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Women doing the haka for a good cause is okay - but not half naked, say Te Arawa kapa haka experts.
They are reacting to a women's rugby team in England performing a bare-chested haka to promote the team's 2007 calendar.
Pictures taken of the Canterbury women's rugby team in Kent doing a haka, dressed only in rugby shorts, socks and boots, have appeared on a calendar with a share of the sales proceeds going to cancer care.
Despite criticism, team member Rebecca Willis said she had had plenty of positive emails from New Zealand.
She said the publicity had led to orders from NZ, Australia and South Africa for the calendars.
However she said the team apologises if anyone is upset.
Taini Morrison, lead female of nationally renowned kapa haka group, Te Matarae i o Rehu, said her immediate reaction was to question what right the English women had to perform the haka.
"I accept the kaupapa [purpose] but it wouldn't be acceptable in New Zealand. We [women] have had to go through a huge process to do the haka nowadays," Ms Morrison said.
"It was done like that in early times but with colonisation and other changes that's not the case now. So of course to us it is a sacred thing. This group doing that tramples on the mana of our tikanga [custom]."
The owner of Rotorua's Te Raukura art gallery and cancer survivor June Grant said money for cancer care and research was always welcome but in this instance it was in poor taste.
"Any money raised for breast cancer is great but you have still have to do things with integrity.
"This is not a Maori kaupapa and it's not appropriate. You don't have to take your clothes off."
Affront
Another expert in kapa haka, Wetini Mitai-Ngatai, said he thought the English women's haka was, on the face of it, an affront to Maori culture.
"The English have sacred rituals but we Maori wouldn't go out and intentionally denigrate their culture - this takahis [tramples] ours."
However Mr Mitai- Ngatai said the situation needed to be put in context.
"They shouldn't have done it at all but then you can't overreact to everything you see in the media. I think there is too much focus on the haka by the media and some people play up to that."
Kapa haka tutor Trevor Maxwell didn't agree in principle with the way the haka had been portrayed but thought the special circumstances warranted a rethink.
"I think it is for a great cause, any efforts to raise money for cancer is awesome. I know on the surface it doesn't seem that good but I think in the end good may outweigh the negatives in this instance, and the fact the haka has worldwide recognition is great.
"I think we would have to find alternative ways to do it locally, it wouldn't be okay here."
Last year a group of Italian actresses created a stink when they performed a haka for a Fiat TV advertisement. Mr Maxwell said the advertisement was in poor taste but commended the actresses on their performance of Ka Mate.
- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)
