🔗 Share this article

This past October on Lifou, a double-hulled canoe was pushed into the turquoise waters – a simple gesture that represented a highly meaningful moment.

It was the maiden journey of a ancestral vessel on Lifou in many decades, an gathering that assembled the island’s three chiefly clans in a rare show of unity.

Seafarer and campaigner Aile Tikoure was behind the launch. For the last eight years, he has overseen a initiative that seeks to restore heritage canoe building in New Caledonia.

Numerous traditional boats have been constructed in an project aimed at reconnecting Indigenous Kanak people with their seafaring legacy. Tikoure explains the boats also promote the “start of conversation” around sea access rights and conservation measures.

Diplomatic Efforts

This past July, he visited France and met President Emmanuel Macron, calling for ocean governance shaped with and by local tribes that acknowledge their maritime heritage.

“Our ancestors always navigated the ocean. We lost that for a while,” Tikoure states. “Today we’re reclaiming it again.”

Canoes hold profound traditional significance in New Caledonia. They once stood for movement, trade and tribal partnerships across islands, but those customs faded under colonisation and missionary influences.

Heritage Restoration

His journey started in 2016, when the New Caledonia cultural authorities was considering how to bring back traditional canoe-building skills. Tikoure partnered with the government and following a two-year period the canoe construction project – known as the Kenu Waan initiative – was born.

“The biggest challenge didn’t involve cutting down trees, it was gaining local support,” he says.

Project Achievements

The program worked to bring back heritage voyaging practices, educate new craftspeople and use canoe-making to strengthen cultural identity and inter-island cooperation.

Up to now, the team has created a display, published a book and supported the building or renovation of around 30 canoes – from Goro to the northeastern coast.

Material Advantages

Different from many other Pacific islands where deforestation has diminished lumber availability, New Caledonia still has suitable wood for carving large hulls.

“Elsewhere, they often employ modern composites. Here, we can still carve solid logs,” he states. “That represents all the difference.”

The vessels built under the initiative combine Polynesian hull design with local sailing systems.

Academic Integration

Since 2024, Tikoure has also been teaching maritime travel and ancestral craft methods at the local university.

“This marks the initial occasion these subjects are offered at master’s level. It goes beyond textbooks – this is knowledge I’ve lived. I’ve crossed oceans on these canoes. I’ve cried tears of joy while accomplishing this.”

Pacific Partnerships

He voyaged with the members of the Uto ni Yalo, the Pacific vessel that sailed to Tonga for the Pacific Islands Forum in 2024.

“Across the Pacific, from Fiji to here, this represents a unified effort,” he says. “We’re reclaiming the sea as a community.”

Political Engagement

In July, Tikoure journeyed to the European location to present a “Traditional understanding of the marine environment” when he had discussions with Macron and other leaders.

Addressing official and international delegates, he advocated for shared maritime governance based on Kanak custom and community involvement.

“We must engage local populations – most importantly fishing communities.”

Modern Adaptation

Currently, when sailors from various island nations – from the Fijian islands, the Micronesian region and Aotearoa – visit Lifou, they examine vessels together, refine the construction and finally sail side by side.

“We’re not simply replicating the old models, we help them develop.”

Comprehensive Vision

For Tikoure, instructing mariners and advocating environmental policy are interrelated.

“It’s all about community participation: who has the right to move across the sea, and what authority governs what occurs in these waters? The canoe serve as a method to start that conversation.”