Hours of practice will come to fruition this weekend for 32 members of Te Whanau O Hakatere Kapa Haka as they take to stage for their inaugural performance at the Waitaha Kapa Haka regionals in Christchurch.
The Ashburton group are a support group at the event providing entertainment on Saturday at Wolfbrook Arena.
Group spokesperson Te Koare Paul said the group are very excited about performing.
“The more teams that compete and support, the more teams from the Waitaha region that make the finals at Te Matatini, (the world’s largest festival of traditional Maori performing arts).
“There are 19 groups performing which allows five teams to go through to the finals,” he said.
The group held their dress rehearsal last Saturday practising their bracket put together by Ellise Smith and TJ Heke in front of about 60 family, friends and members of the community.
‘‘The dress rehearsal went better than we expected. Most of the crowd was in tears 20 seconds from the beginning,” Paul said
Matua Tipene Philip will join the group as their mentor as they head to the performance.
“This is the first roopu (group) to hit the big stage from here in Hakatere.
‘‘Our own expectations are high, we don’t want to stuff it up being our first time, but we are also very excited and nervous as for some of us we are hitting the big stage alongside family members, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons and cousins and sisters and brothers, making this the highlight of the day,” Paul said.
The group of 20 wahine (women) and 12 tane (men) are aged from 14 to 62 years old.
‘‘For a young established group entering regionals was out of the option.”
‘‘We wanted to learn all about the waiata here in Te Waipounamu and get familiar with our region.
‘‘Our roopu was in the mist of planning the big trip to go to Te Matatini in 2027 in Tanui for a kapa (side line) experience and understand the reason why we are a kapas group.”
Ko ko Tangiwai a kapa haka from Christchurch approached Paul to see if the Hakatere group would be interested in being a support act.
It was a big commitment and the group has been practising twice a week to be stage ready.
Paul said there had been plenty of support including from Mania-O-Roto Scouts, Ashburton College, Hakatere Marae, Netherby School and Ashburton Intermediate who had provided practice venues.
He said going to such an event was costly and the group had been wellsupported during fundraisers along with Advance Ashburton Community Foundation, Waitaha Cultural Council and Braided Rivers Community Trust for funding to support kakahu (garments) resources and venue hire.
Looking to the future, the kapa haka trust had set up Nga Tamariki (the children) O Hakatere performing group.
Its debut performance will be at the Ashburton College Matariki celebration.
For the 13 children, age from 5 to 13 years-old, this was a place to learn in a Te ao Maori (Maori world).
“It’s a safe and performing arts space for our tamariki wanting to be involved in kapa haka like the big adults.
‘‘This space offers the same to our tamariki, They will be the ones taking our spots in the future,” Paul said.
