The Haka

The Maoris are a very proud people; many are of mixed race which is clearly notable in their faces. In 1642 The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman arrived on New Zealand's shores. He didn’t stay very long as several of his crew were killed and cooked. You can just imagine these guys landing on the beach and facing the warriors performing the Haka. A war dance to send shivers over your spine.

No just imagine this scene when Able Tasman reached the beach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI851yJ UQQw

This is not a thing which was just performed in the past but still is used today. Other Polynesian islanders have similar but milder performances to scare off the opponent. Below is a link to the start of a match between Fiji and NZ and see what happens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj4wmC3 higw

So what about today? Well next is a YouTube of today’s military. I like the comments of one of the viewers: I m from Ireland and if I was on the battleground facing the Maoris I wouldn’t need weapons to scare me, they just could do that and I would run like the wind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rDoV0EB u44

Rugby in this part of the world is as important as soccer is in Europe. When the Dutch face the Germans it creates a special …lets say... feeling. The Haka "intimidation" can be a bit confronting, what happens in the next link is where the Aussies have brought a group of Aborigines to try to outdo the Maoris before the game begins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdhrUKR dKM8

Finally, I mentioned that there are a lot of new Zealanders in Australia, amongst them many Maoris and mixed race Maoris. For the Australians a bit hard to notice them in the streets until something like this happens. It was filmed at the mall in Surfers Paradise at the Gold coast. A street performer had just finished his performance and then nothing happened for a short time until… two lone New Zealanders jump out and start to perform the Haka. With seconds they are joined by a host of others who seem to come from all directions and even a policeman in uniform joins in. Very entertaining

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmSNN7vZ t_o

I hope you liked it.