Kapa haka from the Te Kāhui Maunga region welcome the mauri to Rātana Pā. Photo / Te Korimako O Taranaki
Kapa haka from the Te Kāhui Maunga region welcome the mauri to Rātana Pā. Photo / Te Korimako O Taranaki
The journey to Te Matatini 2025 has begun for the Taranaki/Whanganui region, with the official handover of the mauri from previous hosts complete.
Te Matatini is a biennial national kapa haka competition festival, attracting 1.2 million online and television viewers and almost 70,000 audience members at the February 2023 event in Auckland.
“The mauri acts as a device for a life force, that gives future hosts of Te Matatini the spiritual guidance to carry out the successful running of the event,” Te Matatini Kapa Haka Society Incorporated chairman Herewini Parata said.
Seven kapa haka from around the region, consisting of kaumātua (elders), adults and children met on Friday night at Rātana to prepare for Saturday’s event.
Going late into the night, the groups rehearsed haka pōwhiri (welcoming procession) and waiata tautoko (supporting songs).
The mauri, which is handed to future host regions, was brought down from Auckland, where it was kept in the wharenui Tumutumuwhenua at Ōrākei Marae. Delegates from Ngāti Whātua, previous hosts, left Auckland in the early hours of Saturday morning for Rātana Pā, 20 minutes south of Whanganui.
Due to the uncertainties of Covid-19 in 2020, the Te Matatini Society Incorporated board was faced with “difficult” decisions, CEO Carl Ross said.
Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tāngata was postponed from its original 2021 date to February 2022, where it was also faced with the effects of both the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, which heavily affected kapa haka in two of Te Matatini’s regions.
“We’ve had the Te Matatini mauri with us for four years. It can now rest in the hands of another special rohe,” Kaikōrero for Ngāti Whātua Otene Hopa said.
“Myself and Joe Pihema spoke about the beauty of the pōwhiri this morning and we acknowledge the different groups of Aotea who stood to recieve us today,” Hopa said.
“To see the work of the marae in its totality and the future of kapa haka here definitely shows what’s in store for 2025.”
Te Matatini hand the mauri stone to Te Kāhui Maunga. Photo / Te Kakenga Kawiti-Bishara
The two stones sit on a black pillow in a fibreglass case.
“The actual mauri is the smaller red rock from the Ruahine Ranges and was gifted to Te Matatini when Rangitāne, Palmerston North hosted the festival in 2005 and 2007,” Parata said.
“The larger stone is tuhua (obsidian) and was gifted by Tauranga Moana during their time hosting in 2009. The role of the tuhua is to act as a protector for the mauri stone. The wooden base on which they both sit was carved in Te Whakatōhea, in the Bay Of Plenty.”
Te Matatini hand the mauri stone to Te Kāhui Maunga. Photo / Te Kakenga Kawiti-Bishara
The handover ceremony usually occurs at the Te Matatini prizegiving, but it held extra meaning for the mauri to be formally given to the next hosts on their marae.
“Kua tau ināianei. Our mauri in good hands,” Hopa said.
Te Matatini hand the mauri stone to Te Kāhui Maunga. Photo / Te Kakenga Kawiti-Bishara
The mauri will be taken throughout the rohe and will lie at various marae within Te Kāhui Maunga before arriving at the host destination in 2025.
There is no confirmed date or location for Te Matatini 2025.
