Haka

This article is about Māori dances. For other uses, see Haka (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Hakka people.

Haka is a traditional genre of Māori dance. This painting dates from c. 1845.

Haka (/ˈhɑːkə/,^[1] /ˈhækə/;^[2] singular haka, in both Māori and New Zealand English) are a variety of ceremonial dances in Māori culture.^[3] A performance art, haka are often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment.^[3] Haka have been traditionally performed by both men and women for a variety of social functions within Māori culture.^[4][5][6] They are performed to welcome distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements, occasions, or funerals.

Kapa haka groups are common in schools.^[7] The main Māori performing arts competition, Te Matatini, takes place every two years.^[8]

All Blacks performing a haka (Dunedin, 2014)

New Zealand sports teams' practice of performing a haka to challenge opponents before international matches has made the dance form more widely known around the world. This tradition began with the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team tour and has been carried on by the New Zealand rugby union team (known as the All Blacks) since 1905.^[9][10][11] Although popularly associated with the traditional battle preparations of male warriors, conceptions that haka are typically war dances, are considered erroneous by Māori scholars, alongside the inaccurate performance of haka by non-Māori.^[12][13]

Etymology

The group of people performing a haka is referred to as a kapa haka (kapa meaning group or team, and also rank or row).^[14] The Māori word haka has cognates in other Polynesian languages, for example: Samoan saʻa (saʻasaʻa), Tokelauan haka, Rarotongan ʻaka, Hawaiian haʻa, Marquesan haka, meaning 'to be short-legged' or 'dance'; all from Proto-Polynesian saka, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian sakaŋ, meaning 'bowlegged'.^[15]

History and practice

When performed by men,^[16] haka feature protruding of the tongue.

Overview

Haka is a form of indigenous dance that encompasses multiple ceremonial purposes in Māori culture. As Nathan Matthew explains, "it is a posture dance accompanied by chanted or shouted song... One of the main characteristics of haka are that actions involving all parts of the body are used to emphasise the words."^[17]

Origins in Māori tradition

According to Māori tradition, haka originated from a creation story. The sun god, Tama-nui-te-rā, had two wives, the Summer Maid, Hine-raumati, and the Winter Maid, Hine-takurua. Haka originated in the coming of Hine-raumati, whose presence on still, hot days was revealed in a quivering appearance in the air. This was haka of Tāne-rore, the son of Hine-raumati and Tama-nui-te-rā.^[18][19] Hyland comments that "[t]he haka is (and also represents) a natural phenomena [sic]; on hot summer days, the 'shimmering' atmospheric distortion of air emanating from the ground is personified as 'Te Haka a Tānerore'".^[20]

Types and functions

Haka includes various forms serving different ceremonial purposes. These functions include:

• welcoming guests (haka pōwhiri),
• fare-welling and mourning the deceased (waiata tangi),
• giving advice or instructions (waiata tohutohu),
• restoring self-respect (pātere),
• intimidating adversaries (peruperu – war dance),
• and transmitting social and political messages (haka taparahi, ngeri).^[17]

The peruperu is a war haka that uses weapons, while haka taparahi is performed without weapons and is the more common ceremonial form. Other forms include:

• tūtū ngārahu (similar to peruperu but with sideways jumping),
• whakatū waewae (like peruperu with no jumping),
• manawa wera (like ngeri with no set actions, usually ceremonial and connected with death), and
• kaioraora (hatred or venting haka).^[10]

Performance elements

Various actions are employed in haka performance, including facial contortions such as showing the whites of the eyes (pūkana), and poking out the tongue (whetero, performed by men only),^[5] and a wide variety of vigorous body actions such as slapping the hands against the body and stomping of the feet. The body serves as the instrument and vessel of delivery, with the key aspect being the words and the message they contain.^[17]

18th and 19th centuries

19th-century illustration of a haka, c. 1890

The earliest Europeans to witness haka described them as being "vigorous" and "ferocious".^[21] Joseph Banks, who accompanied James Cook on his first voyage to New Zealand in 1769, later recorded:

The War Song and dance consists of Various contortions of the limbs during which the tongue is frequently thrust out incredibly far and the orbits of the eyes enlarged so much that a circle of white is distinctly seen round the Iris: in short nothing is omitted which can render a human shape frightful and deformed, which I suppose they think terrible.^[22]

