Kapa Haka Festival Boosts Academic Research

Media Release

Kapa Haka Festival Boosts Academic Research

EIT staff have been drawing on their leadership and research skills as they gear up for next month’s Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival in Christchurch.

Forty-five groups from throughout New Zealand and Australia will represent their iwi at the four-day festival, which is expected to attract up to 30,000 participants, supporters and spectators. The 40 or so performers in each group will be matched by a roughly equal number of supporters whose roles include cheerleading and babysitting.

EIT academics are included in three of the four groups representing Ngati Kahungunu at the celebration and showcase for Maori performing arts. Similarly, up the coast, EIT has staff in two of the four groups representing Te Tairawhiti.

A performer in the Ngati Kahungunu ki Heretaunga group, EIT’s Māori and Pacific Island liaison advisor Lee Kershaw-Karaitiana says composing waiata for the event involves a significant amount of research.

“These are sacred discussions which encompass stories about history and the background of historical figures in an iwi,” Lee says of songs specially written to perform at the festival.

The waiata will encompass a group’s entrance onto the stage, the moteatea (a traditional song used at significant occasions such as tangihanga), the action song waiata a-ringa, the poi, the haka ringa, which will typically focus on current issues, and finally the whakawatea which concludes the bracket and accompanies the performers as they exit from the stage.

“A lot of time and effort goes into composing these different elements,” Lee says. “It can take perhaps four months for research and composition and the same again to perfect the harmonies and choreography to prepare for 25 minutes on stage.”

EIT staff taking part include Professor Derek Lardelli, from Toihoukura, the School of Māori Visual Arts and Design on the Tairāwhiti campus in Gisborne, who is leading Whāngārā Mai Tawhiti.

Matewai Timu-Fosio, a lecturer at EIT Hawke’s Bay ’s Te Uranga Waka, will lead the Parearau group and new staff member Jackie Ham is also a member of this group.

Others taking part include EIT director Maori Tuhakia Keepa, Te Whatukura’s Joe Pihema and Tairawhiti Toi Reo lecturer Ruth Smith (all in Ngati Porou’s Waihirere group), Te Uranga Waka lecturer Parekura Rohe-Belmont (Te Rerenga Kotuku, winner of the Kahungunu regional competition), IT services administrator Rudolph Tuhura (Te Tu Mataora from Rangitane) and EIT Hawke’s Bay fashion design student Te Orihau Karaitiana (Ngati Kahungunu ki Heretaunga).

The number of groups representing an iwi varies, with up to six groups entered from larger iwi.

“It’s about whanau and being together,” Lee says of Te Matatini. “People really look forward to it. It’s about commitment and love. You are representing your iwi, so a lot rests on your shoulders.”

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