Kapa Haka

This weekend we went to see a Maori presentation of Kapa Haka Super 12s at the harbor downtown Auckland. This is a traditional Maori song and dance routine that consists of a few different elements, including the traditional Haka which consists of chanting, stomping and of course the crazy, intense stares and facial expressions such as the one to the right.






Most of the groups we saw were dressed in traditional clothing and played their own instruments, usually a guitar and some sort of drum. An example of the traditional clothes can be seen here. Grass skirts and painted faces.







While the men generally did the scary intimidating parts, the women danced a slower, calmer dance which consisted of swirling around a 'poi', or a ball attached to the end of a string. Most of the routines had some comedic aspect, but only some used enough body language for us to understand- the whole performance was in the Maori language.



Overall, it was very interesting to see the cultural performances and listen to the good music, even if we couldn't understand the words.