Meet our Team

Patron – Sir Bob Harvey

Sir Bob Harvey was a founder of one of the country's larger advertising agencies, MacHarman Ayer (formerly MacHarman Advertising). His agency won many international awards for creativity including the first Cannes television award for a New Zealand television commercial. Prior to becoming Mayor of Waitakare City in 1992, Harvey served as Deputy Chairman of the New Zealand Film Commission from 1986 to 1992. From 1988 to 1990 he was Chairman of the 1990 Commonwealth Games Arts Festival. He is currently a board member of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, a position he has held since 2006, and the Aotea Board of Governance (since 1992). Sir Bob is an incredible swimmer who also loves paddling!

Wikuki Kingi, Tohunga Toi Ake (Rangatira – traditional carving and waka construction

Wikuki Kingi is a Tohunga Toi Ake; Master Carver, and Cultural Symbologist; a culmination of 26 generations of the ancient arts and first language of Indigenous technology and communication. A Native Scientist/Technologist he has an extensive history of creating artistic and cultural treasures for local and global communities including the world’s largest Maori / Pacific totem Pou Kapua. Wikuki is a founding trustee of Pou Kapua Creations Trust and the HAKAMANA Virtual Reality Collective; convenor and founding member of Planet Maori and TE HA Global Alliance who continue to support Indigenous technological sovereignty, 21st century productions, and business development.

Wyn Osborne (Rangatira – community project governance and management)

Wyn has over 30 years community development and events management experience. He tour managed Moana & the Moahunters’ national and international forays during the 1990’s and has continued to executive produce events over the years including the 2020 Waitangi ki Manukau festival and numerous Portage Crossing festivals. Wyn has over 25 years governance and executive management experience in South Auckland, serving the urban Māori community development sector. He has developed proposals for over a

$100million in funding, his many successful ones including the Waatea Early Childhood Centre and Waatea School.

James Papali’i (Rangatira – waka ama paddling and competing)

James has competed in every NZ Waka Ama National Annual Event since the first one held in Karapiro 1990. He has won gold, silver and bronze medals in the masters, and senior masters w6 500 and 1000 metre divisions. At the events 30th Anniversary James was one of only 6 paddlers that had attended every event, placing him in the company of Matahi Greg Brightwell and his wife Raipoia, Corrina Gage and Louise Henderson. James also has numerous medals in the w6 division over the years at the NZ Waka Ama Long Distance (NZWALD) Nationals. He has competed in half of these events and at the last NZWALD Nationals James won a silver medal in the w2 section Golden Master with his mate Rob Kratt. On the international stage, James has competed in 11 of the World Waka Ama Sprint Championships, securing a silver medal in the w6 1000 meters and a bronze medal in the w6 500 meters Senior Masters division at Rio De Janeiro in 2016.

Sibylla Grace Lolohea-Tava (Research and archivist specialist)

Sibylla Grace Lolohea Tava is a PhD candidate in Pacific Studies, a researcher, writer and emerging artist of Tongan, Sāmoan and Scottish Highlander descent and an active waka hourua crew member. Her research focuses on waka hourua as portals for ancestral reconnection and trans-Indigenous solidarity across Te Moana Nui a Kiwa through Māori and Pacific storytelling modalities and collective arts practice. Sibylla holds a vision for these stories and many more to be held at Kainga Waka's living knowledge repository. She brings her research and writing experience, creativity and passion for waka to this project.

Kyle Matwijkiw (Rangatahi engagement and documentary maker)

Kyle Jean Matwijkiw is a Pasifika artist and Youth Worker with multiple credits in short film projects and advertising media including Original Score, Camera Operator, Production Sound Mixer, DOP and Producer as well as acting in a starring role in a short film that was terminated due to a serious injury off set in 2018. Kyle is passionate about film production and composing for film, as well as working with rangatahi in residential care and youth justice community homes within South Auckland. He is also an active waka hourua crew member and a student of whakairo under the guidance of Master Carver, Wikuki Kingi.

WHAOTAPU Trust

Whaotapu are a collective of Tohunga Toi Ake who have been recognised and mandated by their tribes for generations. Acknowledged as traditional knowledge holders, experts, and authorities of Māori art, culture, heritage, Whaotapu are supported by mana whenua whānau, hapū, iwi, matawaka, and communities across Tāmaki Makaurau and Aotearoa, weaving people together through a kaupapa that is both transformative and enduring.

The Mana Whenua Puawaitanga and Launch of Whaotapu occurred in 2014, when Mana Whenua Rangatira and Kaumatua of Tāmaki Makaurau, and hapū, iwi of Aotearoa, gathered in honour of the historical kaupapa of bringing the Tohunga Toi Ake together as a collective.

Mana Whenua acknowledged and affirmed the whakapapa of ngā Tohunga to their hapū and iwi. They gave an ingoa, a name to the collective, namely ‘Whaotapu’, the ‘Sacred Chisels’. Mana Whenua agreed that to futureproof the legacy of Tohunga Toi Ake, they would support Whaotapu to preserve and protect the ancient first language of Māori - Toi.

Manukau Outrigger Canoeing Whare Nui Trust

The Trust was established to assist in financing the building of clubroom facilities for the housing of traditional Polynesian Canoes and Sailing vessels, for the purpose of developing the culture and sport of Outrigger Canoeing in New Zealand. The Trust has raised funding from various sources over the years to develop a number of iterations of building design and have brought these to the Kainga Waka alliance.

Portage Crossing Traditional Canoeing and Sailing Association

The association was established to revive an ancient traditional route used by Māori and, later, early European Settlers, to transport (waka) canoes and fishing boats between the Manukau and Waitemata harbours. The trust develops, encourages and organises the sport and culture of traditional Polynesian canoeing and sailing of single, double and triple hull canoes of the Pacific. The club members are foundation members of the Aotearoa waka ama community. Portage Crossing and Manukau Waka Ama clubs were founded in Māngere in the late eighties and early nineties by a small, dedicated group of flax roots waka ama enthusiasts focused on giving the rangatahi of Māngere and the broader South Auckland community a positive and culturally relevant activity.

Many of the rangatahi that started with the clubs in those early days are still paddling and in coaching roles today. In more recent times the Association supported the creation and launch of the Portage Crossing Canoeing Club Inc. by umbrellaing the club in its formative years, as well as lending the club its 6-person waka ama. The club has always sought guidance and support from Tainui mana whenua Kaumatua and Matai from our Pasifika nations. The naming and blessings of the clubs' waka have been bestowed by local Kaumatua from Tainui with the support of Matai from Sāmoa and the Cook Islands.