Poi-twirling wahine Māori traffic signals go green for Te Matatini kapa haka festival

Thursday, 16 February 2023

Matai Smith recounts his experience at the Māori performing arts festival Te Matatini as performer, reporter and presenter.

Māori figures have appeared at pedestrian crossings in central Auckland to mark the city’s hosting of Te Matatini Kapa Haka Festival in late February.

Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.

The two sets of traffic lights on Karangahape Rd show a wahine Māori swinging poi as the green signal to cross, and a warrior in red, to wait.

The lights will be permanent, remaining after the four-day festival at Ngā Ana Wai Eden Park starting on February 22.

Auckland Transport’s Māori engagement team proposed the idea, and worked with the traffic light makers CSL to realise it.

* Te Matatini Festival returning to original television home

* Te Matatini postponed again, to 2023

One of two sets of traffic lights on Auckland’s Karangahape Rd marking Te Matatini kapa haka festival.

“AT is thrilled to embrace and celebrate te ao Māori. This initiative is another step, along with the recent introduction of bilingual audio announcements and signage across our public transport network,” said Lillian Tahuri, the head of Māori engagement.

Ngāhiriwa Tai Tin of Te Taha Tū features on one of five specially wrapped AT buses.

The 50th anniversary of the national kapa haka festival is expected to top the 2019 event in Wellington, which drew more than 3000 performers and 42,000 spectators.

Five double-decker commuter buses have also been “wrapped” for the festival, each featuring a performer from one of five groups across Tāmaki Makaurau.

The festival was postponed from early 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

Te Matatini is one of the biggest events on the Māori calendar.

Organisers say each group spends thousands of hours preparing – composing, teaching and rehearsing the 40 performers.

Flooding in the North Island and the national state of emergency has prompted some calls for the festival to be postponed again, if some groups are unable to travel.

Ngāti Kahungunu kapa haka leader and expert Helena Winiata, of Tamatea Arikinui, said it should either be cancelled or postponed for 2023.

“Our whānau can’t even get to each other now. We were supposed to have a practice in Palmerston North, but the way the roads are, we aren’t sure we’ll be able to even make that,” she said.

A Kīngitanga spokesperson said the festival was locked in and starting next week, noting that Te Matatini CEO Carl Ross is reaching out to rōpū to offer assistance.