Explaining haka: Why it’s so much more than a ‘war dance’

Saturday, 23 March 2024

Haka has been in the spotlight lately, highlighting confusion for some over what haka is all about. Karanama Ruru spoke to some experts to find out.

It’s nigh on impossible to grow up or live in New Zealand without crossing paths with a haka or two, this Māori expression of pride, strength and unity is woven through the fabric of life in Aotearoa.

Every now and then, however, confusion can arise over what haka is and its role in Aotearoa, as with recent women’s Super Rugby Aupiki teams Hurricanes Poua using haka to call out the coalition government, the Chiefs Manawa response, and a protest haka from Freyberg High School students in Palmerston North to visiting ACT leader David Seymour.

While there is no one voice to definitively define what haka is, in a recent b95FM podcast kapa haka expert Paora Sharples explained that the very nature of haka is to be controversial so to deny or forbid that aspect of haka is to deny its true purpose.

Stuff spoke to the Waipapa Taumata Rau professional teaching fellow of Māori Studies, along with Oriini Kaipara, award-winning journalist and long-time kaihaka with West Auckland kapa Ngā Tūmanako, for their insights on haka at a time when its stamping its mark on Aotearoa.

What exactly is haka?

Let’s get things started on a major point - haka is not just a war dance used to fire up warriors on the battlefield or All Blacks on the rugby field.

Haka is a powerful expression of deep emotion. And when performed well, one need not even understand the words to get the message.

As Sharples explains, haka is the “product of 1000 years of evolution”, and so much more than a war dance.

While haka indeed played a role in inter-tribal warfare, it was used for all occasions, and was incredibly important in the lives of tīpuna Māori (ancestors), he says.

This practice continues today, with haka performed at celebrations, commemorations, events of sadness, grief, anger or happiness or pride.

Weddings, tangi, funerals, graduations, sporting achievements, protests, competitions, all have had haka dedicated to them by different whānau and rōpū.

There is no one rule, or one way to perform haka, as all iwi are unique, have their own histories, commemorations and truths.

Wāhine and haka

A common misconception about haka is that it’s a man’s thing.

As Kaipara explains, women have always performed haka, drawing from feminine energy, while men draw from masculine energy.

Both masculine and feminine energy are equal, and men and women each carry a bit of the other’s energy.

Just as they draw from different energy sources, there are differences in the way men and women perform haka.

Men typically spread their legs wide to haka.

A male pūkana involves widening the eyes, and stretching out the tongue or baring of teeth.

As women are the guardians of life, they often perform with their legs mostly closed, with feet slightly apart.

Women pūkana too, opening their eyes wide, jutting out their chin placing their tongue at the front of their mouth.

There are differences from region to region, iwi to iwi and hapū to hapū, says Kaipara.

In Ngāti Porou for example, men tend to squat low, whereas in Tūhoe country, men stand upright.

Origins of haka

There are numerous pūrākau or legends that suggest where haka originated from. As Sharples explains, everything in Māori culture has a whakapapa, or history behind it.

One pūrākau tells the story of the sun god, Tama-nui-te-ra, the goddess of summer, Hine-Raumati, and their a son, Tānerore.

During summer, Tānerore would dance for his mother, causing the shimmering air we see on the horizon on hot days. In haka and waiata, this shimmer is symbolised by wiri, the quivering movement of the hands.

Another kōrero, detailing the creation of kapa haka, involved the wāhine of Taranaki rangatira Tinirau.

Tinirau had allowed his tohunga, Kae, to return to his home on the back of Tutunui, his pet whale.

Upon his arrival, Kae refused to dismount, and the whale, in its attempt to remove Kae, became stranded and was killed and eaten by Kae.

Tinirau eventually realised what Kae had done to his pet, and sent a kapa of women to capture Kae.

According to The Haka Experience, none of the women knew Kae but were told they would recognise him by a notable gap in his teeth.

To find him, they would have to make him laugh.

The women undertook their performance and concluded it with a haka. The haka was so effective that Kae laughed, exposing his teeth.

Kae was returned to Tinirau, sealing his fate.

The evolution of haka

Kaipara said while the evolution of kapa haka into competitions, such as Te Matatini, Te Mana Kuratahi primary and secondary school events, has become a phenomenon over the last 20 years, it has also altered how some view haka.

While men were often seen to take up the role of kaitātaki (haka leader), it is not only men who can, or will, lead haka.

Te Whānau-a-Apanui for example, have male and female kaitātaki.

It was common in the past for women to take up the charge in battle, too.

For example, the battle of Orakau, in which Ngāti Maniapoto, Raukawa and Tūhoe mobilised to defend Waikato in a last-ditch effort against British invasion in 1864.

Among the 300 defenders, a third of them were women.

The women were then offered a chance to leave the besieged pā site, but Ahumai Te Paerata, daughter of Ngāti Raukawa rangatira Te Paerata, replied: “Ki te mate ngā tāne, me mate anō ngā wāhine me ngā tamariki” – “If the men die, then the women and children must also die.”

Every whānau, hapū and iwi have their own unique haka, detailing their history, commemorations, achievements and milestones.

Sharples says haka will continue to evolve over time.

Can non-Māori and Tangata Tiriti take part?

The short answer is yes, however, be aware of what it is you are doing, and treat it with the utmost respect. There have been numerous incidents when this wasn’t the case.

Drawing on recent examples, in 2022, Jeffrey Craigen, a wellness guru and actor from Canada, made a tearful apology after a video of his naked haka on top of a sacred mountain in Bali fell foul of authorities on the Indonesian holiday island, leading to his deportation.

Just last year the International School of Temple Arts, which teaches “sacred sexuality” courses, was slammed for its “cultural appropriation” of the haka. And the Spanish women’s football team were called out after posting a video of their mocking attempt at a haka when they were in New Zealand for the 2023 World Cup. They apologised a week later.

The All Blacks and Black Ferns

It’s famous globally - before each match our national men’s and women’s rugby teams line up to perform the haka.

Ka Mate, the most famous haka of all, belongs to Ngāti Toa. As part of their settlement with the Crown, legislation was written acknowledging Ngāti Toa rangatira Te Rauparaha as the composer of Ka Mate and that Ngāti Toa hold the intellectual property rights over the haka.

New Zealand Rugby signed an agreement in 2011 with Ngāti Toa, allowing the All Blacks to continue performing Ka Mate.

Just as the stage on which the haka is performed has changed, so has the way the All Blacks perform it.

From what looked like a rendition of the Macarena when the All Blacks performed the haka in the early 1900s, the men in black now understand what a haka is – and it shows.

The Black Ferns haka, Ko Uhia Mai (Let it be known), was composed by Whetu Tipiwai after talking with former Black Ferns captain Dr Farah Palmer about what the team represents.

Tipiwai was the kaumātua of the Māori All Blacks from 2001 to 2010, as well as a member of the New Zealand Māori Rugby Board for 15 years.

To assist Tipiwai in composing the haka, the waiata composed by Pānia Papa was used for inspiration. The kupu (words) came to Tipiwai while driving over the Tararua Range, and in August 2006 he passed on these kupu to the Black Ferns.