Remains of an ancient waka found by chance in 2024 on the north coast of Rekohu in Chatham Islands led Catherine Sixtus to claim an ancestral interest on the basis that it was constructed in what is now modern day Germany and brought to New Zealand by her ancestors. Ruling the waka to be Maori taonga, with ownership is to be decided under the Protected Objects Act, the Maori Appellate Court dismissed any suggestion of German historical links.
This Act gives special statutory protection to what are classified as taonga tuturu: objects more than fifty years old relating to Maori culture or history which have been manufactured in New Zealand by Maori or brought to New Zealand by Maori.
Ms Sixtus has no standing to bring any claim in respect of the waka, the Maori Appellate Court ruled. The word Maori does not include people solely of pakeha or European descent.
Ms Sixtus argued, unsuccessfully, that since the designation Maori did not exist in early European colonisation of New Zealand, later adoption of the generic word can be taken to include all who have come to settle in New Zealand, including her German forebears.
The Appellate Court said the word Maori now has a defined statutory meaning, which does not include those having only European descent.
Even if it did, Ms Sixtus faces a difficult scientific obstacle; preliminary testing of the waka identifies that it is made of New Zealand sourced wood.
Mr Sixtus’ response is that the wood may have been taken to Europe on HMS Endeavour after Captain Cook’s first visit to New Zealand in 1769, fashioned into a waka in the Hanseatic States, later coming into possession of Moriori living on Rekohu.
Protected Objects Act ownership of the waka is yet to be resolved.
Ownership lies with the Crown, unless specific Maori ownership can be proved.
Two separate Chatham Island Moriori trusts are jointly seeking to resolve questions of ownership.
Sixtus v. Hokotehi Moriori Trust – Maori Appellate Court (21.01.26)
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