Te Ao Haka: Forms, Composition and the Power of Performance
Te Ao Haka at Level 3 is a single domain, but it tests three linked skills: knowing the forms of Māori performance art, explaining how an item is built from its take (theme), kupu and rangi, and evaluating how performance generates ihi, wehi and wana for the audience. Answers are expected to use the terminology of the art form itself, with te reo Māori kupu, rather than general music or drama vocabulary.
Ngā momo haka
- Haka taparahi – no weapons; footwork, pūkana and strong unison; often opened by a whakaaraara.
- Haka peruperu – performed with weapons (taiaha, patu) and jumping; historically a war haka, and an item where faulty takahi was traditionally read as an ill omen.
- Ngeri – short, weaponless, with free expressive movement rather than set actions; often a whakaaraara in form.
- Poi – a wāhine-led item; short and long poi, judged on unison and the sound and rhythm of the poi.
- Waiata-ā-ringa – composed action song, frequently topical or a farewell.
- Mōteatea and pātere – chant without actions; pātere is the faster, driving form. Hīmene shows mission-era influence.
Te hanganga o te haka
Every item can be read through its take (the issue or theme), whakaaraara (the call that opens and settles the group), kupu (poetic language, whakataukī, tūpuna names), rangi (tune, often descending), takahi (footwork), ngā mahi ā-ringa, and the kaitātaki tāne/wāhine who lead. Whakakapi closes the item.
Worked example
Question: explain how a haka taparahi about a hapū's tūpuna creates wehi. Reasoning: name the take first (ancestral loss and endurance); then show the whakaaraara drawing the group and audience into a shared space; then cite two specific features - a pūkana landing on the line naming the tūpuna, and a change in takahi that drives the tempo - and link each to the audience's response (wana as the thrill, wehi as awe) and to the mana of the hapū. Evidence from kupu and performance, then the effect.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling every item a "war dance"; haka is a genre, not one form.
- Confusing peruperu with taparahi.
- Describing actions without linking them to take, ihi or mana.
- Mixing ihi (the force in the performer), wehi (awe felt) and wana (the thrill).
- Ignoring tikanga: kākahu, taonga, and role of kaitātaki.