Haka in popular culture

An animation of an amateur New Zealand rugby team performing the Haka in front of Trafalgar Square in London, England

The haka is a traditional Māori dance form. The use of haka in popular culture is a growing phenomenon, originally from New Zealand. Traditionally, haka were used only in Māori cultural contexts, but today haka are used in a wide range of public occasions to impart a sense of importance of the event.

New Zealand sports teams

For over 100 years the All Blacks have had a tradition of performing a haka before games. This has become the most widely known use of the haka, but several other New Zealand sports teams now perform the haka before commencing a game. These include rugby league (the Kiwis), the national Australian rules football team (The Hawks), basketball (Tall Blacks), wheelchair rugby (Wheel Blacks)^[1] and Ice Hockey (Ice Blacks).

In addition to this planned, formalised usage, teams and supporters now often perform impromptu haka as a celebration or encouragement.^[2] At the Sydney Olympics in 2000 these uses of the haka were numerous enough to draw some negative comment.^[3][4]

Use by non-New Zealand sports teams

A number of sports teams outside of New Zealand have adopted the haka, most notably the American football teams of Brigham Young University, University of Hawaii and Trinity High School in Euless, Texas as well as the Highland Rugby Team. Both the Coventry Jets and the London Olympians, British American Football teams, have, on occasions, performed the haka before their games. Both squads have had a large number of Polynesian players over the past 5 years.

Military

The haka is also performed by members of the New Zealand Defence Force as a show of solidarity such as during funerals of fallen comrades.^[5] All three services have their own haka. The New Zealand Army has a haka composed specifically for them called Tu Taua a Tumatauenga.

Schools

• A large proportion of New Zealand schools have kapa haka groups, and several have their own designated school haka,^[6][7] including at least one all-girls school.^[8]
• Trinity Grammar School, in New South Wales, is an Australian school with their own haka.
• Liberty High School, in Las Vegas Nevada, is an American school with its own specific haka, created by the Taeao family.
• Armwood High School, in Seffner, Florida has adopted the haka. Coach Sean Callahan decided to adopt the haka for the beginning of every Armwood High School game to show their courage, unity, and desire to win another state championship. Armwood's haka is in English to let the other teams know they're "the mighty Hawks".
• Mesa High School's football team, in Mesa, Arizona, performs their own haka before every football game and at sports assemblies.^[9][10]
• The University of Arizona football team performs a haka before every home game.^[11][12]
• Hunter High School, American Fork High School, and Bingham High School, all located in Utah, each perform the haka at their football games.
• The Brigham Young University BYU Cougars football team performs the haka before every game, due to the high number of Polynesian players that have played for the Cougars.^[13][14] The BYU rugby team performs one that was specially created for them.^[15][16]
• Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur.
• 10th Kuala Lumpur Air Scouts (Methodist Boys School Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).
• Euless Trinity High School, Euless, Texas, a Texas Class 5A powerhouse routinely performs a haka before and after every game. There is a large Pacific Islander community in the Euless area.
• Walter Hines Page High School's marching band performs the haka at the end of halftime during every football game as a challenge to the opposing band and football team.
• Federal Way High School's Pacific Islander club performs the Haka every year in their cultural assembly.
• Crescenta Valley High School's Swim team performs the Haka before every meet.
• Bowness High School's Senior Rugby team performs the Haka before each game.

Film

• British actor Jamie Foreman performs the Haka briefly in order to intimidate a rival in the 2000 film Gangster No. 1.
• Pai performs a haka at a school performance in Whale Rider.
• In the film Once Were Warriors, tha character Boogie performs the haka while at a detainment center.
• A bonus feature on the Blu-ray release of Avatar shows the stunt team giving director James Cameron a haka performance.^[17]
• A bonus feature on the extended version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King shows the stunt crew giving a haka in honor of Viggo Mortensen and Bernard Hill (among others) on the last day of filming for the two actors. The crew noted that Mortenson and Hill's characters were kings, and so the haka was performed for "two kings".
• At the end of the film Wild Child, before the final lacrosse match, the Abbey Mount team performed a version of a Haka.
• In Invictus, the All Blacks are featured performing the Haka before the Final.
• In Forever Strong, the Highland Rugby team performs the Haka and is a reoccurring theme throughout the film.
• In the 2016 animated film Moana, the character Maui performs the haka several times.
• In the 2017 action film The Fate of the Furious the character of Hobbs has his daughter and her soccer team perform a haka before a match.

