NZ Scholarship Te Ao Haka key terms

A performed composition of movement, voice, and facial expression, often group-based, that carries a message about identity, history, grief, protest, welcome, or celebration. It is not simply a dance, and it is not limited to the well-known war-style forms.

A haka performed without weapons, usually standing, and often the main vehicle for poetic and political content. The focus sits on the words, the footwork, and the massed voice rather than on weapon choreography.

A haka performed with weapons, traditionally associated with battle preparation and demonstrations of readiness. It is characterised by vigorous movement, leaping, and weapon handling, and is judged on precision and unison.

An action song, typically with a leader and chorus, where hand movements and body gestures illustrate the lyric. It often follows a haka in a performance set and can carry love, lament, or political commentary.

A traditional song, including laments, lullabies, and love songs, passed down through generations. Its texts are a major source of poetic imagery and historical detail, and it is often performed at tangihanga and on marae.

The entrance item in a group performance, moving the performers onto the stage or arena. It sets tone and often uses haka, waiata, or chant to announce the group's identity and purpose before the set continues.

The closing item that clears the stage and ends a group's performance set. It can be a haka, chant, or song, and often returns to themes raised earlier, giving the set shape and closure.

A challenge offered to visiting groups, historically involving a warrior testing intent and today often performed with a taki or small dart. It forms part of pōwhiri and signals that the visitors will be formally received.

A deliberate, intense facial expression with widened eyes and protruding tongue, used at climactic moments to intensify emotion, defiance, or grief. It is a controlled performance technique, not a casual gesture, and its timing carries meaning.

The protruding tongue used within pūkana and certain haka and haka-influenced forms. Historically associated with defiance and readiness, it is today a stylised expressive device whose appropriateness depends on context and form.

The hands and arms, and by extension the hand actions that carry meaning in waiata ā-ringa and haka. Ringa movements can depict objects, emotions, or landscape, and their synchronisation is a key judging criterion.

The legs and feet, and the footwork patterns that anchor a haka. Stamping, shifting, and leaping must be coordinated across the group, and the waewae often drive the rhythm and the percussive impact of the item.

A performer of haka, whether a member of a group or a leader within it. The term foregrounds the performer's responsibility for accuracy, energy, and respect for the composition and its history.

A composer, the person who creates the words and structure of a haka or song. Composition involves selecting imagery, rhythm, and references that suit the occasion and the community for whom the item is made.

Genealogy and the layered connections between people, ancestors, lands, and natural phenomena. In composition and analysis, whakapapa grounds references to tūpuna, tribal boundaries, and the authority to tell a particular story.

Traditional narratives and knowledge passed down across generations, including genealogies, migration accounts, and origin stories. Composers draw on these narratives for allusion, and analysis requires identifying which narrative is being invoked and why.

A traditional story or narrative account, often explaining origins, values, or relationships between people and the environment. In haka analysis, pūrākau supply the backstory that gives compressed poetic references their force.

Ancestors, the forebears from whom a person or group descends. Haka frequently address or invoke tūpuna, and knowing who is being named helps explain tone, obligation, and the authority behind a composition.

A deity or supernatural being in Māori cosmology, such as Tāne, Tūmatauenga, or Tangaroa. Haka and chant often invoke atua to frame human action within a wider cosmological order.

A prayer, incantation, or ritual utterance spoken to establish spiritual readiness and safety. Karakia can open a performance event or precede a haka, and understanding its role helps explain the protocol surrounding performance.

The atua associated with war, conflict, and human endeavour. Haka with martial content frequently reference him, and identifying such allusions helps explain the stance and tone a composition adopts.

Prestige, authority, and spiritual power that a person or group holds and that is affirmed or diminished through action. In performance analysis, mana explains why accuracy, humility, and correct attribution matter so much.

A state of sacred restriction that governs how certain places, people, objects, or knowledge may be approached. Composers and performers must respect tapū when handling material drawn from particular whakapapa or ritual contexts.

A word, and by extension the vocabulary of a composition. Close analysis of kupu means examining choice, connotation, and register, including whether a term is archaic, dialectal, or drawn from a particular tribal tradition.

A proverb or fixed saying that compresses inherited wisdom into memorable form. Composers embed whakataukī to invoke ancestral authority, and analysts are expected to identify the saying and explain how it reshapes the surrounding lines.

A colloquial idiom or informal expression used in everyday speech. Its appearance in a haka can signal a shift in register, humour, or intimacy, and it may date a composition or locate it within a community.

A simile or comparison introduced by words such as 'rite' or 'pēnei', linking one thing to another. Identifying the vehicle and tenor of a comparison is a core analytical move when discussing haka imagery.

Metaphor and figurative language more broadly, where one concept stands in for another without an explicit comparison marker. Haka often compress landscape, ancestor, and emotion into a single image, so unpacking huahuatau is central to analysis.

Genealogical recitation embedded within a composition, naming ancestors in ordered sequence. Such passages assert connection and authority, and they require the performer to know the line accurately, since errors are significant.

A melodic line or tune, and also the pitch movement of a chant. In analysis, describing the rangi means discussing contour, repetition, and how melody supports the emotional arc of the text.

A short chant or recitative delivered in a heightened, rhythmic speech style, often by a leader. It differs from sung waiata in pitch range and delivery, and it frequently introduces or closes a performance item.

A lullaby-like song composed for a child, often weaving genealogy, tribal history, and aspirations into its lyric. It is a rich source of poetic imagery and shows how composition can instruct as well as soothe.

The customary practices and protocols that govern how things are done, including who may speak, stand, or perform where. Understanding tikanga allows a candidate to explain why a performance is structured as it is, not just what happens.

That which is right, correct, or appropriate in a given context. Judgements about tika underpin critical reflection on whether a composition, attribution, or performance choice respects the people and knowledge involved.

The formal welcome process in which hosts and visitors move through speeches, challenge, and greeting. Haka performed within it carry particular functions, and analysis should distinguish ritual welcome performance from stage or competitive performance.

The communal courtyard and its surrounding buildings, including the wharenui, where gatherings and performances take place. The marae is a physical and social context that shapes what may be performed and by whom.

The mourning process following a death, involving days of speeches, song, and gathering on the marae. Many haka and waiata are composed for or performed at tangihanga, and their tone reflects grief, farewell, and continuity.

A person skilled and fearless in performance, particularly in haka. The term is used approvingly of performers whose energy, precision, and commitment lift the whole group.