Hawaiian group erects new carved post in New Zealand after more than three decades

WAITANGI, New Zealand (HawaiiNewsNow) - Crew members of Hawaiʻi’s Polynesian voyaging canoes and groups from Kamehameha Schools recently erected a poupou (carved post) in Aotearoa.

The post is symbolic of a Hawaiian tribe and replaces a similar one put up 32 years ago.

New post carved in less than a week

The new Hawaiian poupou is called Mauipāikalani, meaning Maui who reaches toward the heavens. It symbolizes Hawaiian tribe Ngāti Ruawāhia and stands in a line-up of ancestral posts at Te Tii Marae in Waitangi on Aotearoa’s North Island.

Jordan Souza, a carver and Kamehameha Schools cultural consultant, chiseled the new post using New Zealand’s Kauri wood and finished it in less than a week.

“We pretty much carved every waking moment,” Souza said. “It was literally eating, sleeping, an