Cornish Pirates

Pupils Learn The Haka

28th January 2009

On Monday at Mounts Bay School, Penzance, Cornish Pirates players Iva Motusaga and Blair Cowan demonstrated and taught children how to perform the 'Haka'.

The activity event was linked through the Cornish Pirates Learning Zone's 'Double Club', whereby 15 x Year 9 pupils have 50 x minutes of learning and 50 x minutes of sports activity.

The haka is a war dance performed by New Zealand rugby players as a prelude to big matches, such as provincial and international games. Derived from an ancient Maori battle rite, the words of the haka are as follows:-

“E ringa pakia waewae tahahia,
E Kine nei haki,
E ringa e ringa e torona kei waho motonu,
Kamate! Kamate!
Kaora, Kaora!
Tenei te tangata puhuruhuru,
Kana e tiki rai whaki whiti te ra,
A hupane! A hupane!
Hupane, Kopane, whiti te ra.”

The words have no literal translation from the original Maori, but the action of the dance is emphatic enough to convey its meaning, which is at one and the same time to unnerve the enemy and to invoke the support of the goods in battle.