Kim Webby
Hula and haka combine in the brand new show, aimed at locals, at Rotorua's Mitai Māori Village.
In Rotorua, the local tribe, Te Arawa arrived aboard a double-hulled voyaging waka about 1200 AD. Science and tribal history shows they came from Rai’atea, an island of the French Polynesian group, which includes Tahiti. They departed from a sacred marae known as Taputapuatea, which travellers could still visit before Covid.
The first-half of the concert explains why people left this island paradise to strike out across the Pacific for Aotearoa New Zealand.
The performers, all experts in Māori waiata (songs) and kanikani (dance), have now learned dances and songs from their ancestors’ homelands, under the guidance of Pasifika teachers and the founder of Mitai Māori Village.