Hector Busby (also known as Heke-nuku-mai-nga-iwi Puhipi) is a Māori navigator and traditional ship (waka

Waka (canoe)

Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes up to long...

) builder in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. He is recognised as a leading figure in the revival of traditional Polynesian navigation

Polynesian navigation

Polynesian navigation is a system of navigation used by Polynesians to make long voyages across thousands of miles of open ocean. Navigators travel to small inhabited islands using only their own senses and knowledge passed by oral tradition from navigator to apprentice, often in the form of song...

 and ocean voyaging using wayfinding

Wayfinding

Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place.-Historical:...

 techniques.

He has built 26 traditional waka, including the double-hulled Te Aurere which has sailed over 30,000 nautical miles in the Pacific

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 including Hawai'i, Cook Islands

Cook Islands

The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...

, French Polynesia

French Polynesia

French Polynesia is an overseas country of the French Republic . It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands, the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is also the most populous island and the seat of the capital of the territory...

, New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 and Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...

.

Busby is of mixed Pakeha

Pakeha

Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...

 and Māori heritage. He is from the Māori tribes of Te Rarawa

Te Rarawa

Te Rarawa is a Māori iwi of Northland, New Zealand.-Prominent Te Rarawa:*Hector Busby, navigator and waka builder.*Whina Cooper, woman of mana, teacher, storekeeper and community leader....

 and Ngati Kahu

Ngati Kahu

Ngāti Kahu is a Māori iwi of Northland, New Zealand. Ngāti Kahu take their name from their founding ancestress, Kahutianui, and link their ancestry back to the waka Māmaru...

.

Honours

He received the New Zealand Commemoration Medal

New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal

The New Zealand 1990 Commemorative Medal was instituted by the Queen by Royal Warrant on 9 February 1990. It was to be awarded only during 1990 to about 3,000 people selected in recognition of the contribution they have made to some aspect of New Zealand life, especially the various 1990 celebrations...

 in 1990 and an MBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

in 1994.