square in central Auckland. It ends today, following yesterday’s main event at Western Springs.

Organised by the Auckland Council, Pasifika is regarded as the largest and most significant cultural festival in the south Pacific, and the largest Pacific festival of its kind in the world.

Yesterday’s action included cultural and contemporary entertainment on 12 stages, food, traditional and contemporary wares, cultural workshops, and demonstrations.

Also representing the Cook Islands at this year’s event was Brisbane-based performing arts troupe Te Atamira.

• Rosie Manins

Cook Islander Tai Paitai joins Te Papa Museum as events coordinator. 11031125

Cook Islander choreographer and dancer Teokotai Paitai has swapped a long stage career for a job at Te Papa Museum, Wellington.

Paitai joined Te Papa’s events team of six staff earlier this year as events producer. The team organise all events for Te Papa from exhibitions to special commemorative celebrations, aligning with major events like the Rugby World Cup and support collections held in the national museum.

“Some of the events may be spontaneous, someone or a group may turn up and say they’ll perform for free and we may have space available in our events schedule,” says Paitai.

“Our brief is closely aligned to Te Papa’s commitment to fostering cultural, conceptual, spiritual links between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti.”

He says Te Papa’s strong ties with Pacific communities acknowledges New Zealand’s place in the Pacific. Paitai says Te Papa has a broad involvement with Pacific communities in New Zealand and overseas.

Other Cook Islanders working at Te Papa that Paitai has met are Grace Hutton, Nani Karati and Maine Karati.

• Florence Syme-Buchanan

Blues and jazz singer Diana Harris (left) with Te Tika Mataiapo Dorice Reid after her Thursday night concert at the Little Polynesian. 11031101

The Little Polynesian was packed to capacity on both Tuesday and Thursday with diners who booked to hear sultry California blues and jazz singer Diana Harris, who performs on Rarotonga each year.

Both nights, Harris sang to over 30 guests with such emotion and feeling that she was much more than background dinner music. Her performance oozed, for lack of a better word, passion.

She sang a Samoan number, which she picked up from the Second Samoan Church Choir in her hometown of Long Beach, California, and a number of blues and soul numbers she wrote and co-wrote. Harris, who tours New Zealand and the Pacific yearly, leaves on tonight’s LA flight but promises to be back next summer.

• Rachel ReevesRachel Reeves

Legendary Willie Crummer and musician Selina Vainerere. ALL PHOTOS ALEX SWORD. 11031315

Kimi and Geneva (aka Thunder Hips) of Pearls of Mega-Nesia. 11031312

A huge sand-pit filled with buried treasure and artificial coconut trees gave added tropical flavour to Auckland City’s 19th Pasifika Festival at Western Springs Lakeside Park on Saturday March 12.

While crowd numbers were down on previous years, the annual New Zealand event still proved to be a major Auckland attraction with a steady flow of people around Te Wai Orea (The Waters of the Eel) lakeside for most of the day. The air temperatures sat around 23 degrees celsius.

The Cook Islands Village again proved to be one of the main attractions with a continuous stream of performing artists taking centre stage from mid-morning through to the late afternoon.

Performers such as the legendary Willie Crummer and his daughter Annie, and the Pearls of Mega Nesia and Manaina dance troupes had the crowds packed in around the Cook Islands ‘soundstage’.

Popular emcees Bernard Tairea and Tuaratini kept audience interest high during artist change-overs with entertaining repartee.

As with the other nine Pasifika villages, there were also scores of stalls featuring mouth-watering food, eye-catching crafts, dazzling island wear and accessories. The other identities in the Octopus-themed festival were Kiribati, Aotearoa, Niue, Tonga, Tahiti, Tokelau, Fiji, Tuvalu and Samoa.

While the main reasons for the down turn in crowd numbers are yet to be determined, a number of opinions were forthcoming at the weekend from the Cook Islands participants.

These included views that the poor New Zealand economy was to blame, along with fears about tsunami warnings in the Pacific and that Saturday evening’s rugby league match between the Warriors and Paramatta Eels at Eden Park had drawn people away.

While there was some disappointment with the smaller crowds and reluctance of many people to splash out with their cash, Cook Islands clothing and fashion vendors such as Paula Maoate from Aitutaki and Mark Sherwin from Rarotonga seemed to be pleased enough that there was a steady flow of visitors through the Cook Islands stalls.

Sherwin and Maoate both said that pareu wear was popular with visitors.

A quick survey of the other Cook Islands stalls saw visitors zooming in on small crafts and fashion accessories priced at $20 and under. Cook Islands products in the $100 and more range including pearl jewellery and ukeleles appeared to sell less.

Overall, however, with the smaller crowds making public access easier around the lake paths, it appeared to be a superb sun-filled Saturday outdoors event topped up with tropical sounds, colours and yes, flavours!

