THE “VAKA”

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These VAKAs were high performance boats… They were really the first ocean-going boats…”

… And the first challenge of this project will be to rebuild them, regaining this performance, in a spirit of sustainable development.

Marc VAN PETEGHEM, associate architect

VPLP Design

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Large Hawaiian double-hulled voyaging canoe, 8th century (painting by Herb Kauai Nui Kane)

4000 years ago, large “prehistoric” catamarans allowed Man to explore and then inhabit the Pacific.

Results of a unique technological leap in the world in those ancestral times, they testified, by their performance and elegance, to a fierce desire for progress among the Oceanians and Polynesians.

Capable of sailing over tens of thousands of miles, they spread throughout the Great Ocean the good practices of sustainable management of coastal and maritime areas.

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A Kalia from Tonga islands: a graceful Vaka from the ancient Pacific, which will be reborn thanks to MOANA NUI.

The exploration, then colonisation of the Pacific by Homo Sapiens, the architectural evolution of these VAKA and the development of the ecological knowledges of the Oceanians and Polynesians make up one of the most fascinating of Human Adventures.

It is this adventure that inspired the MOANA NUI project.

DISCOVER IT HERE :

MOANA NUI's Vaka : from prehistory to oceans conservation

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With MOANA NUI, and thanks to our partnership with the prestigious naval architecture firm VPLP design, we will bring back to life the “VAKA”, these large ancestral catamarans, ambassadors and actors of the protection of the oceans.

Their rebirth will be an architectural, ecological and cultural challenge, described by Marc Van Peteghem (architect) and Christophe Mercier (founder of MOANA NUI) in this Video presentation of MOANA NUI’s VAKA fleet below: