Netball: Ferns need permission for haka

The Silver Ferns are being advised to seek permission to perform the well-known Ka Mate haka. Photo / Getty Images

The Silver Ferns are being advised to seek permission to perform the well-known Ka Mate haka.

The team is learning the haka, performed by the All Blacks, ahead of the Netball World Championships in Singapore in July.

However, Ko Tane cultural group director, Dave Brennan, says the team should go back to Ngati Toa, the iwi that wrote the haka.

"You never know, they might say yes and they might say you've got to change these words around. I find it pretty hard that they will say yes because it goes right back. The haka that we see, Ka Mate, is only about a minute and a half of the full haka which is about four or five minutes," he says.

Mr Brennan says it is courteous for the team to ask permission to adapt the haka for themselves as women traditionally do not do that particular haka.

- NEWSTALK ZB