KEY POINTS:
Few performers would be impressed looking out at an audience nodding to their headphones.
Yet that sight is common for performers at the National Kapa Haka Festival in Palmerston North.
The headphones are for non-Maori speakers to listen to an interpreting service via the airwaves.
Event organisers say the initiative, hakarongomai, a play on whakarongomai, meaning "listen to me", was designed to increase the appreciation and understanding of an increasingly diverse audience.
The move has been applauded by Maori Language Commission head Haami Piripi, who said it demonstrated the more inclusive direction favoured for the advancement of te reo Maori.
Mr Piripi said it was often impossible to understand what was being portrayed by performers without knowledge of te reo or a translation.
Hakarongomai is being broadcast on 104.2FM and festival visitors are being encouraged to listen.
At 96, Connie Katae of Taranaki is the event's oldest competitor.
For the veteran performer, kapa haka is part of what makes the Maori culture unique.
"There is no point being a race without a culture. Kapa haka must be embraced and celebrated."
She said performances by seniors ensured knowledge from the past was handed to a new generation.
Vera Morgan, 89, said performance offered kaumatua the chance to participate and showed how kapa haka had changed from the days of her youth.
The Maori King, Tuheitia, Governor-General Anand Satyanand and Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia were among leaders to attend the powhiri held at the Arena Manawatu yesterday.
The competition finals are tomorrow.
The people's choice award will be announced tomorrow night, following the decision by competition judges of an overall winner.
Watch it
* Haka '07
* Maori TV, 10pm tonight and tomorrow
