NZCT supports Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tangata

NZCT has awarded a major grant of $150,000 for this year’s Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tangata National Kapa Haka Festival.

Operations Manager Toti West says -

Te Matatini Herenga Waka, Herenga Tangata is the 2023 iteration of the biennial national Kapa Haka Festival. Kapa Hapa from across our thirteen rohe will compete in the national competition. The Festival primarily showcases Kapa Haka at its pinnacle.

Te Matatini Festival not only promotes and fosters the use of te reo Māori me ōna tikanga, but also provides a platform for Māori businesses to showcase through our Festival marketplace. It is a wonderful opportunity to foster collective connectivity among communities from all across Aotearoa. The need to connect together as whānau is critical to the health and wellbeing of Te Ao Māori.

COO of Te Matatini Enterprises Wi Pere Mita adds -

The funding from NZCT will go directly towards hosting Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tangata National Kapa Haka Festival 2023. The name was given by Professor Wharehuia Milroy, a composite of Te Mata meaning ‘the face’ and tini denoting ‘many’ - hence the literal meaning of Te Matatini is ‘many faces’.

Hosted in a different city each time, the festival attracts massive crowds who come to witness the best of Māori performing arts. It is a chance not only to experience Kapa Haka excellence, but also to reconnect with friends and family and express pride in their whānau on the stage.

NZCT has long been a supporter of Te Matatini which draws over a thousand performers from around the country as well as Australia, 50,000+ attendees in person, and over a million viewers tuning-in locally and abroad.

It is a hugely significant cultural festival and the pinnacle event for Māori performing arts, but owing to COVID-19, the festival has been postponed twice since 2019. It is one of the most highly anticipated events for performers, their whānau, and the mass of passionate Kapa Haka fans throughout the world.

The festival prides itself on being whānau friendly, as well as a smoke and alcohol-free event. It has an open-door policy, where all are welcome to experience the timeless tradition and spectacle of Kapa Haka. It is the culmination of years of hard work, passionate commitment, and unswerving dedication to bring their best to the national stage.

Thousands of hours have been spent in composing, teaching, rehearsing, and organising forty performers, first to qualify at their regional competition, then to prepare a single performance compressed into thirty minutes with the intent to captivate, beguile, and impress judges and audiences enough to win the supreme title of Toa Whakaihuwaka.

This year, Te Matatini celebrates fifty years of Kapa Haka excellence and remembers the giants of the Kapa Haka world who have campaigned tirelessly for the betterment of the Māori language, customs, arts, and culture.