Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr

Tainui

Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr (Tainui) is the captain of the oceangoing waka Haunui. He is the son of Wharetoroa and Ngarungatapu Kerr, is married to Kim and has five children: Namaka, Turanga, Rangiiria, Noenoe and Hinemanu. Hoturoa has been sailing around the Pacific for more than thirty-five years. He paddles waka, sails waka, teaches waka.

Hoturoa grew up with his numerous elders who nurtured and cared for him on the many marae of Waikato. He is a native Māori speaker and spent the first six years of his life with the Tuhoe people in Rūātoki, where his parents taught at the Rūātoki District High School. He and his mother moved to Auckland when he was six years old, by this age he had learned only the Māori language. Hoturoa recalls how the children laughed and mocked him for his inability to speak English when he started school in Auckland. He was educated at Onehunga High School and went on to study for a BA at the University of Auckland, and a Masters at Waikato University. His Master’s thesis investigated how the waka is a symbol of mana in the twenty-first century. He was a lecturer at Waikato University for over nineteen years. More recently he has specialised in education and leadership programmes that use the waka as a platform for learning and development.

Acclaimed in fields that extend from traditional Polynesian navigation to indigenous leadership & environmental awareness, Hoturoa is celebrated in a number of critically acclaimed publications, serves on range of local and national governance boards, and is the founder of Te Toki Voyaging Trust. Along with his strategic leadership Hoturoa is also actively involved in the activities of the Trust. In addition to voyaging & fleet maintenance, TTVT regularly deliver high quality educational programs to communities, schools, organisations and at events which is core to their commitment to revitalise the Pacific Voyaging Culture.

Hoturoa is an orator on his marae at Kāwhia, the home of Haunui, and the ancient landing and settlement place of his ancestral waka, Tainui and his ancestor Hoturoa.