Te Hono ki Aotearoa

When the waka goes away, it is alive. You treat it as somebody. You treat it with respect. It has a total dependency on people to keep it alive.

– Tepene Mamaku

There’s a lot of ground to cover in this film. Resourc­ing the shoot with sev­eral cam­eras, tak­ing care in the edit­ing process to keep things mov­ing while allow­ing room for the spirit of the project to shine through and stitch­ing it all together with a beau­ti­ful, evoca­tive sound­track have all con­tributed to the superb result – a spe­cial film about a very spe­cial project.

– Helen Martin, Onfilm review, 30 March 2012

As far as I’m concerned, the waka is number one of our culture.

– Hekenukumai 'Hector' Busby, master waka builder