Flashmob haka craze of 2011

In the lead up to the Rugby World Cup in 2011, flashmob hakas became a popular way of expressing support for the All Blacks. Some Maori leaders thought it was "inappropriate" and a "bastardisation" of the traditional war cry,^[18] despite its popularity. Sizeable flashmob hakas were performed in Wellington^[19] and Auckland,^[20] as well as London, which has a large Kiwi expat community.^[21]

In November 2012, a Maori kapa haka group from Rotorua performed a version of the "Gangnam Style" dance mixed with a traditional Maori haka in Seoul, celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations between South Korea and New Zealand.^[22]

Other uses

• Haka is mentioned on page 88 of the Guinness World Records, where it states that 2,200 people performed the biggest haka in Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia, on 3 September 2005. It was run by Gene Elder and the New Zealand Victoria Business Group (NZVBG). The previous record was 800.
• In 1991, two adverts for Chugai Pharmaceutical's Guronsan DX starred by Junji Takada and Minoru Tanaka featured people doing a version of the haka chanting the words "Ganbatte! Ganbatte!" (Do your Best! Do your best!).
• In 1998, a British TV advert for National Lottery instant scratch cards showed a team of bowlers perform the Haka against another team.
• From 2002 until 2005, a BBC One "Rhythm and Movement" ident showed a Maori rugby player and fourteen Welsh rugby players performing a haka.
• A recent commercial for William Lawson's Scotch whisky featured a rugby team (presumably the All Blacks) performing a haka to intimidate a kilted Scottish team. The Scots "answered" the haka by flashing the opposing team.
• Due to a resemblance of a certain hand movement performed in haka to bent elbow, popular Turkish TV presenter Metin Uca used footage from a haka performance for his social and political criticism targeted at some people and establishments, with a catch phrase: "Here, we're sending a haka dance to...."
• In the comic strip Get Fuzzy, Bucky Katt on one occasion does the traditional Ka Mate haka, to which his roommates Rob and Satchel react by agreeing to stay out of his way. Comic creator Darby Conley is a rugby fan and has referenced the All Blacks in other strips. However, Bucky's version is not the same version as the one the All Blacks use.
• In the Domus Mundi song "Reprisal (Malis Avibus)" by the Austrian black metal band Hollenthon.
• In the Doctor Who episode "The Sontaran Stratagem", the Sontarans perform a ritual quite similar to a haka.
• In the introduction to MTV's 2009 edition of Real/World Road Rules Challenge: The Duel II, filmed in New Zealand, the contestants perform a haka.
• In the reality TV Show Biggest Loser, Season 7, Sione and Philipe, two Tongan contestants, perform the haka on a number of occasions throughout the season, including the season finale.
• On the Red Faces segment of Australian TV show Hey Hey It's Saturday in 1994, six men performed the nursery rhyme Old McDonald in the style of the Haka. This was the first act in Red Faces history to score a perfect score of 30.
• The "Shaolin Monk vs. Māori Warrior" episode of the American TV series Deadliest Warrior features excerpts of the Ka Mate haka performed by the members of the Māori team during weapons testing and by various reenactors.
• WWE Samoan tag team The Usos regularly performed a siva tau as part of their entrance.
• In the Star Wars Republic Commando series, the clone troopers perform a haka-like Mandalorian ritual battle chant called "Dha Werda Verda." This may have been author Karen Traviss' nod to the Māori ancestry of actor Temuera Morrison, who portrayed bounty hunter Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. In both the film and the novels, all clones were replicated from Jango's DNA.
• The Finnish Mieskuoro Huutajat ("Screaming Men Choir") performs rhythmic shouting and yelling that shows strong similarities to the Haka cries.
• The dance emote of the Charr race in Guild Wars 2 is based on Haka moves.
• In the novel Earth Afire, half-Maori soldier Mazer Rackham chants Ka Mate.
• On It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, during the episode "Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games" during the pregame to their home made game, they perform the haka as one of the Maori war-dances the group does to psyche each other out and to prepare themselves for the game. As it stands the episode is one of the commonly re-run episodes. During the dance they lack the chant but make up for it in an accurately performed homage.
• Rengar, a champion in League of Legends, does the Ka Mate for his dance emote.
• In Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the Vanu Vanu beastmen performs their own version of the haka known as the sundrop dance, which can be unlocked as an emote for the player character after reaching a certain level of recognition with the Gundu tribe.
• Actor Jason Momoa performed a haka as part of his audition for the role of Khal Drogo in the Game of Thrones TV series.^[23]

See also

• Cibi
• Kapa haka
• Kailao
• Māori music
• Siva Tau

References

External links

• - Multimedia slideshow of the 2006 #23 BYU vs. UNM football game, including a performance of the "Ka Mate" haka prior to the game
• Story about haka at Texas high school, from The World radio program