From their arrival in the early 19th century, Christian missionaries tried to eradicate haka, along with other forms of Māori culture that they saw as conflicting with Christian beliefs and practice. Henry Williams, the leader of the Church Missionary Society mission in New Zealand, aimed to replace haka and traditional Māori chants (waiata) with hymns. Missionaries also encouraged European harmonic singing as part of the process of conversion.^[21]

The use of haka in welcoming ceremonies for members of British royal family helped to improve its standing among Europeans. Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, was the first royal to visit New Zealand, in 1869.^[23] Upon the Duke's arrival at the wharf in Wellington, he was greeted by a vigorous haka. The Wellington Independent reported, "The excitement of the Maoris becomes uncontrollable. They gesticulate, they dance, they throw their weapons wildly in the air, while they yell like fiends let loose. But all this fierce yelling is of the most friendly character. They are bidding the Duke welcome."^[24]

Modern haka

A group of men and women perform a haka for Governor Lord Ranfurly at Ruatoki, Bay of Plenty, 1904

In modern times, various haka have been composed to be performed by women and even children. In some haka the men start the performance and women join in later.^[5][25] Haka are performed for various reasons: for welcoming distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements, occasions or funerals.

The 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team began a tradition by performing haka during an international tour.^[26] The common use of haka by the national rugby union team before matches, beginning with The Original All Blacks in 1905,^[9] has made one type of haka familiar.^[27]

Māori Battalion haka in Egypt, 1941

Some events have caused protests. The 1979 annual "haka party" parade at the University of Auckland – in which engineering students persisted in parodying haka by painting male genitals on their body and performing with sexually obscene gestures – was disrupted by a collection of Māori and Pacific Island students (He Taua, or The War Party) headed by Ngā Tamatoa, a prominent Māori activist group. For two decades people including Māori students at the university had asked the university and the engineering department to stop the tradition.^[28][29] In 1979, the protesters included Hone Harawira, later a Member of Parliament.^[30] Several of the engineering students were assaulted, and members of He Taua were arrested.^[31] Their court case in Auckland sparked anti-racism protests outside the courthouse and was supported by a range of people including the president of the Auckland University Students Association.^[32]

The choreographed dance and chant popularized around the world by the All Blacks derives from "Ka Mate",^[33] a brief haka previously intended for extemporaneous, non-synchronized performance, whose composition is attributed to Te Rauparaha (1760s–1849), a war leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe.^[34] The "Ka Mate" haka is classified as a haka taparahi – a ceremonial haka performed without weapons. "Ka Mate" is about the cunning ruse Te Rauparaha used to outwit his enemies, and may be interpreted as "a celebration of the triumph of life over death".^[33] Concerns were expressed that the authorship and significance of this haka to the Ngāti Toa were being lost and that it had "become the most performed, the most maligned, the most abused of all haka",^[35] and was now "the most globally recognised form of cultural appropriation".^[11] Specific legal challenges regarding the rights of the Ngāti Toa to be acknowledged as the authors and owners of "Ka Mate" were eventually settled in a Deed of Settlement between Ngāti Toa and the New Zealand Government and New Zealand Rugby Union agreed in 2009 and signed in 2012.^[36][37]

Spread to other Austronesian nation-states

The Malay College Kuala Kangsar, a historically all-boys all-Malay prestige boarding school in Malaysia adopted the haka for their own rugby team in admiration of the New Zealand All-Blacks' popularity in the 1970s under the tutelarship of Neil Jonathan Ryan.^[38] In return, said college's cheer team developed their own cry in similar energy known as the bungwak.^[39] Neighbouring Singapore's Rugby Union in 2004 took on an attempt of collaborating with students all over the island to create a "Singapore Roar" inspired by the haka, even though the majority of its demographic is Chinese.^[40]

In Indonesia, a culture of doing the 'Haka-haka' or its more commonly known variation 'Yel-yel' exist and performed by groups such as military personnel, law enforcement, civil servants, students, and others.^[41][42][43]

Cultural influence

Main articles: Haka in sports and Kapa haka

A performance by the Kahurangi Māori Dance group, United States.

