Te Matatini - the future starts here

Te Matatini national kapa haka festival opened yesterday with a sun-bathed Hawke's Bay welcome to celebrate it being the biggest ever, with an even bigger future to follow.

The powhiri at major sports stadium McLean Park in Napier, with the 47 groups and more than 1800 performers welcomed by tangata whenua numbering well over 400, preceded the start of the four days of competition at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park, renamed Kahungunu Park, starting today.

But at a media conference after the three-hour welcome there was already talk from the leaders of the future for a 10-year strategic plan ticking boxes not only in cultural and performance aspirations but in areas of education (reo to the forefront), health, social well-being and economy, ultimately across cultures and just about as international as it can get.

There was a subtle and entirely coincidental pointer to the future from the start, just after 11am as King Tuheitia Paki and more than 1800 performers were called on to the park as it found a new role as a marae for the day, the cricket pitch dumped for two internationals within a few weeks, taking a new lease of life as the waharoa through which they would enter a paepae stretching from the marquee of tangata venue on one side of the park to that of manuhiri on the other.

It was a distance highlighted by the walk of Hori Reti Kaukau, youngest member of the board of host iwi Ngati Kahungunu, perhaps 200 metres as he strode-out to accept the koha placed down by King's speaker Rahui Papa, who had spoken of the lineage from Mahina-a-rangi, born in the Heretaunga (Hastings) area and married into the line of the Maori King in Waikato.

Te Matatini chairman Selwyn Parata and executive director Carl Ross, seated with competitions chief judge Joe Harawira, said that the festival, started in 1972 and which had been seen by some for many years as exclusively a Maori event, had grown to become a big international event, to an extent highlighted by live-streaming statistics for Te Matatini 2015 in Christchurch.

"There were over 2 million hits," said Mr Ross. "The majority of them were from Asia."

He said more and more people globally are planning holidays to take in kapa haka festivals and, in keeping with educational aspirations, people unable to understand the reo will be able to follow with a translation service at the site.

He said the Te Matatini approach is to create an environment for everyone "to share the ultimate kapa haka festival."

The teams come from 161 that took part in 13 regional festivals and, as the festival grows to be able to support more and more, the numbers are expected to continue to grow.

Te Matatini's Government-sourced funding, across all it's operations including schools festivals, has been increased to $1.9 million, and Mr Parata said it is enough, adding: "The target is to become financially autonomous."

More than 40,000 tickets have been sold, with sales expected to climb through the three days of preliminary performances and Sunday's finals.