Building a Tokelaun Canoe

It's not just anyone can build an outrigger canoe. Besides knowing which tree to cut down and how to turn it into a fast, flexible and invariably wet Vaka canoe, you need to be allowed to do it. The Tufuga (master carpenters) themselves need permission from the village Taupulega to cut down their family kanava trees- the only wood strong enough to make a resilient and tough Tokelau Vaka.

The work itself is as hard as the kanava wood. It doesn't work easily, but with perseverance and skill a Tufuga can build up the canoe, fitting planks together on a keel formed from the hollowed out tree trunk. Getting the shape of the canoe exactly right is vital to its performance when launched- this bit comes only with experience. After a trial fitting of the parts, the canoe is sewn together, either with sennit made from coconut twine or nylon fishing line that still allows some stretch and movement so essential to the functioning of the finished canoe. In the past, ceremonies surrounded the felling of the tree and the building of the canoe. These appear to have been lost with time and changes of lifestyle.