Borrowed Haka, Eight Weeks Out
A Year 11 kapa haka rōpū at a Waikato secondary school has 26 performers - 14 girls and 12 boys - and eight weeks until a regional festival. They rehearse three times a week for 90 minutes, but the gym is available only twice; the third rehearsal is in a classroom with tables pushed aside and no room for full formation. Their tutor, a local kuia, will be away for three weeks caring for whānau. The student leaders have found a video of a Ngāti Porou haka and want to replace the group's own haka, which they call 'weak'. The festival requires one haka, one poi, one waiata-ā-ringa and one waiata tira within a 12-minute set. Only eight students know the poi item, and the group has never performed poi as a full rōpū. Two senior boys lead the haka well, but one has a knee injury that stops him kneeling. As the teacher in charge, you must decide what to advise.
1. Before the rōpū decides whether to replace its haka with the Ngāti Porou haka, what needs to be established? Explain how each factor would change your advice.
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Several factors must be separated.
- Whakapapa and permission: a haka from another iwi carries whakapapa. Using it without the source whānau or iwi's consent is a mana issue, not only a copyright one. Advice changes if a Ngāti Porou kaumātua explicitly permits it and agrees to teach the dialect and actions.
- Dialect and actions: a video cannot correct subtle pronunciation or regional action differences. Without a source teacher, the risk of misperformance is high.
- Local relationships: the school's haukāinga may expect local items first. Replacing a local haka with a borrowed one could weaken the rōpū's connection to its own marae.
- Time and quality: eight weeks with the tutor away for three is not enough to learn a new haka properly. The existing haka may look weak because of rehearsal time, not composition.
- Festival rules and set balance: check whether local composition is expected. A borrowed haka does not fix the poi gap.
My advice: do not replace the haka now. Ask permission to learn it later, and use the eight weeks to strengthen the existing item with local support.
2. Produce an eight-week rehearsal plan that deals with the gym shortage, the tutor's absence and the poi gap. Justify the trade-offs you make.
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Weeks 1–3: use the classroom for reo, lyrics and individual poi drills; use the gym twice for formation and full runs. Record video and send it to the tutor. Ask a local whaea or kaumātua to take two sessions. Start peer teaching: each of the eight poi-confident students teaches two others, aiming for 16 secure performers by week 5.
Weeks 4–6: tutor returns. Prioritise full runs in the gym, then polish the haka. Set a realistic poi target: if 26 cannot be secure, perform poi with 16 and keep the others in the waiata-ā-ringa. Do not let the 12-minute limit force four weak items; check whether the festival permits three.
Weeks 7–8: dress rehearsals in the hall with the actual sound and space; video review.
The trade-off is unequal time. Poi gets extra because only eight know it; the waiata tira gets less because it is the least risky. Justify this to the group openly so no item feels abandoned.
3. How should the injured senior leader be managed so that leadership and safety are both protected?
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Put safety first: the boy should not kneel if it risks his knee. Get medical advice. Then protect his leadership rather than removing him. Options: adapt the haka to a standing stance if the tutor and composer allow; make him co-leader with the other senior boy, with him leading the opening call and the other leading the movements; or move him to a role in the waiata-ā-ringa while he recovers.
Explain the change to the rōpū as an adaptation, not a demotion. Rehearse the backup leader so the group is not dependent on one person. If adapting the haka would change its meaning or break tikanga, do not perform that haka; choose a different item. Safety and mana are both protected by transparent, early decisions.