The Kiwiana-fication of Ka Mate

By Cameron McCausland-Taylor

When you type up Kiwiana in Google, you will come across a 100% Pure New Zealand article talking about Kiwiana as a “range of quirky objects” that contribute to Aotearoa’s nationhood. However, you will also come across a Kiwiana page on Wikipedia, in which there is a distinct Māoritanga section listing things like hei-tiki, pounamu, and lastly, the haka. My whakaaro is that our Māoritanga should not belong within the Kiwiana space, specifically focusing on the haka “Ka Mate” within this article and how it has been “Kiwiana-fied”.

The haka Ka Mate is performed by the All Blacks before every rugby game, which has now extended to other New Zealand sports teams, such as the Black Ferns. Ka Mate was created in 1820 by Ngāti Toa war leader Te Rauparaha, a celebration of life after escaping enemies from Ngāti Maniapoto and Waikato.

In Leonie Hayden’s article Whakawhiti te rā: New Zealand sport, haka and the Māori perspective, they garnered opinions from Nicole Timu, a former post-graduate student in physical education at Otago University, who did an entire thesis on haka in sport from a kaupapa Māori perspective. She said the reason she chose this topic was because of the ‘glaringly obvious’ ignorance people had about the meaning and purpose of haka, raising the risks of haka in sport such as appropriation and stigmatisation.

Ever since its introduction into the sports space, Ka Mate has attracted many takes and many controversies. Some examples are -

• Recently the women’s soccer teams from both Spain and the Netherlands came under fire for mocking the haka, deeply disrespecting our culture in the process.

• An over 2-minute haka slot in the World Rugby U20 Championship against Wales earlier this year was criticised on Twitter for being “more like a West End production than a cultural ritual”.

• In 2022 before a Wallabies vs All Blacks match, the Wallabies placed a boomerang down as a wero (challenge), receiving extreme backlash from player Reiko Loane who accused the team of disrespecting the haka.

• Bakery Industry Association of New Zealand created a promotional video for the Bakery of the Year Awards, depicting gingerbread doing the haka… This threw me for a loop. Who decided that was okay? I just wanna talk.

Last year, we also had the infamous anti-mandate protest outside Parliament in Wellington, in which a group of protestors performed Ka Mate. Ngāti Toa themselves opposed this use of the haka, saying that these protests were promoting individual perspectives over collective needs, despite many protestors claiming tino rangatiratanga.

As said in Timu’s thesis, tino rangtiratanga or selfdetermination includes maintaining and protecting our cultural knowledge, tradition, and heritage. An interviewee within Timu’s thesis compared the American way of taking other people’s cultures and using them to Pakeha claiming haka as part of ‘Kiwi’ culture instead of its rightful place within Māori culture. ‘Kiwis’ aren’t entitled to Māori culture that they pick and choose at their disposal.

One way in which we’ve seen an attempt at Ka Mate’s protection is actually from the UK, who made a commitment to protect the haka in a UK-NZ free trade deal in late 2021. Unexpected flex from the land of the colonisers, but I’ll take it! Of course, no deal is ever going to stop people from cultural appropriation, but the deal was intended to prevent Ka Mate from being used in commercial settings within the UK. Now, if we could get some kind of deal like that going in our own government so we don’t have another gingerbread incident, that would be much appreciated.

On one hand, I do love to see Māori representation in all areas, especially in such a popular domain from one of the world’s best rugby teams. I imagine our tīpuna beaming with pride as they watch our culture be proudly promoted on the field, and I’m sure that the All Blacks and other sports teams are well-prepped and educated on the haka before execution. My heart also melts whenever I see our tamariki doing the haka alongside our teams on TV - our tīpuna’s wildest dreams come true.

However, inappropriately using Ka Mate, or any haka for that matter, tramples on the haka’s mana, as well as our tīpuna who created it. We hear a lot of kōrero, in many areas, about increasing diversity and inclusivity. Like I said, I tautoko this and I’m always a fan of Māori representation. But it’s no wonder Māori are hesitant to share our taonga with the wider community, fearful of how it will be butchered.

Like Timu says, haka is used to retain knowledge passed down through generations, as well as to demonstrate and reinforce whakapapa. An interviewee also suggested that haka channels generations, meaning performances ‘should not be taken lightly’, as well as another saying a player’s tīpuna may give them the ihi for the game if they do it well. So, maybe next time you see your tauiwi mate crack out the haka when they’re drunk, nip it in the bud. They’re not harnessing their tīpuna; they’re probably harnessing someone else’s. If I was the tipuna being awoken, I would be pissed to have my peaceful rest broken for that shitty performance.

I don’t wish Ka Mate to be removed from sports, as I hope the positives of representation and honouring our culture in te ao Pākeha outweigh the negatives. Perhaps the way to go about it is what Timu suggested - hashing it out over a Māori-only table, trying to find a balance between how much or how little is shared. Perhaps a fresh haka could be created, in order to eliminate risks of appropriation and stigma being mixed with the mana of Te Rauparaha and Ngāti Toa. I don’t have the be all, end all solution, but the Kiwiana-fication of Ka Mate doesn’t sit well with me in the slightest, as I’m sure is the case for many. Ka Mate integrated into a deeply Pākeha ‘Kiwi’ culture is not our tīpuna’s wildest dream.

Glossary:

Māoritanga - Māori culture, traditions and way of life

Hei tiki - ornamental neck pendant, carved in human form

Pounamu - greenstone

Tino rangatiratanga- self-determination, sovereignty, independence, etc

Tīpuna – ancestors

Tipuna – ancestor

Tamariki - children

Mana - prestige, authority, etc

Kōrero - conversation, discussion, etc

Tautoko - support

Taonga - treasure

Whakapapa - genealogy

Ihi - excitement, thrill, etc

Tauiwi - non-Māori

Te ao Pākeha - the Pākeha world