An unprecedented surge in kapa haka participants across regional competitions this year will see over 50 teams take to the stage at Te Matatini 2025, with 45 teams participating in the previous national event held at Auckland’s Mt Eden stadium in 2023. With 22 groups in total taking part in the Tainui Kapa Haka Regionals today, five teams will represent the Waikato region in New Plymouth next year at the national kapa haka competition in February, however, pending an investigation by the Tainui Waka Cultural Trust means a sixth team may still qualify for the event.
Overall placings:
1st - Mōtai Tangata Rau
2nd - Te Pou o Mangataawhiri
3rd - Te Iti Kahurangi
4th - Te Kapa Haka o Ngā Pua o Te Kōwhara
5th - Te Pae Kahurangi
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Overall winning group Mōtai Tangata Rau is back in the mix, their last stand in 2019. This year donning a colonial uniform with piu and rau huia representing the era of Tainui King Potatau Te Wherowhero. After sitting out the regionals in 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the country, the Ngāti Raukawa group made a return to the stage proudly telling stories of their ancestors with a drive for excellence in te reo. Their debut stand was at Te Matatini in 2014.
As seen across the kapa haka regional competitions this year, Te Pou o Mangataawhiri used the stage to voice their political concerns likening the current government’s tactics to playing a game of uka citing ‘he mahi māminga, he mahi nanakia, he mahi rūkahu hoki’ (devious, scheming, and false). But it was the reference made towards a 2023 Te Matatini judge commenting on a lack of ihi and wehi from the group that stirred the crowd. Today Te Pou o Mangataawhiri set out to prove the unnamed judge wrong taking out the number one spot for the haka.
Winners of non-aggregate categories:
Titonga Hou (New composition) - Te Pou o Mangataawhiri
Waiata Tira (choral) - Te Iti Kahurangi
Karanga - Te Kapa Haka o Ngā Pua o te Kōwhara
Whaikōrero - Te Iti Kahurangi
Ngā Taonga a Tū Award - Te Iti Kahurangi
Winners of aggregate categories:
Te Reo - Mōtai Tangata Rau
Whakaeke - Mōtai Tangata Rau
Mōteatea - Mōtai Tangata Rau
Waiata-a-ringa - Te Iti Kahurangi
Poi - Te Pou o Mangataawhiri
Haka - Te Pou o Mangataawhiri
Whakawātea - Te Pou o Mangataawhiri
Rōpū Hou - Te Pae Kahurangi
Best Kapa Hāpai - Ngaa Rangatahi O Te Whare Haka o Te Pooporo