Hey, I´m a music teacher from Germany. As part of each lesson I show my students musical (and music-like) traditions from all ages and places, and let them guess where and when this music was created. A while ago I´ve shown them a haka of the All Blacks, first audio only so they could guess, then with the video. Since then, a group of 11 year olds is constantly asking me if we could perform a haka in the group. I myself would not be opposed to doing so, but I would want to do it with the necessary respect. So I thought I´d come here to ask: Would you find it disrespectful if a group of german children and their teacher performed a haka? If the responses here are positive, I´d follow this Wikihow for the actual performance. Thanks in advance for any responses.
It is not necessarily disrespectful but you do need to know what you are doing and why.
Ideally are you able to make contact with a music teacher or kapa haka teacher from NZ?
I think you would benefit from showing your students some of the footage of students performing kapa haka (on youtube). These kids are about 11.
Also, please do not rely on the Wikihow. Please do not teach your students that any girls doing a pukana are “expressing their sexuality”!!! That is misleading. Here is a resource from New Zealand’s educational system, which talks about pukana in a way that is appropriate for 11 year olds.
Here is a suggestion for you.
Teach about the Haka, what it means, when it’s performed and why, how it came to being, what cultural significance it has etc.
Then ask your students to come up with something similar for their culture.
I think this would be a very neat way for the students to express their creativity and learn about and appreciate their own culture instead of mimicking another one.
Not if you teach the history of it, the meaning and perform it with your heart in the right place.
Before 86 the all blacks performed the haka in a token way, it was Hika Reed and Wayne Shelford that campaigned to teach the players the true meanings and transformed it into the hair standing on end war challenge you see today. You could show them videos of before and after too show them what real commitment to it is.
Also teach that every tribe and these days most high schools have their own with their own messages. What would your Schools values be captured in a haka if you had your own version?
Ka Mate being the most well known haka is also a song/waiata and can be sung as well as chanted which is probably of interest to music students.
You should be able to find some media of it.
It’s worth finding a translation and exploring the meaning of the words and the history of the event for which it was composed.
If done respectfully, I can only see it as a good thing tbh. But I’m pretty liberal with these kinds of things.
