Primeval

— Posted inUncategorized — 2 min read

Yesterday my friend Deb Plat gave me the link to a YouTube video of All Blacks performance of the classic “Ka Mate” haka in 2004, lead by Carlos Spencer. It was a good performance, though maybe a touch too tidy for my taste. …

I went to look for another video of the new haka, “Kapa o Pango”, which is to me more convincing with raw display of determination and passion, than the choreographed dramatic performance of “Ka Mate”. As I watched a couple of Kapa o Pango videos, all of which were supposed to be very familiar and almost cliché to us NZ rugby fans, I still could not help feeling my heart pumping fast with excitement and anticipation.

I am not new to the art of haka. I had a chance to go to a regional Kapa Haka (haka party; also the term for Māori Performing Arts) Competition. I also saw performance of the nationally well known Kapa Haka, Te Waka Huia. Haka in NZ is not a pre sport match entertainment, but a traditional practised and sophisticated art of conveying the corrective intention of a group of warriors at most visceral level. And I tell you the real haka performed live in front of you can truly boil or curdle your blood and shake you up with awe, excitement and fear. Still it was an unexpected discovery for me that even a performance by a basically amateur part time haka group reproduced in low quality video in small laptop screen with misery sound output could stir up the primeval core inside me.

These days we tend to lose touch with what is real and true (such a cliché!) To me, the art of haka is one of those still real things nowadays that directly touch your primeval self. It is not easy to experience real kapa haka performance outside NZ. But the All Blacks haka can still give you a little taste of the primeval.

All Blacks, led by my hero Piri Weepu, performing Kapa o Pango before the test match against Spring Boks at Westpac Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand on 17 July 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1pWV8WS7kg

Thanks, Deb, for inspiring me to write this post. 🙂

[Update 5 March, 2011]
Updated the video link, as the one I embedded before was pulled by the user

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  2. Goodness, you are so quick!Thanks for your complement, SC. I hope you enjoyed it including the video, though I'm not sure if you are a sport-chick type 😀

  3. I suppose it is a kind of motivation, but is it more important than being surrounded by thousands of people in a stadium, that encourage you ?Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    I still could not help feeling my heart pumping fast with excitement and anticipation

    And you feel yourself like in the stadium ?Thanks for that exhaustive post the art of haka … Sometimes some avoid the play to happen Primeval Haka ?

  4. Excellent post, MM! I followed your links and was particularly interested in learning how the opposing teams responded or ignored the challenge laid down in the haka. So I see that many teams honor this traditional Maori display by facing the performers from a respectable distance, while others believe the intent of the performance is to intimidate them, and so do their best to intimidate them back by getting in the performers' faces. And as I understand it, rugby-playing nations from other Polynesian cultures have their own displays.Originally posted by arduinna:

    I suppose it is a kind of motivation, but is it more important than being surrounded by thousands of people in a stadium, that encourage you ?

    I am inclined to think that the haka is effective in the sports field in a number of ways. It readies the performers for "combat"It intimidates members of the opposing teamIt thrills the crowd of supporters and fills them with pride, so they are already in full-cheering mode before any sports action has even happened.
    I think the tribal displays seem primeval because we evolved to be tribally social, but we have given this up to form social organizations along other lines (through corporations, nation-states, trans-national organizations etc.). But when exposed to the "real thing", there is something about it that resonates deep within.

  5. Thanks Deb. I'm glad you liked it. And I'm also glad that you seem to appreciate almost all things I put in the post, including the links to a couple of interesting articles. Yes, how the opponent would behave is a part of the package. And there's no written scenario as to what happen at next match!Originally posted by debplatt:

    I think the tribal displays seem primeval because we evolved to be tribally social, but we have given this up to form social organizations along other lines …

    I used word primeval to describe what I experience in my core, at visceral level. Primeval is not primitive, which is often used to mean unsophisticated, not evolved or undeveloped. Actually many supposedly sophisticated cultural institutions and modern technologies: literature; performing arts such as opera and theatre; movies and its peripheral technologies such as the surrounding sound system and HD video, developed with the purpose to work your primeval self, to move you. How often do you hear "moving experience" used to sell such product? And when you are really "moved" by a good story, movie or theatre performance, you feel quickened heart beat, butterfly or knot in stomach, tension in neck, goosebumps, lump up your throat and/or tears in your eyes, don't you? That is the primeval I was referring to.

  7. Originally posted by arduinna:

    I suppose it is a kind of motivation

    Motivation is not what Haka was originally practised for. In the same sense I didn't use "warriors" in a metaphoric sense, as we use the word for sport players and frontline workers, when I said, 'Haka in NZ … art of conveying the corrective intention of a group of warriors …' Purpose of pre-battle haka were originally to intimidate and plant fear of death in their enemies, as well as to ready themselves for killing. There were no spectators. (I must also say the pre-battle haka was only one of several types of kapa haka, the Maori performing arts.)Of course today's pre-match haka is performed in much different context. But as Deb said, it still prepares the players for the contest mentally as well as physically; and still conveys the message to the opponents that they will be defeated.Originally posted by arduinna:

    is it more important than being surrounded by thousands of people in a stadium, that encourage you ?

    I'm not sure if I understand what significance you see of being surrounded by thousands of people. I've not such experience.:lol: But I used to sing choral music and have experience of having to perform while being watched by a couple of hundreds of audience. It was intimidating, but I tried to focus the director and forget about the crowds (think they are pumpkins!). I suppose the haka may help the players to ignore the spectators and focus on their task in hand.Originally posted by arduinna:

    And you feel yourself like in the stadium ?

    No, and I'm glad I don't feel like in the stadium. IMO live sport viewing is an overrated commercial hype (to sell big screen TVs, high definition cable/satellite broadcast connections, blu-ray players and audio systems). The real thing is actually not that pleasant: cold, can't see play at far side, rowdy drunks behind shouting obscenities and throwing bottles … :p

  9. Originally posted by darkesthour:

    I certainly makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up

    Oh yes. Piri was on fire that night. Fearsome stuff! And he played his best game. I don't understand why he wasn't chosen to start up in Soweto last week. Originally posted by darkesthour:

    And the bottles are not always empty either

    I know. :yuck: Thankfully they sell bear in plastic cup or plastic bottle at stadium these days. But still not nice.

  11. Thanks for the link, Zdenko. Good old Glen Osbourn :lol:I think I saw that on TV here, quite possibly on the Maori Teleision or SkyTV's sport show. All Blacks will play their last match for this season next weekend against Wales. :up:

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