• Alex Sword in Auckland

One of the Sea Eagles flying Fijians fends off a Sharks tackler. 11031347

Bears 24 vs Bulldogs 20 Sea Eagles 32 vs Sharks 20 Panthers 42 vs Warriors 10

A last minute surge by the Aitutaki Sharks wasn’t enough to contain the soaring Ngatangiia Sea Eagles on Saturday who put away the Sharks 32-20 at Nukupure Park.

The first half of the game was all Sea Eagles as veteran Thomas Toa directed the team around the park with his boots.

The Sea Eagles front row players were damaging and relentless as they stormed over the Sharks.

But just when the Sea Eagles thought they had the game in the bag – the Sharks exploded into life in the second half closing the gap on the Eagles lead.

Sharks 16-year-old winger Victor Ioane seemed to breathe new life into the team’s drive and with the help of Teu Paerau, the sprightly 16-year-old skipped through the Eagles defence for a well deserved try.

But it wasn’t enough for the Sharks as time ran out and the Sea Eagles sighed a breath of relief as the Sharks were beginning to find their form.

The Eagles flew away with the win 32-20.

Earlier on, the midweek meeting of the Bears and Bulldogs was a real thriller as the Bulldogs, buoyed by their first win against the Panthers the previous weekend, headed into the Bears den with a ‘can do’ and ‘never say die’ attitude that would have unsettled the Bears.

And despite a grand effort – the Bulldogs fell 4 points short as the Bears edged them out in the end 24-20.

At Victoria Park – it was a try bonanza for the Panthers who used the game against the Warriors to redeem themselves after last weekend’s loss against the Doggies.

The Panthers pounded the Warriors 42-10.

• Matariki Wilson

Herb Kawainui Kane. 11031505

Herb Kane’s painting of Hokule’a, which he helped to design and build. 11031507

Herb Kawainui Kane, 83, the celebrated Hawaiian artist, historian, and a founder of the Polynesia Voyaging Society (PVS) who passed away earlier this month, was a pioneer whose work paved the way for many a Cook Islands voyager.

He was instrumental in designing the Hokule’a, and passed on the anniversary of the date she set sail for Tahiti in 1976. Hawaiian friends said that it was appropriate that Kane chose this day to take his final voyage.

The Hokule’a inspired the renaissance of voyaging canoes throughout the Pacific, including the Cook Islands. Because of the Hokule’a, voyaging traditions that were lost in some places have now been revived.

In 1975, Kane’s research on Polynesian canoes and voyaging inspired him to help establish the Polynesian Voyaging Society, the non-profit organisation that provides research and education and has helped train crew members in the Cook Islands.

Herb designed Hokule’a and served as her first captain in 1975 on the first voyage to Tahiti. This became his life’s work.

The Hokule’a seafarers wanted to answer some key questions: how did the Polynesians settle the far- flung islands of the Pacific, by accident or by design? Did their canoes and navigation skills enable them to sail purposefully over the vast sea distances between the Pacific Islands? Hokule’a was built to explore the seafaring heritage and voyaging routes of our Polynesian ancestors. She has navigated more than 110,000 miles without instruments including, several Hawaii-Tahiti voyages, and voyages to New Zealand, Easter Island, Tonga, the Marquesas Islands, the Cook Islands, Micronesia and Japan.

I remember first meeting Herb 35 years ago at his home on the beach on Maunalua Bay in Honolulu. He was a visionary, and his keen interest in the Cook Islands continued throughout his life. He was a good friend and colleague of our own Papa Tom Davis who revived canoe voyaging in the Cook Islands by designing and building the first Cook Islands vaka “Takitumu” in 1991.

Papa Tom and his son, Teremoana, built Takitumu, which he sailed to Tahiti, in front of his house in Muri, and helped establish the Cook Islands Voyaging Society. He then designed and built vaka “Te-Au-O-Tonga”, which he sailed to Tahiti and Hawaii in 1994.

Hokule’a and art are Herb’s legacy. His art combined Hawaiian story telling with magic, spirituality and technical genius.

In paying tribute to Kane, Hawaii’s Senator Daniel Akaka said: “Herb Kane helped the world recognise the history and culture of the Native Hawaiian people through his art. He showed ancient Hawaiians as they were, explorers, seafarers, trailblazers in land and resource management.”

Herb’s beautiful portraits displayed on stamps, in National Parks, and in museums continue to inspire people around the world.

His paintings have appeared on seven postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, as well as stamps for the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and French Polynesia. Kane’s Hawaii commemorative stamp for the U.S. Postal Service, celebrating 50 years of statehood, was released in August 2009. Kane’s painting on the stamp is of surfers and outrigger canoe paddlers riding a wave.

Kane also authored and illustrated the book “Pele, Goddess of Hawaii’s Volcanoes” in 1987, and “Voyagers” in 1991. Another illustrated book, “Ancient Hawaii” published in 1998, describes the arts, skills, society and world-view of the Polynesians. Herb was selected as a Living Treasure of Hawaii in 1984.

• Takiora Ingram