The Secondary School Regional Kapa Haka Competition is the premier Māori event and only competitve Kapa Haka in Otago and Southland. Te Hautoka’s primary objective is to celebrate and encourage excellence in Te Reo Māori, the Māori Language, and Māori Performing Arts. First and second placed teams qualify for the National Secondary School Kapa Haka competition, which is second only to ‘Te Matatini’ in quality and size as a celebration of Māori performing arts.
This competition serves to bring together many of the different strands of the work we do. It blends it all together in to a 30 minute performance that showcases all of the different aspects of that work. Working towards this as a goal helps also to focus our rangatahi in order to motivate them, inspire them and educate them. It gives our Titirei (Youth Leaders) many opportunities to show their worth in leadership, it also gives others who are not part of the Titirei programme opportunities to show their leadership potential. Titirei were supported to organise, lead and teach a team of 45 rangatahi to execute their movements as one, to perform each waiata with the intensity and wairua implicit in each.
Physical fitness, knowledge and use of rākau and patu are key to performing at the highest level. This is a 30 minute very physical programme that incorporates haka, waiata, rākau, patu and poi in to an intricately choreographed programme that highlights different types of waiata and Māori Movement all on a foundation of traditional stories. Knowing the stories and understanding the waiata and haka is also important in order to perform them to the best of your ability. We believe that our focus on physical fitness in a Māori cultural context alongside the work we do with leadership and the incorporation of our local stories gives our rakatahi an edge in performance.
The benefit of the aspects of culture that you learn, te reo Māori, cultural understanding, whakapapa, history, stories, whakataukī, tikanga, and kawa is immeasurable. The skills that you learn, teamwork, perseverance, confidence, coordination, leadership, teaching, facilitation, critical thinking, time management, punctuality, and mental resilience help to embolden you in your life.
Last year in our build up to the National competition we pushed the message that we weren’t in it for the competition, we were in it to put on our absolute best performance. We carried that message forward again this year into our regional competition. This year, with that messaging in the forefront of their minds, the kapa produced an absolutely stunning performance. When we came off the stage we could say without a shadow of a doubt, that what we had produced on the stage that day, was our absolute best and stood above any of our previous performances. It was a strong polished performance with everyone performing at a very high level. Well worth the hours of practice, sweat and tears to get there.
Over the last few years we have seen how the contribution of our Titirei and other senior members to the bracket either through developing choreography and actions, song or haka composition, or musical arrangement benefits the whole kapa and the type of energy the kapa brings to the stage. This year again our Titirei were heavily involved in all aspects of the bracket. We believe that, alongside the other factors we’ve mentioned, their involvement and ownership of the bracket and material is the reason the group's performance lifted to another level above any performance the group had done previously.
Wairua Pūhou, the Otago Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools kapa also put on their best performance so far. In fact, all the groups in the competition had raised the levels of their own performances from previous years. We were fortunate enough to be placed first overall in an extremely tight competition.
The Team
Kaitātaki
Tūmai Cassidy - Tūmai really took a lead this year supported by his cousin Kiliona. He facilitated the group with confidence, really led from the front and helped the team lift their performance to a higher level.
Monique Tahere - 2019 was a tough year for Monique. She reluctantly took on the role of Kaitātaki near the end of the campaign and rose to the challenge showing exactly why she deserved the role. She led with power and strength and commanded the stage.
Te Kapa
Preparation: Due to tangi and other kaupapa this year, our preparation was probably the most inconsistent that we have ever had leading in to a competition. There were also a number of personal issues to deal with that, once settled really lifted the energy of the group.
Choreography: The extra movement and fitness work to ensure that movement was well executed really paid off and was the difference between 1st and 2nd place. The bracket looked amazing. Kiliona, Tūmai, Abby and Monique put a lot of effort and thought into the team’s movement and it showed.
Bracket: We had six of our seven items, Tira, Whakaeke, Pātere, ā-Ringa, Poi and Haka, mostly complete a couple of weeks out. The Whakawātea was in development late but ready to go the week before.
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