The Te Kāhui Maunga region has officially received the mauri of Te Matatini from Tāmaki Makaurau and will prepare to host the 2025 kapa haka festival.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, kapa haka from Tāmaki Makaurau and the Te Matatini board were welcomed onto Rātana Pā at the weekend where the official handover took place.
Te Kāhui Maunga Kapahaka committee chairman Tama Pokai says the occasion was beautiful and fitting for the kaupapa of Te Matatini "because it derives from a Māori way of doing things.
“We have all given due respect to the power that the Te Matatini mauri holds for our people and how this part of the festival has been throughout the years. I acknowledge Ngāti Whātua and the people of Auckland, and Te Matatini also for initiating this way of passing the mauri.”
Traditionally the mauri stone, the symbolic spirit of the festival, has been handed from one host region to the next at the end of each respective prizegiving. The new initiative sees the previous host region travel to the next and formally hand it over in person.
Te Matatini board member Paraone Gloyne says the change came from a modest conversation among colleagues.
The journey to Te Matatini 2025 begins.
Doing it in the Māori way
“The board was having a cup of tea with our chairman and then we started talking about the prizegiving and how the handing over of the mauri process gets mixed up, and the crowd doesn't really pay much attention to it because the focus at prize giving is who the winners are. So, while we were having a cup of tea, we thought 'why not do this in a Māori way, to the next festival host'," Gloyne said.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei and the wider Tāmaki Makaurau region have held the mauri for the past four years due to Covid-19. Makoare says the iwi is honoured to have been the first to start the new tikanga of handing over the mauri.
“We learnt many things throughout the time we held the mauri. Within that time, we were able to share the mauri with all the different communities in Auckland so that they could have the opportunity to acknowledge it.
"We of Ngāti Whātua are very happy to have supported this tradition, giving us the opportunity to bring the mauri to Te Kāhui Maunga. I am very happy.”
Pokai says the region is excited to have the mauri, "and from here perhaps the real work must begin for us in hosting Te Matatini ki Te Kāhui Maunga.”
That includes deciding where the 2025 festival will be located in the region that covers Taranaki and Whanganui. The last time Aotea hosted the National Kapa Haka festival was at Te Hāwera in 1994.
