Cabinet is deciding whether to pay for digging up an ancient double-hulled waka (canoe) buried in sand dunes on Rēkohu, the Chatham Islands. A Māori Land Court ruling has found the Ministry for Culture and Heritage cannot avoid its legal duty to look after the entire vessel, including the parts still underground.

The waka is believed to be Rangihoua, thought to have been part of an early migration from Hawaiki, the ancestral homeland many Māori trace their origins to. Carbon dating has placed the wrecked vessel between 1440 and 1470, making it one of the oldest known taonga (treasured objects) of its kind in New Zealand history. Woven matting, sail, rope and twine have been recovered among roughly 750 fragments discovered nearly two years ago by the Dix whānau, who own the land. RNZ

Lead archaeologist Dr Justin Maxwell of Sunshine Archaeology has described the find as one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made in Aotearoa and the wider Pacific. He believes the pieces recovered so far are only about 10 percent of the whole waka. The rest is still buried and exposed to erosion, storm surges and the risk of being lost forever.

Archaeologists warn that sandbags and other temporary protections are unlikely to save the site from a major storm. They have also said that delaying the dig, or repeatedly stopping and starting, could cause further damage to what remains.

The funding decision now sits with Cabinet. Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith has said funding decisions are made by Cabinet as part of the official Budget process and that he cannot make commitments ahead of that. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (Manatū Taonga) has said it does not currently have the money needed for a full dig and the years of conservation work that would follow. RNZ

The Ministry had already tried to limit what it is responsible for. Manatū Taonga argued in the Māori Land Court that its legal duties cover only the pieces already uncovered, not those still buried. The Court ruled against that, finding that the entire waka has been "found", including the parts still underground, and that the Ministry's duty under the Protected Objects Act — the law that governs newly found Māori cultural objects — cannot be avoided, handed off or postponed.

Manatū Taonga deputy secretary delivery and investment Glenis Philip-Barbara has said the Ministry has an interim role to care for newly found taonga tūturu until they are returned to traditional ownership through processes in the Protected Objects Act.

Moriori, Ngāti Mutunga and the Dix whānau argue the waka must be treated as one complete object. The case for digging it up has drawn support from Maxwell, who called funding it "the biggest no-brainer I've ever seen" and said it could teach us a great deal about how Polynesian voyagers built their waka.

The Ministry's own annual report for 2024/25 references the significant find at Rēkohu Wharekauri Chatham Island, noting it may offer a rare opportunity to deepen understanding of how New Zealand was first settled. Interim carbon dating results were released by Manatū Taonga ahead of the final archaeological report. Ministry for Culture and Heritage Annual Report 2024/25; Manatū Taonga, interim radiocarbon dating results

The discovery is also scheduled to be presented on 27 July 2026 at the International Society of Ethnobiology Congress 2026, where it is framed as relating to data sovereignty and traditional Moriori knowledge. ISE Congress 2026

The broader context here is the tension between the Budget process, which runs on a fixed political timetable, and coastal erosion, which does not. The Court's ruling has effectively removed the argument that the buried sections of the waka fall outside the government's legal care duties. That leaves Cabinet as the decision point, not the Ministry. Goldsmith's framing of the decision as a Budget matter follows standard Cabinet process, but it also means the timeline is set by the government's financial cycle rather than by how quickly the site is deteriorating or by what the Court has already directed.

For the iwi and whānau involved, the stakes are cultural as well as archaeological. The waka sits at the intersection of Moriori and Ngāti Mutunga interests on Rēkohu, and the determination that it be treated as a single object has implications for how taonga are managed when they straddle the line between discovered and undiscovered. If the Court's reading holds, government agencies dealing with comparable finds in future may find it harder to limit their responsibilities to what has already been brought to the surface.