The sailor reviving the lost art of canoe building in New Caledonia

Original article by Julien Mazzoni in Nouméa

In October in Lifou island, a double-hulled canoe was pushed into the lagoon - a small act that marked a deeply symbolic moment.

It was the first launch of a traditional canoe on Lifou in generations, an event that brought together the island’s three chiefly clans in a rare show of unity.

Activist and sailor Aile Tikoure was behind the launch. For the past eight years, he has led a project that aims to revive traditional boat making in New Caledonia, a territory of France in the Pacific ocean.

Dozens of canoes have been built in an initiative designed to reconnect Indigenous Kanak people with their maritime heritage. Tikoure says the boats also help the “start of conversation” around ocean rights and environmental policies.

In July, he travelled to France and met President Emmanuel Macron, calling for marine policies shaped with and by Indigenous communities that recognise their relationship with the sea.

“Our ancestors always crossed the sea. We lost that for a while,” Tikoure says. “Now we’re finding it again.”

Canoes hold deep cultural and historical significance in New Caledonia. They once symbolised mobility, exchange and clan alliances across islands, but those traditions faded under colonisation and missionary influences. Unlike many Polynesian nations, where voyaging practices were continuously maintained and revived earlier, in New Caledonia that continuity was interrupted – and only now being reclaimed.

“In three generations, that memory vanished,” Tikoure says. “But if we could lose it that fast, we can also bring it back fast.”

His journey started in 2016, when the New Caledonia government’s culture department was looking at how to reintroduce traditional canoe-building skills. Tikoure worked with the government and two years later the boat building initiative – known as Kenu Waan project – was born.

“The hardest part wasn’t cutting down trees, it was convincing people,” he says.

‘I’ve crossed oceans in these canoes’

The Kenu Waan project aimed to restore traditional navigation techniques, train young builders and use canoe-making to strengthen cultural identity and inter-island cooperation.

So far, the team has produced an exhibition, published a book and supported the construction or restoration of around 30 canoes – from Goro, at the far south of the main island, to Ponerihouen, on the north-eastern coast.

Unlike many other Pacific islands where deforestation has reduced timber supplies, New Caledonia still has suitable wood for carving large hulls. Tikoure has visited canoe workshops in Rapa Nui and Vanuatu to see their work.

“There, they often work with marine plywood. Here, we can still carve solid logs,” he says. “It makes all the difference.”

The canoes built under the Kenu Waan Project combine Polynesian hull design with Melanesian rigging.

“Our ancestors were already looking for performance – to go faster, further. We’re continuing that mindset.”

Since 2024, Tikoure has also been teaching navigation and traditional construction history at the University of New Caledonia.

“It’s the first time these subjects are taught at master’s level. It’s not theory – it’s something I’ve lived. I’ve crossed oceans on these canoes. I’ve cried tears of joy doing it.”

Interactive

Tikoure sailed with the crew of the Uto ni Yalo, the Fijian canoe that journeyed to Tonga for the Pacific Islands Forum in 2024, led by Ivanancy Vunikura, the first Fijian woman to hold the position of sail master.

“From Hawaii to Rapa Nui, from Fiji to here, it’s the same movement,” he says. “We’re taking back the ocean together.”

In July, Tikoure travelled to Nice, France, to present a “Kanak vision of the ocean” when he met with Macron and other leaders.

Before state and overseas representatives, he argued for shared maritime governance based on Kanak custom and participation.“You have to involve them – especially those who live from fishing.”

Now, when navigators from across the Pacific – from Fiji, Micronesia and New Zealand – arrive in Lifou, they study canoes together, adjust the structure and eventually sail side by side.

“We don’t just copy the old models, we make them evolve.”

For Tikoure, teaching navigation and advocating environmental policy are linked.

“It’s all about how we involve people: who has the right to move across the sea, and who decides what happens on it? The canoe is a way to start that conversation.”