Oriini Kaipara has often appeared on the stage of Te Matatini, the “Olympics” of kapa haka, giving her a valuable insight into the commitment and sacrifice of elite athletes. Photo / Erica Sinclair
Oriini Kaipara has often appeared on the stage of Te Matatini, the “Olympics” of kapa haka, giving her a valuable insight into the commitment and sacrifice of elite athletes. Photo / Erica Sinclair
Eugene Bingham for LockerRoom
The TV presenter appointed to a new role at the NZ Olympic Committee may not be a sporting star but her kapa haka experience has given her a taste of what it takes to chase lofty goals
As a fresh recruit to one of the country’s most prestigious and important sporting bodies, Oriini Kaipara wants to make something clear from the get-go.
“I’m a nerd,” says the NZ Olympic Committee’s new Pouwhiringa Māori culture lead.
“My sisters and my whole whānau take the mickey out of me because all my life I considered reading a sport, I considered writing essays a sport.
“Growing up, if I did sport, I was on the wing because of my height – I’m five foot nothing [152cm].”
And, yet, beyond that modesty about her own sporting exploits, there is one area in which the broadcaster and journalist has gathered plenty of knowledge about what it takes to perform at the highest level.
She has stood on the stage at Te Matatini – often called the Olympics of kapa haka – eight times, each campaign involving months of arduous training and sacrifice, all the while knowing it will come down to one shot at achieving a goal many dream of but few get the chance to strive for.
“That’s probably the closest I’ve got because you must be committed to training your tinana [body], your wairua [spirit], your whakaaro [thoughts], your rigour for six months straight, and then you get on stage and it’s all over in 30 minutes.”
Next month, the 40-year-old will leave her full-time presenting job at Newshub to take up the job at NZOC, a new position.
NZOC chief executive Nicki Nicol says the role will “greatly assist us in our Te Ao Māori journey” and grow the cultural capabilities of the organisation.
It builds on the work already done by others, including Te Urunga Tū (the Māori Advisory Committee) members Tā Derek Lardelli, Ranui Ngarimu, and Trevor Shailer.
Kaipara says she wasn’t looking for a new job but it jumped out at her.
“Something just pulled me in and said, ‘Hey, stop and look’,” she says.
“A large part of me which not many people know about – because most of my career has been in front of the camera – is that my commitment, my passion, my drive, my why has always been about te reo Māori and tikanga.”
She was brought up with the concept of “ko te reo, kia rere – whiua te reo ki te ao” (let the language fly, share it with the world), and saw that the NZOC role could help her carry on that kaupapa.
“This gives me the opportunity to do that, especially on such a grand scale – the Olympic Committee takes us around the world.
“But also there’s an opportunity to contribute to excellence because the NZOC represents excellence, not just athletic excellence but in their whakaaro, in their wairua, and that really does excite me.”
At her job interview, Kaipara quoted the whakataukī (proverb): Whāia te iti kahurangi, ki te tuohu koe, me he maunga teitei (Seek the treasure that you value most dearly, if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain).
“And I said, it’s Mount Olympus – when it comes to elite sports, excellence, success, you aim for the tihi [the summit].”
There was something else Kaipara wanted to point out to the interview panel.
“I said to them, ‘Do you know what the Māori word for athlete is? It’s Kaipara! So you have to give me the job’,” she laughs.
“They were cracking up. So that’s what I’ll be taking to the NZOC is my humour, my wit, as well as my seriousness.”
While Kaipara grew up in West Auckland, she and her whānau call the eastern Bay of Plenty home – her father is from Te Teko, her mother from Kawerau – and her whakapapa links are Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Tūwharetoa, and Ngāti Rangitihi.
Though she herself does not claim to have sports skills, there is excellence within her whānau. Former Māori All Blacks leader Matt Te Pou is a cousin on her mother’s side, and on her father’s side she descends from the Warbrick brothers who starred for the NZ Natives rugby team in the late 1800s.
Caption: Oriini Kaipara at the opening game of the Fifa Women’s World Cup at Ngā Ana Wai (Eden Park) in her role as an ambassador for the tournament.
