Kapa Haka

My absolute favorite class that I got to take this semester was Kapa Haka. This was exactly the kind of cultural exchange I was looking for coming to New Zealand, and it was right up my alley in terms of performing arts. When I first got to class I was a little bit shell shocked as I quickly realized that half of the class was taught in Māori! I think sometimes the teacher didn't even realize when she was speaking in Māori and when she wasn't. I could pick out a few words here and there, but for the most part I was completely lost! Right off the bat, I was feeling pretty intimidated about being in the class, and as it was listed on the Waikato website as a recommendation, I thought there would be a majority of international students in the class, but I ended up being only one of maybe three in the class. It was also refreshing that the majority of the class was Māori because I knew that I would be getting some really good culture from the other students as well.

On the first day of class, I was also thrown for a loop when we were expected to learn what I thought was an entire haka, but later found out was just the first five or so versus of a longer haka. Oh boy! What did I just sign up for? As the weeks went by, we learned more of the first haka, and already started on another. Normally, this fast pace would be no problem for me, but since everything was in a language that I didn't understand, and the class only met once a week, you can imagine that it was a bit stressful to learn everything on my own. I started recording sound clips of our classes so that I could practice at home, and ended up spending hours plugged into my iPhone doing hakas as I walked to class or in my room. Every now and then I would give my roommates the forewarning that if they heard any weird chanting, it was probably just me practicing.

The semester went by so fast, and once we got back from Easter break, we had to learn a new haka every class in preparation for the set we would be performing at the end of the semester. I probably should have spent more time rehearsing on my own than I did, but in the end it all worked out and I was able to learn most of the lyrics to all of the songs that we performed. One funny thing was that I ended up volunteering for a solo in the first song we performed, but no one told me until about three days before performance that I had been pronouncing my Ts wrong the whole time, so I essentially had to relearn all of my words with the correct pronunciation in only three days, but I was thankful that she corrected me, otherwise I would have never known, and I would have made an ass out of myself on stage.

Anyway, here is the end of semester performance in full. Enjoy.