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New Zealand Students Send Off Retiring Teacher With Haka, Taking Such Pride In Roots And Culture. [1]

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Date: 2023-06-03  

( Some of the events here took place a few years ago.

I believe that such moments transcend space and time.

If you disagree, please consider yourself forwarned.

Thank you. )

What is it like to live in a society with such respect for the tradition and roots and culture and identity of the Indigenous Peoples of the land of your birth, so respectful and dear and true, that you incorporate it into your very being and to those of your children and grandchildren?

To be raised with that respect.

Not of co- opting or cultural appropriation.

In a world of the odious tomahawk chop, it seems so distant.

Yet so familiar.

In New Zealand, the indigenous Māori have used the haka for most ceremonies, each telling a story.

The aggressive facial expressions were meant to scare the opponents, while the cry itself was to lift their own morale and call on their supernatural beings for aid, be it Tangaroa God of the sea, Tāne god of the forest, Tāwhirimātea became god of the wind, and the war Gods Maru, Uenuku and Kahukura.

Amongs others.

But they also used haka for the most celebratory and somber events in their life… weddings and birthdays and celebrations.

Often for rights of passage such as childhood to adulthood.

Funerals and goodbyes and times of great mourning.

To address social and political issues, and to rally both Māoris and non- Māoris to address these issues and call out injustices.

Most learn the Haka as children, not merely the movements but the respect of the culture and traditions behind the dance.

They teach it in the schools and they teach it in the homes.

As they learn the words they are made sure they understand the meanings behind the chants and the significance of a particular haka and what they are trying to express whilst performing it.

What are they saying, and why are they saying it.

We often see this the haka performed by the All- Blacks and their female counterparts, the legendary national rugby teams, but for this diary, we will leave sports out of it.

At a morning assembly, the students at Palmerston North Boys’ High School bid farewell and thank you to Mr. John Adam, the school Guidance Counsellor, who was retiring from teaching.

For thirty years, he was dedicated to the students, as Head of the Physics Dept, Head of the Science Dept, teacher and coach.

What you won’t see?

Laughter or giggling.

As I stated, haka is taught to be a serious undertaking.

To be honored thusly… is there a higher act of respect?

And this.

Benjamin and Aaliyah Anderson were just married, and the best man and friends honored the couple so deeply.

This was performed at the wedding, at first by the groom's side of the family welcoming the bride into their midst and expressing their unconditional support for the couple.

Then the brides father enters with staff.

Aaliyah, of Māori and Tongan descent, was moved to tears.

As was I.

It touched me, deeply, at the soul level.

An incredibly moving experience for both those performing it and for us to witness it.

In March of 2019, when two mass shootings occurred in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, students from around the country left school to mourn and call for justice in the way of their ancestors.

Or the ancestors of their countrymen and women.

No one is taking this as a joke.

The sheer focus and determination….

I am brought to tears or chills and always strength every time I watch and absorb a haka.

A tradition that is so raw, so full of emotions as well as pride and unity and solidarity.

Of Respect.

And that it is also absorbed by many of the non- Māori population….

Imagine that.

It’s what we strive for, and are yearning for.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/3/2173029/-New-Zealand-Students-Send-Off-Retiring-Teacher-With-Haka-Taking-Such-Pride-In-Roots-And-Culture

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