Apart from one year, Kaipara’s schooling was in full-immersion – starting with kohanga reo through to secondary schooling at Hoani Waititi Marae in Glen Eden – which embedded in her the commitment to te reo Māori and tikanga Māori.
“It’s bone deep, it’s thick in the blood. It used to feel like a burden and sometimes it still does when the weight gets heavy and every single one of my peers is exhausted and depleted from carrying so many different roles and when you’ve got agitators out there, criticising us as reo advocates and tikanga guardians.
“But we’re very staunch, like our tīpuna [ancestors], like our pou whakaruruhau [protectors and mentors].”
Those agitators and critics were quick to jump on their keyboards when Kaipara became the first journalist with a moko kauae (chin moko) to present a mainstream news programme.
But there were also plenty of supporters, too, she says, as there have been throughout her career at Whakaata Māori, TVNZ and Newshub (where she will still do freelance presenting work).
Kapa Haka
Kaipara remains connected to Hoani Waititi, especially through kapa haka, with the roopu Ngā Tūmanako.
She first performed at Te Matatini in 1998, and stood on the stage this year when the event was hosted in Tāmaki Makaurau.
“He tino uaua [it’s very hard]!” she says. “Ten years ago I could run and still have breath, now I’m struggling to sing one song. A whole year of fitness training has to happen to get me on stage.”
Apart from the training, she says there are other similarities between what kaihaka (haka performers) have to go through and what athletes do.
Just as with many athletes, there’s not a lot of money – you’re fuelled by commitment and passion.
Whānau and whakapapa are important to Oriini Kaipara (second from right), whose commitment to te reo Māori and tikanga Māori led her to apply for the NZOC role.
There are times when you question what you are doing, she says.
“I’ll be asking myself, ‘Why the hell am I doing this?’ My knee will be bandaged up, I’ll have blisters everywhere, you can’t socialise because you’re training, you can’t eat the hangi and pavlova during Christmas …
“And then you get on stage and you feel it, and it happens and you’re like: ‘I want to do it again’. That must be what the Olympians go through.”
Also, as with Olympians, there are the support teams that surround the kaihaka.
“It’s the people behind the scenes – the cooks, the babysitters, the husbands and wives, all the people who sacrifice their time and build you up when your morale is low.
“So many people go through blood, sweat and tears.”
Weaving together a team
Kaipara says she wants to spend time in the role before seeing exactly what she wants to do with it.
But already she’s looking forward to connecting the NZOC and athletes with iwi around the country, becoming a bridge and ensuring the right tikanga is observed.
“The NZOC is really committed to and intent on building those relationships and upholding their commitment as Treaty partners, in terms of being a representative of Aotearoa to the world,” she says.
She’s mindful of those who’ve worked with the NZOC over the years to hiki [lift up] and enrich the organisation, something she wants to “build on, not reinvent”.
With Tā Derek having composed a haka, Kaipara has already started thinking, “What else do we need?”
She wonders if there are ways for fans to engage, like the poi phenomena that took hold of crowds at the Rugby World Cup and the Fifa World Cup in Aotearoa over the past two years?
Are there ways to use Māori pūrākau (legends and myths) to help tell the story of what it means to be in a New Zealand team?
Are there better ways to whatu (weave) other ethnicities into the fabric of the team – “not just Māori, but non-Māori too, so it’s part of who we are as a team, and an organisation?”
By the time she starts in the job, there will only be six months to the Paris Olympics, and the Paralympics follow soon after.
It will be her first time at such big international sporting events, though she did cover the Glasgow Commonwealth Games as a reporter for TVNZ’s Te Karere in 2014.
With three of her four children now grown up, the travel is more manageable, she says.
“My two oldest are well into their 20s and my third is coming up to 18 and his path is set for next year. My youngest is 11,” she says.
Given her family history, rugby sevens will be one sport in particular she’ll keep an eye on in Paris, but she says she’s looking forward to so much more.
“Lots of sports – the track and field, and my favourite, if I’m honest, is gymnastics. That just looks incredible,” Kaipara says.
“I’m looking forward to it all – fizzing to be able to go and be part of the squad and support our athletes in Paris.”
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.
