The haka is a traditional war or ceremonial dance which involves a group of people(usually
warriors) using a variety of vigorous movements, stomping of feet and rhythmic shouts
performed in unison to create a powerful and authoritative gesture towards their opponents, or
as a way of celebration. It is usually associated with the Maori culture and the All Blacks rugby
team. Not many people know about the history or meaning of the haka, how it is used today,
and the different types of Haka that there are but rather, if at all, a basic knowledge acquired
from watching the all blacks.
To understand the significance of the haka, we have to know about the history and culture of the
Maori people. The Polynesians are said to have come over and inhabited New Zealand around
the year 1300 making it the Newest and most recent country where people have settled. The
population of the Maori culture may have even reached 100,000 before the Europeans became
aware that the country existed in 1642, by this time there were distinct tribes or Iwi 1between the
people and battles broke out as a result of Mana2, land and natural resources. This is when they
would perform the haka, it is possible that both Iwi would perform their own haka before
engaging in hand to hand combat. Although people did die during battle, the Maori made sure to
always make peace after a war and even married with a member of the other tribe to ensure
peace between them, a haka would also be used then.
There are many different reasons that the haka is performed, it originally started out as a war
dance that the Maori performed before fighting battles in order to invoke the god of war,
physically and mentally prepare them, and frighten the enemy, and prepare themselves for
battle. This is partially the case for the national New Zealand rugby team the All Blacks who
perform a haka before every match. Although they are not the only team to perform a haka or
war dance before a game, they are known for it best as the team does the most successful.
Haka are also performed for ceremonial reasons like funerals, weddings or welcoming special
guests
Before you worry that people are trying to invoke the god of war at a wedding, you should know
that there is more than one type of haka and they have different meanings and reasons to be
performed. The haka used at a wedding or other ceremonial place would be something like a
ngeri haka, and does not use weapons as it has a different purpose. Its purpose is to uplift the
performers and viewers rather than strike fear in them like the peruperu haka which is
performed by maori before battles. In the case of this haka, the performers would do a lot of
jumping up and down, if the jumping was not in unison they would believe that to be a sign of
bad luck and may even leave the person behind.
While you can divide haka into categories based on if they involve weapons or not, you can
also divide them into whether or not they have set actions. For example the haka that is usually
performed by the All Blacks called Ka mate maori for I may die, and was made by a Maori
1 Iwi; Mori word for a set of people bound together by descent from a common ancestor or
ancestors. Literally: bone. Modern meaning: tribe."
2 Mana; pervasive supernatural or magical power.
war leader named Te Rauparaha, is a haka which has a set of actions that they follow while
performing, but a ngeri haka is one that the dancer has more freedom and ability to express
his/her own actions. There are many more haka than people may realize and they are all
different from each other, and have different meanings, but for all Maori the haka is haka had a
very powerful meaning and is always performed from a person's heart.
The significance of the haka comes partly from the variety of its uses like preparing for war,
celebrate, or to welcome a guest, to the history and background of the Maori people. It shows
us that working as a team is often the best way to complete/perform something to its fullest
potential, which is shown very strongly in the All Blacks resulting in why they are so successful. I
am very interested in the Maori culture and hope to learn more.
