Te Toki Waka Hourua is committed to ensuring that the traditional knowledge and practices of ocean navigation remains alive.

About Te Toki Waka Hourua Voyaging Trust:

"Our Pacific ancestors are the greatest ocean voyagers and navigators, exploring the furthest corners of the vast Pacific Ocean, and beyond."

This knowledge and skill had been passed down through generations for thousands of years, surviving and protected within indigenous knowledge systems.

By the mid 20th Century, this knowledge had been lost from many families and cultures, and by the 1970's the knowledge only remained alive within a handful of navigators in Micronesia.
Following the transfer of knowledge from Papa Mau Piailug to a select few navigators from around the Pacific, the practices of traditional Pacific ocean navigation are actively being revitalised and preserved.

Te Toki Waka Hourua is committed to ensuring that the traditional knowledge and practices of ocean navigation remains alive.

They are doing this by sharing and celebrating these skills with the community, maintaining and sailing a fleet of training and voyaging waka, and training the next generation of navigators and crew who will continue to keep these practices alive. 

The Stardome (pop-up planetarium) is a programme that provides an insight into traditional voyaging, waka hourua, and traditional knowledge pertaining to the stars (our first ‘map’), and how our tūpuna utilised this knowledge to circumnavigate the Pacific Ocean!

The Programme: 

The Te Toki crew will run two stations simultaneously. Two groups at a time will rotate between the two engagements in each session. One station will contain activities pertaining to the star compass (a compass that is used in celestial navigation), the other station will be a journey of the stars within the Stardome.

 Each session will be 25 minutes each, (includes 5 minutes in between to organise students and run a safety briefings). There will be one day after the school programs where the Stardome will be open to the community.

Young children may be brought into the Stardome, but should be in the company of an adult. For the school programs, a teacher company is required per group of students. A suggested layout timetable for Te Pā O Rākaihautū might look like the template following.