A few years back (sometime in 2009) my friend Tevita Kunato decided to make a traditional style outrigger canoe; Tevita was born and raised in Papua New Guinea and though he left in his late teens or early 20’s he has a great respect for the traditions of his youth, incorporating designs from throughout the Pacific into his art. Living in the town of Hilo on Hawaii Island (we met while I lived there 2005-2010), he basically just walked into a friends backyard, cut down a tree, and went to work – several weeks later he had a canoe! Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of him carving the canoe but you can check out his various canoe projects here.

Tevita paddling around Reeds Bay in Hilo:Tevitas Kanu 012

The reason I’m writing about Tevita’s kanu – besides the good memories – is that his work has inspired my pursuit of canoe building. We’re going at it in different ways: he’s an artist/woodcarver fusing together designs from throughout Oceania to create one-of-a-kind functional works of art… I hope to create a canoe design that will honor the traditions of Hawaii, a simple, durable and inexpensive canoe – one that can be built in a minimum amount of time. I want to see many wa’a on the water throughout the Hawaiian islands with people fishing, surfing and just having fun…