Haka! Speaking With Every Move

Overview

If you think that haka is just about a stirring start to a rugby game, check out Haka!, an exhibition at the Auckland Centre of the National Library at the bottom of Stanley Street.

Haka! gives New Zealanders and visitors an opportunity to increase their understanding that haka extends beyond the sports field and is deeply embedded in Maori culture, language, and identity. Haka brings visitors on to a marae; celebrates a wedding; marks death at a tangi; delivers a message to the authorities; recalls an important event; challenges an opponent. Where something important is to be said, haka helps say it.

Haka! shows photographs from the rich collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library alongside some great film footage and audio from a range of sources to show the tradition of haka and its continuing central importance in today’s world.

Images of the Maori Battalion haka for the King of Greece in Egypt and the 1905 “The Originals” All Blacks performing before a test against England, contrast with contemporary shots of haka from the modern All Blacks and the winning 2011 Matatini kapa haka team in full flight.

Haka! begins in The Window at the National Library in Auckland concludes April 6, 2012. It is free to enter and all are welcome. The exhibition is part of the REAL New Zealand Festival.

[© Photo credit: Alexander Turnbull Library]