Kotahitanga - Part 2

Team: Toku Manawa Toku Wairua
Hi Aue Toa!!
I AA HA HA
V/O: The choreographers have just told us it’s a 4-minute piece. We thought it was
only about a minute. It now seems a much bigger undertaking.
Nafi: Probably have to tidy up a bit with some of the actions. Yeah we’ve come a long
way since the first day. Yeah so it’s pretty exciting.
Clayton: We’re just learning how to put it together. It’s, I don’t know, getting
the words and the actions right it’s pretty, I don’t know, its pretty hard aye.
Dan: This rehearsal I’ve come into it and pretty worried aye it’s like, it’s kind
of 3rd week in I thought I’d be getting it a bit more easier than this but I just
haven’t put the time in between training. I think that really shows the other guys so
I’m feeling a little bit behind the 8 ball. It’s been a wake up call; I’ll put in
more work I promise.
Team Practising Haka
Dan: Practising Haka at work
Nafi: Yeah I’m pretty much known in the team for a guy who’s pretty laid back, so
yeah it takes quite a lot of concentration to actually get into that kind of warrior
state of mind.
Nafi: Practising Haka in garden
Curtis: I’ve just been going over and over and over it, you know, in the bathroom, you
know in bed, in the car, all the time, it’s consuming my life, it’s fun though.
Curtis: Practising Haka in front of mirror
V/O: Cameron’s solo performance is a chant about his own whakapapa.
Cameron: Practising Maori greeting. Being a Wheel Black means being feared by other
teams. It’s time to feel the pain and it’s time to grow. The responsibility I feel I
have to step up and take is more of a being loud being loud and proud type sort of thing
you know obviously with quadriplegics they don’t have the diaphragm muscles to project
their voice a little bit more so I guess recently anyway it’s felt like a need to be loud
for them I guess and just being proud to be doing it.
V/O: Choreographers Marino and Parai are having to modify things as we go along.
Marino: For me and this guy we’ve been willing step out and do something totally different
and as soon as Mika gave us the opportunity..
Team Practising Haka
Marino: Formation changes can’t be made as quick as, well obviously people who are
not in chairs. But there’s so many things that they can do that we can’t do which
is so cool.
Parai: Definitely.
Marino: But only they can tell us what tricks are, because we have ideas and we think oh
ok not to sure and then we got someone like Cam who can do a lot more tricks in his chair
because like he can, when I first saw him, he could jump on it he could fall out and
just roll around on it and he’d get back up onto his chair which is actually pretty
cool and then I tried to get on the chair and do the same thing.
Parai: Nah.
Dan: I think the biggest thing for me is like is definitely raising expectations for people
with disabilities. If you said the Haka to someone they’d think it was like strength
and power and mana and those are words that aren’t really put beside people in wheelchairs
or people with disabilities that much. So I don’t think there’s going to be very
high expectation of what we can put out there, so I think just going out there and just blowing
people’s minds and just blowing them away that’s what I want to do, I want people
to look at people with disabilities differently after this.
V/O: On one level the Haka is a display of physical strength but it’s also very much
a spiritual journey. To help us tap into that spiritual side we’ve taken ourselves off
to a Marae.
Dr Pita Sharples reminds us what we’re doing is powerful and the impact goes beyond the
performance itself.
Nafi: I felt real kind of nervous coming onto the Marae and stuff, you know, first time
I’ve ever done this before. I don’t know, I just felt so happy to be part of this journey
and stuff, I just can’t explain it. I just feel real privileged to part of it it’s
been etched in my soul now, that means a lot to me now.
Speaker: What is the greatest thing in the world people, people, people and that’s
why we’re here and that’s why your welcome here, this Marae is yours.
Nafi: You know I didn’t understand what they were saying but you know I could just
you know feel spiritually. Just what it meant to me and the boys and I just felt so it’s
just a humbling experience just to part of it.
Pita Sharples: Whether you do a Haka to celebrate or whether you do a Haka to challenge people
they’re all different kind of Hakas and they’ve all got different kinds of names.
So I am so proud that you have a Haka and that you’re prepared to do it one because
you’re putting a challenge out to your team that you’re facing and you’re saying we
are of substance we are of substance don’t muck with us and that’s kind of good stuff
just as the other sports teams do it. But there’s a special reason why I’m so proud
of you and that is the fact that you without the use of all your limbs even are showing
New Zealand a form of equality, that you are saying we might be hung up here or there but
we’re ordinary people and the Haka is ours as much as it is yours and here it is.
Dan: I couldn’t stop thinking that here was the co-leader of one of our major parties,
just here with us, you know freely giving his time, that’s pretty cool you know, I
don’t know any other countries in the world where you could just grab that opportunity.
V/O: At this point we’d only performed our Haka in front of our coaches but we figured
Pita Sharples would give us valuable feed back.
Team Performs Haka
Dan: It was humbling I
was definitely nervous whether I’m in front of you know a couple of old great men and
just being able to follow on from what they’d just said. But also at the same time, now
that it’s over, I really feel like I don’t want it to end there, you know this is an
opportunity where we’ve been given a little bit of New Zealand culture handed to us and
its up to us now to grab it and run with it and learn more about the language and the
culture and the heritage.
Nafi: This is exactly what we needed, at the right time, it was just the icing on the cake
and you know we’ve done all the physical stuff now we’ve embarked on the spiritual
cultural side of things and I think that’s more where it lies you know that’s where
all the mana and where all the you know all the power comes from.
V/O: We’ll only have one more practice together before show time.