In the 21st century, kapa haka has been offered as a subject in universities, including the study of haka, and is practiced in schools and military institutions.^[44]

In addition to the national Te Matatini ("many faces") festival,^[8] local and regional competitions attract dozens of teams and thousands of spectators.^[44]

The All Blacks' use of haka has become the most widely known, but several other New Zealand sports teams now perform haka before commencing a game. These include the national rugby league team ("the Kiwis"),^[45] and the men's national basketball team ("Tall Blacks").^[46] In the lead up to the Rugby World Cup in 2011, flashmob haka became a popular way of expressing support for the All Blacks. Some Māori leaders thought it was "inappropriate" and a "bastardisation" of haka.^[47] Sizeable flashmob haka were performed in Wellington^[48] and Auckland,^[49] as well as London, which has a large New Zealander immigrant community.^[50]

The music video for the song "Poi E" (1983) by the Pātea Māori Club, written by Dalvanius Prime and Ngoi Pēwhairangi, used a mixture of kapa haka and hip-hop choreography. This was then mixed with moves from Michael Jackson's Thriller music video as the outro song parody for Taika Waititi's movie Boy (2010).^[51][52]

In November 2012, a Māori kapa haka group from Rotorua performed a version of the "Gangnam Style" dance mixed with a traditional haka in Seoul, celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations between South Korea and New Zealand.^[53]

On 7 December 2014, at the 2014 Roller Derby World Cup in Dallas, Texas, Team New Zealand performed a haka on roller skates to the Australian Roller Derby team before their bout in the quarter-finals.^[54] Team New Zealand performed a haka before their debut game against Team USA at the 2011 Roller Derby World Cup, on 1 December 2011; however, it was unexpected and the arena music was still playing. It has since become an expected tradition.^[55]

In 2017, actor Dwayne Johnson performed a haka with a girls soccer team in The Fate of the Furious.^[56]

Actor Jason Momoa performed a haka with a group of performers on the red carpet at the Aquaman premiere in Los Angeles in 2018.^[57][58]

In March 2019, following the Christchurch mosque shootings, school pupils and other groups performed haka to honour those killed in the attacks.^[59]

The choreography in the "Miroh" music video by South Korean boy band Stray Kids featured haka elements.^[60]

Three or four American football teams are known to perform haka as a pregame rite. This appears to have begun at Kahuku High School where both the student body and local community includes many Polynesian Hawaiians, Māori, Samoans, Tahitians, and Tongans. The University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football team also adopted haka as a pregame rite during the 2006 season,^[61] and the practice has spread to a number of other teams overseas; there has, however, been some criticism of this as inappropriate and disrespectful.^[62][63] Non-traditional or inaccurate haka performances have been criticised by Māori academics, such as Morgan Godfery.^[13]

In September 2024, thousands gathered in Eden Park in Auckland to break the record of the largest haka performance. France held the previous official world record since 2014.^[64]

On 14 November 2024, MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke led a haka inside the New Zealand Parliament to protest the Treaty Principles Bill, joined by Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi, and other MPs. Debate was temporarily paused and the house voted to suspend Maipi-Clarke.^[65]

