haka

The tradition & historical record

Haka (; singular and plural haka, in both Māori and New Zealand English) are a variety of ceremonial dances in Maoli, Maohi, and Māori culture. A performance art, haka are often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment. Haka have been traditionally performed by both men and women for a variety of social functions throughout Polynesia. They are performed to welcome distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements, occasions, or funerals. In New Zealand, Kapa haka groups are common in schools. The main Māori performing arts competition, Te Matatini, takes place every two years. ²

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. 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. ²

The group of people performing a haka is referred to as a kapa haka (kapa meaning group or team, and also rank or row). 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'. ²

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." ²

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. Hyland comments that "the 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'". ²

Haka includes various forms serving different ceremonial purposes. These functions include: ²

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). 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: ²

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). ²

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), 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. ²

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Haka”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ²

haka is traditional Māori chanting dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 10 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