Haka

Searching for a theme for this week’s post, I found something that really impressed me: a traditional Maori dance, called haka. After reading about it, I discovered many interesting facts and watched some touching and funny videos.

Firstly, let me explain what haka is. Haka is an ancient Maori dance that was performed in special occasions. Its history is full of myths and facts. In tradition, the first kapa haka was performed by a group of women. The chief Tirinau wanted to revenge the killing of a pet whale, so he called a group of women to hunt the killer. They didn’t know how the killer looked like, but they knew that he had overlapped teeth. Then, as soon as they arrived at a tribe, they performed haka, so that the men of the tribe would smile. The killer smiled and they recognized him. They captured him and brought him back to Tirinau, who later killed him. The dance itself is a mixture of passionate and coordinate movements. In order to perform it, a leader is needed, who will conduct the movements and sing a Waiata (a Maori song) and a group of people, that will also sing a chant and dance haka. The movements of the dance are a combination of stamping the feet strongly in the floor and beating the hands on the arms and on the chest.

There are several kinds of haka, one for each occasion. For instance, there is the haka taparahi, a haka performed without the use of weapons, the peruperu, which was performed before wars, the haka ngeri, a haka used to encourage a group of people, and the haka pōwhiri, which is used to welcome important visitors.

Haka is mostly performed by men, but there are a few types for women as well — the haka “Ka Panapana”, for instance.

Nowadays, people still perform haka in order to celebrate important events, such as weddings and birthdays, to pay tribute in funerals and in sports events. The most famous haka is performed by the All Blacks — New Zealand’s Rugby National team — before the matches and is called “Ka Mate”. It is a way of intimidating their opponents and to show strength.

On YouTube there are a few videos that were a success around the world because of the haka performance. One of them is the funeral of a haka’s professor, Dawson Tamatea, where many students dance haka as a way of paying tribute to him. Another one shows a funeral, where a big group of soldiers perform a haka for three New Zealander comrades that had died in Afghanistan.