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Maori Haka

Thursday, 9 November 2006 : Filed under: Auckland E-Mail This Article

Maori Haka
While visiting the Auckland Museum, we watched a Maori group perform many traditional dances including the war dance, or Haka, shown above.

Haka is a dance traditionally performed by Maori (New Zealand natives of Polynesian descent) wariors before a battle, intended to intimidate the enemy. While performing Haka, Maori wariors stick out their tongues, dilate and contract their eyes so they appear to bulge with white, stomp, slap their chests, and chant.

Haka is also performed by the New Zealand national rugby team, the All Blacks, before matches.

After the show, we explored the museum. It is huge, and I only had time for the first floor (Maori Court) dedicated to Maori history and culture. A large part of Maori Court is filled with carvings that resemble what we would call totem poles, but with distinctively Maori designs. Most feature faces sticking their tongues out. There were also large collections of Maori tools, clothing, jewelry, and weapons as well as an exhibit showing similar items from different polynesian islands. The Polynesian people spread from southeast Asia through Melenasia (New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, etc.) and then to Polynesia (Somoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, French Polynesia/Tahiti, Marshal Islands, Easter Island, New Zealand, etc). New Zealand was one of the last stops, believed to be populated around 1000AD.

6 Comments »

Comment by Adam & Ashley — November 10, 2006 @ 6:06 pm

Hey Josh, how do they dilate and contract their eyes? By the way we found a website that tells you the current time anywhere in the world so we were wondering…what’s it like in the future? (its worldtimezone.com, btw)

Comment by josh — November 10, 2006 @ 6:12 pm

I have no idea how they do it…I guess they practice. Here is an exerp from haka.co.nz:

“Also essential to the art of haka are pukana (dilating of the eyes), whetero (protruding of the tongue performed by men only), ngangahu (similar to pukana, performed by both sexes), and potete (the closing of the eyes at different points in the dance, performed by the women only). These expressions are used at various times in the performance to lend meaning and force to the words.

It is important to realise that haka are generally not uniformly enacted, with all participants acting in time. The best haka involve a good deal of spontaneity and creativity as the performers interpret the words and feel the power of the haka take hold of them.”

The future is alright. It is Saturday morning. But every day is kindof like Saturday here.

Comment by Clara Hoover — November 10, 2006 @ 11:48 pm

I just thought it was the camera angle with the whites of their eyes captured by the flash in a somewhat dim room. Very interesting research, Josh.

Comment by Louise Shimon — November 12, 2006 @ 10:40 am

I had wondered about the “dilating of the eyes” thing, too. Wondering how they did that. So, I’m glad I’m not the only one that didn’t know!

Comment by jeff — November 12, 2006 @ 4:39 pm

Looks like I could fit right in with them!!

Comment by Chris — November 17, 2006 @ 10:09 pm

These guys are awesome. If I ever have an army, they’re gonna be my warriors.

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