See also

• Māori music

Similar dances

• Cibi
• Hoko (dance)
• Hula
• Kailao
• Sagayan
• Siva Tau

References

Inline citations

1. "Haka | English meaning". Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
2. "haka noun". Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
3. "haka – Māori Dictionary". Te Aka Māori Dictionary. Retrieved 10 June 2021. ...vigorous dances with actions and rhythmically shouted words. A general term for several types of such dances.
4. "Haka, Maori dance". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
5. "Haka!". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011.
6. Simon 2015.
7. Patrick, Alice (21 November 2017). "Kapa haka in mainstream schools – Affirming Māori students as Māori | School News – New Zealand". SchoolNews. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
8. "Te Matatini – The Evolution of Kapa Haka" (PDF). DANZ Quarterly. No. 24. 2011. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
9. Hunt 2015.
10. Simon 2015, p. 88.
11. Hokowhitu 2014, p. 273.
12. Kāretu 1993b, p. 37.
13. "The haka isn't yours – stop performing it | Morgan Godfery". the Guardian. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
14. "kapa". Te Aka Māori Dictionary. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
15. "haka". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
16. "Haka – Ka Mate". www.themaori.com. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
17. Simon 2015, p. 89.
18. McLintock 1966.
19. Simon 2015, p. 87.
20. Hyland 2015, p. 69.
21. Smith 2014a.
22. Kāretu 1993a, p. 22.
23. "New Zealand's first royal visit". nzhistory.govt.nz. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 9 December 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
24. 13 April 1869, Wellington Independent, p. 3. Retrieved on 25 June 2018.
25. "The role of women in the traditional use of the haka Ka Eke i te Wiwī". eng.kiamau.tki.org.nz. Te Kete Ipurangi. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
26. Ryan 1993, p. 46.
27. "History of the All Black haka". Tourism New Zealand. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
28. Keane, Basil (1 June 2017). "Engineers' haka, 1955". New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
29. Day, Simon (17 October 2017). "Mocking the haka: The Haka Party Incident and 'casual' racism in New Zealand". The Spinoff. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
30. Tahana, Yvonne (2 May 2009). "Haka brawl rivals unite to remember". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
31. Walker 2004, p. 220–7.
32. "Support He Taua". Mana News. 30 March 2021.
33. Abbot, Edward Immyns. "Chant composed by Te Rauparaha". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
34. Jackson & Hokowhitu 2002, p. 129.
35. Kāretu 1993b, p. 68.
36. "New Zealand Maori win haka fight". BBC News. 11 February 2009.
37. "Link to Ngāti Toa Rangātira Deed of Settlement documents". New Zealand Government. 7 December 2012.
38. Syed Nazri (3 April 2005). "Preserving a bastion as MCKK hits a century". New Straits Times. p. 55.
39. See:
    • Hisham Badrul Hashim (12 May 2017). "The team that could and inspired others: A Ryan's Legacy". Berita MCOBA. The Malay College Old Boys Association. Nicknamed 'All-Blacks' after the New Zealand national team for its all black strip, though the team only performed the own Haka before matches in the 80's (though it was believed that there was an attempt to create their own Haka by Joe Baker (C'66) which then turned to be the war cry 'Bung Wak' of the cheering squad that accompanied the team in matches).
    • Hisham Badrul Hashim (25 March 2020). "The origin of the Bungwak". ibid. Rugby was THE game in MCKK even then and the New Zealand All Blacks were everybody's favourite team, and their hakka [sic] was thus imitated. We had among us several rugby players and Joe Bake [sic] (Abu Bakar Awang Ngah) introduced the hakka [sic] idea for the rugby team. Khalid Hassan and Bahar Mansor took the initiative to 'compose' our version of the hakka [sic], producing the FFS War Cry for our team to perform before the start of the game and the supporters to do it from the stands.
40. Koh Wei Ling (28 February 2004). "What's the Singapore Roar?". Today. p. 28.
41. "Lomba Beladiri Chadrick Dan Haka Haka Tingkat Pasmar 1 Resmi Dibuka" [Chadrick Martial Arts and Haka Haka Competition at 1st Marine Force is Officially Opened]. Tentara Nasional Indonesia. 22 September 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
42. "Serma Asep Ciptakan 'Haka Haka' Khusus untuk HUT TNI" [Sergeant Major Asep Creates 'Haka Haka' Specially for TNI Anniversary]. detiknews (in Indonesian). Surabaya. 7 October 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2023. Itu haka haka yang kita lakukan tadi. Bukan yel yel, Itu yang dilakukan para pejuang Selandia Baru sebelum bertempur selalu melakukan haka haka agar musuh takut lebih dulu. [That's the haka haka we did earlier. Not yel-yel, that's what New Zealand fighters always do before fighting, so that the enemy is afraid first.]
43. TNI, Puspen (24 April 2013), Atraksi Haka-Haka dari Wan TNI (Part 1) [Haka-Haka Attraction from TNI Women (Part 1)] (in Indonesian), National Monument, Jakarta, retrieved 20 November 2023
44. Smith 2014b.
45. Burgess, Michael (31 October 2018). "Rugby League: Kiwis perform haka for Liverpool football players". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
46. "New Zealand haka war dance bewilders USA basketball team". The Guardian. 4 September 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
47. "Maori leaders at odds over flash mob haka". 3 News NZ. 20 September 2011. Archived from the original on 27 December 2011.
48. "Wellington haka attracts hundreds". 3 News NZ. 8 September 2011. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
49. "Flash mob haka on Auckland's Queen Street ahead of RWC opener All Blacks vs Tonga". 3 News NZ. 9 September 2011.
50. "Flashmob haka takes over Trafalgar Square". 3 News NZ. 19 November 2011. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
51. Powell, Jacob. "Review: Poi E: The Story of Our Song". Pantograph Punch. Retrieved 6 January 2023.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
52. Kara, Scott (5 May 2010). "Poi Story 2 – Entertainment News". NZ Herald. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
53. "Maori take on Gangnam Style in Korea". 3 News. 30 November 2012. Archived from the original on 12 January 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
54. "Team New Zealand vs Team Australia Haka". Blood and Thunder World Cup Official Facebook. 7 December 2014.
55. "Team New Zealand Haka". Blood and Thunder World Cup Official Youtube. 1 December 2011. Archived from the original on 13 November 2021.
56. "'The Fate of the Furious': Dwayne Johnson Explains That Soccer Haka Scene". Yahoo Entertainment. 18 April 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
57. Woerner, Meredith (13 December 2018). "Jason Momoa Performs Haka at the 'Aquaman' Premiere". Variety. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
58. 'AQUAMAN' Los Angeles Premiere LiveStream (december 12, 2018) — Warner Bros. Pictures, 13 December 2018, retrieved 22 March 2024
59. Hassan, Jennifer; Tamkin, Emily (18 March 2019). "The power of the haka: New Zealanders pay traditional tribute to mosque attack victims". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
60. Bell, Crystal (25 March 2019). "Stray Kids Are Back And Bolder Than Ever With Celebratory New Single 'MIROH'". MTV News. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
61. "2006 Hawaii Bowl UH over ASU – UH Haka". YouTube. 26 December 2006. Archived from the original on 13 November 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
62. Sygall, David (1 October 2015). "New Zealanders outraged over awkward haka performed by Arizona Wildcats college football team". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
63. Carpenter, Cam (28 September 2015). "Mixed reaction to an American haka". The New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
64. "New Zealand reclaims the world record for the largest haka – DW – 09/30/2024". dw.com. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
65. Ensor, Jamie (14 November 2024). "Treaty Principles Bill vote: How the fiery debate led to MP being suspended, another kicked out". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 14 November 2024.

