A few months after we have arrived in New Zealand.
One sunny morning in the centre in Auckland, when we were waiting for our bus, it suddenly became deadly quiet. I looked into the street and all cars were gone, as if there has been going on a kind of giant 'traffic ebb'. Along the side of the road I saw a few people with flowers in their hands and in the distance we could hear the thin sound of a bagpipe ...
“Woohoo, a parade!” we said, eager for a bit of sensation.
A long procession of young people in graduation costume was passing us. You know; those black cloaks with the square hats. And there were hundreds of them! Each school was preceded by a forerunner holding up a name sign. These were not only the graduates from the universities, but all students who had achieved something. I had never seen such a thing in the Netherlands.
At the end of the parade we heard shouting and a part the audience was standing on the middle of the street.
“Woohoo, a fight!” we said, eager for a bit of sensation.
I thought there had arisen a quarrel. However, there were 3 Maori boys who did a haka for their successful brother. A haka is no such thing as our Dutch folkloric wooden-shoe-dance. No … at first sight it looks like an aggressive war dance with a bold sounding text. A kind of inherited rap. If a haka is ‘bursting out’ somewhere near by, it could scare the hell out of you and it’s truly intimidating. There are several kinds of haka and this was an expression of respect to their brother. You better not disturb them by (nervously) laughing, because it really means something serious here. And the most interesting thing to me is that it is not ‘organised’ to keep alive a certain culture on special days … no, it just belongs in modern life.
On this video you see a haka, done by New Zealand students for their deceased teacher.
I bet you can not watch this without being weirdly touched.
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