Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue are the joint runners-up of the 2023 Te Matatini national kapa haka festival. Supplied/ Te Matatini.
Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue are the joint runners-up of the 2023 Te Matatini national kapa haka festival. Supplied/ Te Matatini.
After four days of fierce competition at national kapa haka championships Te Matatini, Te Whānau-a-Apanui from Mātaatua were crowned champions for the third time and Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue from Te Arawa were named joint runners-up.
Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue and Whangara Mai Tawhiti, from Te Tai Rāwhiti, were named second equal in front of a crowd of at least 18,000 at Ngā Ana Wai/Eden Park on Saturday afternoon, with 45 teams all vying for top honours,
Hailing from the region around Omaio, Te Kaha and East Cape, Te Whānau-a-Apanui previously won the supreme award in 2005 and 2015.
Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue also won several other awards, including the Te Reo Excellence Trophy.
Six Te Arawa teams competed at the festival and the five groups which progressed to the finals were Te Pikikōtuku o Ngāti Rongomai, Te Hekenga Ā Rangi, Ngāti Rangiwewehi, Te Mātarae I Ōrehu and Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue.
Te Pikikōtuku o Ngāti Rongomai performing at Te Matatini. Photo / Te Matatini
Jamus Webster, a cultural teacher at Rotorua Boys’ High School who performed for Tāmaki Makaurau rohe (region) in Te Waka Huia, and Te Ngāwari Wright from Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue, both of Rotorua, also took out the highly coveted best male leader and best female leader awards respectively.
Te Kapa o Te Whanui a Apanui are the 2023 national kapa haka champions. Photo / Te Matatini
Tuhuorangi-Ngati Wahiao did not make the final, however, the group gained first equal placing in the poi category with three other teams, including festival champions Te Whānau-a-Apanui.
This year’s festival celebrates 50 years since Te Matatini started in 1972 in Rotorua.
Former prime minister Jacinda Ardern caught up with Te Arawa rohe chairman Trevor Maxwell at Te Matatini this week.
Performing arts stalwart and Te Matatini veteran Trevor Maxwell said he was extremely proud of all of Te Arawa’s groups.
Maxwell said Te Arawa usually had a strong showing of two or three teams in the finals but had never had nearly half.
“To have five teams go through from the three days of pool competitions is just awesome. It makes us feel very proud of all of the Te Arawa teams, who worked so hard to even attend the festival and they performed with so much heart, and skill, they left everything on the stage.
“Ngāti Whakaue richly deserved their success, and the team and everyone from Rotorua, and Te Arawa, deserve to be standing a little taller today.”
Maxwell said his heart went out to the Tuhuorangi-Ngāti Wahiao team, who missed out on making the final by the narrowest of margins.
“This year’s festival was especially fierce and there was probably only a point or half a point separating the top teams in the pool competition. Tuhuorangi-Ngāti Wahiao’s performance was a wonderful tribute to the team’s former leader, and performer Hereana Roberts, who died in Rarotonga last year.”
Excited and proud Ngāti Whakaue kaumātua Monty Morrison, who also attended the festival, said watching Ngati Whakaue shine on stage and seeing the huge crowd’s reaction was “absolutely stunning”.
“And it’s amazing recognition for Ngāti Whakaue and the other Te Arawa teams to make the final and their success was due to all the hard work, dedication, and the teams’ remarkable leaders and wonderful mentors who have supported them on this journey.”
Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue are the joint runners-up of the 2023 Te Matatini national kapa haka festival. Photo / Erica Sinclair
Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue qualified for the finals of Te Matatini in 2019 after a 39-year hiatus and 2023 was the first time the group had “cracked the glass ceiling”, walking away with a number of awards.
In a written statement, an ecstatic Te Matatini chief executive Carl Ross said the national kapa haka festival had been a “huge success” with tens of thousands of people attending and tuning into the live coverage and digital media platforms.
“I believe we’ve reached our goal of supporting Aotearoa to unite after such testing times ... It’s been marvellous to see our experienced performers and a new generation of kaihaka (performers) who’ve been nurtured through kōhanga, kura kaupapa and whare kura bringing a whole new element to the artform.”
The next Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival will be held in New Plymouth in 2025.