General references

• Hartigan, Ryan (2011). "Embarrassing Time, Performing Disunity: Rugby, the haka, and Aotearoa – New Zealand in the United Kingdom". Performance Research. 16 (2). Taylor & Francis: 37–43. doi:10.1080/13528165.2011.578728. S2CID 194059694.
• Hokowhitu, Brendan (2014). Graham, Laura (ed.). Haka: Colonised Physicality, Body-Logic, and Embodied Sovereignty. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1d9nmw6. ISBN 978-0-8032-7415-0 – via Performing Indigeneity: Global Histories and Contemporary Experiences.
• Hunt, Tom (19 September 2015). "Flashback: The All Blacks perform haka for the first time". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 4 May 2017 – via Stuff.co.nz.
• Hyland, Nicola (March 2015). "Beyoncé's Response (eh?): Feeling the Ihi of Spontaneous Haka Performance in Aotearoa/New Zealand". TDR/The Drama Review. 59 (1): 67–82. doi:10.1162/DRAM_a_00429. S2CID 57567727.
• Jackson, Steven J.; Hokowhitu, Brendan (2002). "Sport, Tribes, and Technology". Journal of Sport and Social Issues. 26 (2): 125–39. doi:10.1177/0193723502262002. S2CID 144368028.
• Kāretu, Tīmoti (1993a). Haka!: Te Tohu O Te Whenua Rangatira. Auckland: Reed. ISBN 978-0-7900-0290-3.
• Kāretu, Timoti (1993b). Haka: Dance of the Noble People. Auckland: Reed.
• Matthews, Nathan (2004). "The Physicality of Māori Message Transmission: Ko Te Tinana, He Waka Tuku Kōrero". The Journal for Thematic Dialogue. 3 (Body): 9–18.
• McLean, Mervyn (1996). Maori music. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
• McLintock, A.H., ed. (1966). "Haka". An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
• Mitcalfe, Barry (1974). The Singing Word: Maori Poetry. Wellington: Price Milburn for Victoria University Press. ISBN 978-0-7055-0369-3.
• Pōmare, Mīria (3 March 2017). "Ngāti Toarangatira – Chant composed by Te Rauparaha". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
• Ryan, Greg (1993). Forerunners of the All Blacks. Christchurch, New Zealand: Canterbury University Press. ISBN 978-0-908812-30-1.
• Simon, Hemopereki (6 August 2013), "Haka and Its Appropriation", Indigenous Studies (INDS130), Wollongong: University of Wollongong
• Simon, Hemopereki (2015). "Me Haka I te Haka a Tānerore?: Māori 'Post-War' Culture and the Place of Haka in Commemoration at Gallipoli". Australasian Canadian Studies. 32 (1).
• Smith, Valance (22 October 2014a). "'Kapa haka – Māori performing arts – 19th-century kapa haka". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
• Smith, Valance (22 October 2014b). "Kapa haka – Māori performing arts – Kapa haka in the 21st century". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Archived from the original on 17 November 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
• Walker, Ranginui (2004). Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou. Auckland: Penguin.

External links

• Haka – A New Zealand icon
• Waihere Dance Group, Original Maori Haka Dance via YouTube