The Waka Ama Sprint Nationals held every year on Lake Karāpiro is the biggest event of its kind in the world.
Raipoia Brightwell. Photo: Waka Ama NZ.
Raipoia Brightwell says it is hard to sum up the feeling at Lake Karāpiro during the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals in Cambridge.
She says the competition is more than a sport – it is an opportunity for paddlers and their whānau for manaakitanga (hospitality) and whanaungatanga (building relationships).
Brightwell would know.
She is one of a select few who have been to every Waka Ama Sprint Nationals since it began 35 years ago – they include Corrina Gage, Hoturoa Kerr, Louise Henderson, Raipoia and her husband Matahi Brightwell.
Waka Ama spectators watch as competitors paddle past. Photo: Jeremy Smith
Raipoia is a stalwart of Mareikura Waka Ama Club in Gisborne – the first club to restart the sport in Aotearoa in 1985. She says connecting through waka ama is “essential to our life”.
“This sport goes far beyond competing with each other, it’s linked to our mental health and who we are,” says the Tahitian, who is a Waka Ama Hall of Fame inductee.
It runs in the family as Matahi was instrumental in helping bring the sport back to Aotearoa from Tahiti in the 1980s.
In 2025, paddlers and their whānau from all over Aotearoa will celebrate 35 years of waka ama, the Māori form of outrigger canoeing.
Brightwell is looking forward to the milestone and to continue her legacy at the event.
She has played a leading role in inspiring members of her club and padders from Tairāwhiti to take up the sport.
The 67-year-old has no plans to hang up her paddle just yet.
WakaAma Sprint Nationals 2024. Photo: Garrick Cameron.
“There’s no age in waka ama,” she says. “I’m currently competing in the open division. It’s for life, you just need to have the skill and fitness, and you can keep going.
“I just love being out on the water.”
The Waka Ama Sprint Nationals is an annual week-long event held in January at Lake Karāpiro, Cambridge. It has come a long way since the humble beginnings of the first meeting in 1990.
Around 380 races are held over the seven days, making the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals the biggest event of its kind in the world.
“Waka ama as an event is truly unique,” Waka Ama New Zealand Chief Executive Lara Collins says.
“Multiple generations of one whānau can compete at the same event, from tamariki through to kaumātua. That’s what makes waka ama mā te katoa, mō āke tonu (for all, for life).
Gisborne’s Horouta Waka Hoe won the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals Club Points trophy. Photo: Supplied
Over 70 of the 90 Waka Ama NZ-affiliated clubs will attend the event, as well as more than 3,200 competitors and over 8,000 spectators and whānau from around the motu.
This includes adaptive paddlers competing in specific adaptive (Para va’a) races, more wāhine than tāne taking part, and all ethnicities and cultures competing.
Over the years, waka ama events have been predominantly made up by 70 percent Māori and Pacific peoples.
Andy Milne, ACC’s deputy chief executive of strategy, engagement and prevention, says they are proud to support the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals.
“We’re committed to supporting kaupapa like waka ama that promotes the health and wellbeing of whānau of all ages,” says Milne.
ACC will host a Whānau Zone for supporters, paddlers and wider whānau to relax and watch the racing, as well try rongoā (traditional Māori healing). The crown entity will also have a stall talking about their Kaupapa Māori services – Hāpai and Te Ara Tuhono, culturally grounded care developed to improve outcomes for whānau after injury.
“Community events like Waka Ama help us to raise awareness and build understanding around ACC services that improve access and health outcomes for Māori.”
Rongoā practitioner, Teena Te Maro from Manaaki Tangata Consultants, works on competitors during the Waka Ama champs. Te Maro lives in Hamilton and is originally from Gisborne.
