The New Zealand Army Mourns Its Dead With An Ancestral War Dance

TBI ^ | 8-30-2012 | Geoffrey Ingersoll

[blam]

The New Zealand Army Mourns Its Dead With An Ancestral War Dance

Geoffrey Ingersoll
Aug. 30, 2012, 8:21 AM

via YouTube

A post by the New Zealand Defence Force has gone viral recently.

It's a "Maori" ritual dance, essentially the way Kiwi Soldiers memorialize brothers killed in combat, and it's so awesome it would make any active duty service member want to re-enlist.

According to the New Zealand Herald:

The 2nd and 1st Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment performed the moving tribute for Corporal Luke Tamatea, 31, Lance Corporal Jacinda Baker, 26, and Private Richard Harris, 21, at their funeral service at the Burnham Military Camp in Christchurch on Saturday.

It was so intense that CNN's Piers Morgan tweeted, "Astounding, and deeply moving, Haka tribute to fallen comrades in Afghanistan by @NZDefenceForce" to his 2 million followers.

The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand, and the "Haka" is one of the ritual dances.

According to the YouTube post:

Haka --sometimes termed a posture dance could also be described as a chant with actions. There are various forms of haka; some with weapons some without, some have set actions others may be 'free style.' Haka is used by Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand) for a myriad of reasons; to challenge or express defiance or contempt, to demonstrate approval or appreciation, to encourage or to discourage, to acknowledge feats and achievements, to welcome, to farewell, as an expression of pride, happiness or sorrow.

(Please click to the site of the article to see this moving video)

[blam]

My neighbor is from New Zealand and he is a big fan of the All Blacks Rugby team.

The All Blacks use a hakka 'dance' prior to their rugby games.

I believe the All Black are the world champions in rugby.

[Buckeye McFrog]

thanks to Obama ours may be doing the Y-M-C-A soon...

[kingu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xI6TRTBZUMM

The direct youtube link for those who desire it.

[shibumi]

Direct YouTube link -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI6TRTBZUMM

[blam]

Thanks.

[thesearethetimes...]

Godspeed to the warriors, and comfort to those who remain.

Tatt

[Turbo Pig]

The Hakka is an inspiring ritual. It actually differs from tribe to tribe. Go out on YouTube and look around for a video showing the All Blacks and the team from Tonga facing off before a match. Each side was doing their own Hakka. Very cool video.

[matginzac]

Truly moving... big gusher...
as good as “Taps”...
God bless them.

[blam]

May be of interest:

Maori Men And Women From Different Homelands

"A New Zealand Warrior and his Wife", an engraving from the journal of Captain James Cook's 1784 visit on Endeavour (Pic: State Library of NSW)

"The male and female ancestors of today’s Maori people of New Zealand originated from different parts of the world, molecular biologists have said."

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Wow.

[BlueLancer]

Reminds me of the "face-off" contest between the Zulu impis and the Welsh Company at Rorke's Drift, in the final battle scene of ZULU ...

ZULU Final Battle Scene

[dfwgator]

"All Blacks" Rugby team pre-game Haka

[Docbarleypop]

as both a rugby player and a vet this was great, but for some reason my monitor kept getting a bit blurry

[shibumi]

If you liked that, you’ll ~love~ this .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-lrE2JcO44

(By the way, the fellow leading the Haka can be seen in the middle of the soldiers, also in a lead role.)

[Covenantor]

"The male and female ancestors of today?s Maori people of New Zealand originated from different parts of the world, molecular biologists have said.

So, this was like the first polynesian Club Med vacation plan. Hook up in New Zealand!

[blam]

The Maori said that they didn't kill all the Moa birds, it was meteor impacts and subsequent fires that killed them:

Evidence Of Tunguska-Type Impacts Over The Pacific Basin Around The Year 1178 AD

"In year 1178 A.D., as related by Clube and Napier in their book The Cosmic Serpent, a strange event was observed to affect the Moon, which may be explained by a large impact on the hidden face, originating the Giordano Bruno crater. A number of observations suggest that catastrophic cometary or meteoritic impacts around the same time also affected the Pacific basin: Maori legends of great fires destroying forests and the moa bird, to be associated to the recently found Tapanui craters; dynastic changes and migrations throughout Polynesia; very intense El Niño activity with flooding of the coastal Peruvian regions; demise of the local Moche civilizations, and the birth of the Incas civilization higher in the Andes; the emigration of the Aztects from the Pacific coast to the interior in the most well protected area from tsunams; unusually intense typhoon activity in the Chinese-Japanese see; unusually strong floods in Northern China with diversion of the course of the Huang Ho; unusually cold wheather in the Mongolian plateau, probably a main reason for the Mongolians invading nearby areas; a great sign in the sky seen by the boy Gengis Khan forecasting his future of world master; the number of comets seen in the sky as recorded by Chinese astronomers was unusually higher."

BTW: They (Maori) also deny that they ate the people who were already there when they arrived.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Incredible.

[shibumi]

Here is the text, with translation -

Ka mate, ka mate! ka ora! ka ora!
Ka mate! ka mate! ka ora! ka ora!
Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru
Nāna nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā Ā, upane! ka upane!
Ā, upane, ka upane, whiti te ra!

’Tis death! ‘tis death! (or: I may die) ’Tis life! ‘tis life! (or: I may live)
’Tis death! ‘tis death! ’Tis life! ‘tis life!
This is the hairy man
Who brought the sun and caused it to shine
A step upward, another step upward!
A step upward, another... the Sun shines!


Te Rauparaha composed Ka Mate circa 1820 as a celebration of life over death after his lucky escape from pursuing Ngati Maniapoto and Waikato enemies. He had hidden from them in a food-storage pit, and climbed back into the light to be met by a chief friendly to him - Te Whareangi (the "hairy man").