Five schools square off in haka workshop

FULL ON: Sam Parker, 12 (left), of Carterton School, in the Wolf Pack as they perform a haka show with the Spartans.

An inaugural haka workshop at Lakeview School gathered together about 70 students from five Wairarapa schools for a ferocious war dance showdown.

Lakeview School deputy principal Gene Bartlett said a visiting group of Te Aute Maori Boys' College students and staff, including principal Shane Hiha, had been involved in the workshop last Thursday as haka instructors and mentors.

Mr Bartlett said schools throughout Wairarapa had been invited to take students to the workshop, with participants on the day including about 40 Lakeview School students and about six students apiece from Masterton Intermediate School, Fernridge School, Masterton Primary School and Carterton School.

Students were assigned to four workshop classes and taught the haka Tika Tonu before being blended as two "warring parties" - self-titled as the Spartans and the Wolfpack.

The students also were taught the history of Tika Tonu, which was penned by respected Hawke's Bay chief Waimarama Puhara in about 1914 for his son Moana, who went on to marry Gladstone woman Ngawini Cowan (Kawana) before his tragic death in 1922, five months after the wedding.

The haka offers advice to an adolescent boy making the difficult transition into adulthood, and has been often since taught to young people.

Mr Bartlett said Lakeview School trustee Nevin Broughton, who also is a Te Aute Maori Boys' College trustee, had been instrumental in arranging the inaugural workshop, which highlighted the use of te reo Maori and the collaboration between students and schools.

Mr Hiha said the Te Aute Maori Boys' College group of staff members and more than a dozen Year 9 to Year 12 students were on a promotional tour through the Ngati Kahungunu tribal rohe or area, which included Wairarapa.

"This was a chance to invite other schools to the workshop, where they could collaborate, while also giving Te Aute exposure and the younger boys an opportunity to empower themselves in their cultural growth.

"Hopefully, the workshop will sow the seeds for some of these young boys as well, that Te Aute may be an opportunity for them." Mr Bartlett said the workshop also could help in some instances to create fine young men from otherwise challenging students.

It was being used as a model for what he hopes may become an annual event.