August 28, 2019
Fallen star remembered in Jojo Super Nines
Registrations close on Friday for the Jojo Super Nines, a uniquely Te Arawa approach to kapa haka.
Teams will compete for $9000 in prizes at the Te Manawa events centre on September 21 as part of Rotorua's Aronui Indigenous Arts Festival.
New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute general manager Eraia Kiel says the competition was created in memory of the late Jojo Waaka, and also was designed around the revelation there are actually nine stars in the Matariki constellation whose arrival above the horizon marks the Māori new year.
"Since 2017 nine performers, nine competing teams and nine minutes on stage, a really fun family event and it's all about whakangahau, entertainment as our late Jojo was, a loving character in nature and she was the life of the party wherever she was at," he says.
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