haka

The Maori word haka is a noun and verb meaning, broadly, a vigorous performance involving rhythmic stamping, tongue protrusion, wide-open eyes, rhythmic chanting, and choreographed arm and body movements. The etymology connects to an older Proto-Polynesian root *saka, related to concepts of exertion, excitement, and vigorous physical expression. Within the family of Polynesian movement and chant traditions, haka belongs to a broader category of performed actions that includes the Hawaiian hula (which derives from related Polynesian roots), the Samoan siva and fa'ataupati, and other choreographed movement traditions that combine chant, rhythm, and specific body gesture as integrated communicative form. The Maori language has an elaborate taxonomy of haka types: haka taparahi are performed without weapons; peruperu are performed with weapons; haka ngeri are short forms of intense energy; haka tu wahine are performed by women. Each type has its own protocols, its own appropriate occasions, and its own relationship to the mana (spiritual authority and social standing) of the performers.

The most widely known haka in the world is Ka Mate, composed by the Ngati Toa chief Te Rauparaha around 1820 CE and performed by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team since 1905. Ka Mate has a specific narrative — it commemorates Te Rauparaha's escape from enemies who sought his life, his concealment in a kumara pit by a friendly chief, and his emergence into sunlight — and its words ('Ka mate, ka mate! Ka ora, ka ora!' — 'I die, I die! I live, I live!') express the exultation of survival against odds. The haka's association with New Zealand rugby internationals has given it global recognition far beyond any other indigenous Pacific performance tradition, and the All Blacks' pre-match haka has been both celebrated as a powerful cultural expression and criticized as a potential vehicle for the decontextualization and commercialization of a sacred Maori tradition.

The range of occasions for which haka are performed in Maori tradition is considerably wider than the war-challenge associations that international audiences have acquired from rugby. Haka are performed at tangihanga (funerals) to honor the dead; at hui (community gatherings) to welcome important guests; at powhiri (welcoming ceremonies) to receive visitors to a marae (meeting place); at graduations, sports victories, and cultural celebrations; and in school contexts as part of the broader curriculum in Te Ao Maori (the Maori world). Each performance requires that the haka being performed be owned — in Maori intellectual property terms, haka are compositions with specific tribal or collective authorship, and performing a haka without the appropriate cultural authority or without acknowledging its ownership is considered a form of cultural misappropriation within Maori society. The intellectual property dimension of haka has become increasingly important in international disputes about the use of Maori cultural expressions in commercial contexts.

The word haka entered English through early nineteenth-century accounts of Maori culture by missionaries, travelers, and colonial officials in New Zealand. The Reverend Samuel Marsden's early accounts of Maori warfare and ceremony used 'haka' in a specifically war-dance context that influenced the persistent (but incomplete) identification of haka with warfare in European understanding. Joseph Banks, during Cook's 1769 voyage to New Zealand, described witnessing what was almost certainly a haka performed on the shore as the Endeavour approached, and noted its intimidating character without using the Maori word. The systematic documentation of haka as a musical and literary form began with the work of Maori scholars in the twentieth century, particularly Sir Apirana Ngata, whose collections of Maori songs and haka in the mid-twentieth century preserved an enormous corpus of traditional compositions that had previously existed only in oral transmission.