The waka taua Te Hono ki Aotearoa/ The Link to New Zealand joined 999 other vessels to sail down the River Thames for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in June. And it was not the first time Māori represented New Zealand at a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

One hundred and fifteen years ago on 22 July 1897 a Māori contingent proved very popular with the estimated crowd of four million, when they took part in a Jubilee Day Military Procession through London streets for Queen Victoria; great, great grandmother to Queen Elizabeth II.

Then, the 18-man Māori contingent was part of 54 New Zealand Mounted Rifles who sailed from Lyttleton on 30 April; arriving in London 42 days later.

Following in her ancestors’ footsteps, Queen Elizabeth II is only the second British Royal to have reigned for 60 years. Her Diamond Jubilee celebrations included a raft of events in England and around the Commonwealth, building up to the central weekend in early June.

New Zealand’s crew of 14 kaihoe was selected to row the ceremonial waka taua in the River Pageant during the central weekend. Organised by Toi Māori Aotearoa, they began their training at the end of March which included three wānanga in Hamilton on the mighty Waikato River with a waka taua named Whakāngi, carved from the same 800 year old tree that Te Hono ki Aotearoa was crafted from.

Reflecting on the mammoth event, Garry Nicholas Chief Executive Toi Māori Aotearoa said: “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to have the waka as the official representative of Aotearoa. It may never happen again in our life time but it will certainly be woven into the fabric of history”.