Kapa Haka learning story

Kapa Haka.

Do you have any idea what it feels like to be in kapa haka, well I do, it is the greatest feeling also a tired one too!

For many years I have been in kapa haka. I am in it because I am representing my culture, Maori. It’s like there was one piece missing and kapa haka was the perfect piece and filled it in.

Kapa haka is a place where you can be yourself by Sharing your singing with others and being confident and a leader for the song or haka. Once you join you need to get that old self that has been telling you that you can’t do anything but you can, you just need to leave that behind and be who you are.

Our tutors gave us this best opportunity to be in kapa haka. Their names are Matoa Todd and Whaea Clare. They gave us the strength to use the power of the haka, not for violence but for beauty. It’s used for the songs that we sing beautifully. As I was saying, giving this opportunity to us is a big deal because it means that we’re not just doing it for fun, we are doing it for the school so when they see how we do it in kapa haka they may want to join too. The more the merrier. And it makes you feel proud.

While I was writing this learning story I could hear the melody of our singing coming through my ears. The songs that we are doing now are called Ihoa, Hareruia and Papaki Titaha, I feel like that there is one more but I can’t seem to remember it. Anyhoo as I was saying, these songs are the precious things that keeps Kapa haka alive. When we sing we sound amazing, there may be a few twinks that we need to fix but still, we sound great.

But in the end, when we finish everything we feel good about ourselves for what we have done, about how hard we put in the work, it just feels so good. As we keep improving the more it will look and sound good.

Ehara taku toa

I te toa takitahi

Engari, he toa

Takitini

Success is not the work of one,

but the work of many.