July 02, 2024
Haka tutors stoke political fires
Politically-charged haka at last-week’s national secondary schools competition in Nelson have upset New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones.
Ngā Kapa Haka Kura Tuarua o Aotearoa was won by a coalition of Rotorua schools, Ngā Kura Kaupapa o Te Puku o te Ika, followed by Tamaki Makaurau’s Ngā Puna o Waiōrea and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hoani Waititi.
Mr Jones says kapa haka tutors and composers are feeding impressionable youth with rhetoric against the Māori politicians in Government and misrepresenting how politics works.
“It probably reflects more the prejudices or the anger of the tutors, as opposed to the young people. Let them live a life, let them grow to learn and love and stumble through their teenage years without trying to fill them with a diet of ideology,” he says.