The country's most famous waka is celebrating a big birthday today, the 80th anniversary of Ngātokimatawhaorua's launch.
Generations of Māori men and boys have paddled on Northland's Ngātokimatawhaorua, now its captain is trying to find a place for wāhine.
"It's a spiritual thing to stand, it's a spiritual thing to look back at a hundred young men putting all their effort into it," says waka Captain, Joe Conrad.
It's an almost forgotten fact of history, that women paddlers were on board and in fact made up the majority of the crew.
"When you look at the archives when Ngātoki was launched in 1940 and brought around from Kerikeri to Hobson bay, 75 percent of paddlers were women."
The last time wāhine were on board Ngātokimatawhaorua was in 1990 for the 10th anniversary of the Treaty, but today that all changed.
Elise Rakuraku was on board with Princess Diana in the 1980s, she says there has been intermittent involvement from women since but it's time for them to step up.
"I believe so yes, you will see waka out there women only, women leading the waka too. So we are just as good as men I guess, just as strong,"says Ms Rakuraku.
While some aren't opposed to increasing the number of women on board, they say it's a priviledge not a right.
"The wāhine have the option today, they have their own waka. I don't think it's just a casual thing, I think that Ngātokimatawhaorua is significant in its own right. The women that have the honour of travelling on Ngatoki, there's a purpose for them being there," says Rauaroha Heta.
Ngātokimatawhaorua's captain says he's slowly trying to change that mindset.
"Some of the elders said 'your father made that rule back in the day' I said well isn't it appropriate that his son should break his own father's rules?"
It's a new path for wāka culture in Northland, now its just a matter of time.
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