Remains of carved canoe may be most significant discovery of its kind, NZ archaeologist says

More than 450 artefacts from a waka found in pieces in the Chatham Islands expected to reveal new insights about Polynesian voyaging

Parts of a carved and decorated traditional ocean-going canoe (waka) found in the Chatham Islands, around 800km east of New Zealand, could be the most significant discovery of its kind in Polynesia, archaeologists say.

The Chatham Islands is an archipelago administered as part of New Zealand. Over the past month, archaeologists and local volunteers have unearthed more than 450 artefacts from the waka found smashed to pieces in a creek on the northern coast of the main island, known as Rkohu to the Indigenous Moriori .