Show and tell – taiaha

Our theme today is looking at Māori weaponry. And as Dion and I have explained, we are both workers at Te Papa Tongarewa here in Wellington; Dion is a Collection Manager, and I am the Senior Programme Developer, Māori, at Te Papa. Now at the moment we have managed to bring in a few items that are in Te Ipu Kāhuirangi’s tactile collection. We’re the education team at Te Papa and we’re lucky enough every now and then to have things made for us, so that when we have school groups come and visit, they can actually touch some of the things that we have. Because in case you don’t know, at a museum, you can’t actually touch most of the taonga that are in the museum. So we are lucky enough to have brought some today.

You most probably can see all the feathers bouncing around on your screen… basically it’s to distract the opponent once you see that. Whoever was the skilled exponent in that time would either use the ate, or the rau, which is at the top (if I can get that into the shot) and actually use that for striking. It’s quite difficult because, as you are aware, with a lot of our taonga that is used during kapa haka they are quite… let’s just say quite animated, as in the way that they are used. So I’m sure you’re all aware of the use of taiaha in a contemporary context. In a more traditional type it had many uses, and some of them very, very tapu indeed. Kia ora.

And you would probably mostly see taiaha being used these days in the wero, or the challenge, to important guests who are welcomed onto our marae. At the same time as Dion has mentioned there has been a revival in mau rākau, or the use of taiaha. But as with any of our weaponry, you don’t get to pick up any of the weapons, until you have learnt a little bit of the tikanga, the culture, about our weaponry. And then there is a few other things that you need to learn, like how your feet move, and how your body is to move.

Right. From my experiences in my youth (which was only about two or three years ago), you had to learn ngā toro parawai, which are the foot movements. I am sure most of the schools are aware of the likes of whakawhitiwhiti rua, ahuahunga roa, toro paepae, and all those sorts of things that you have to learn, which sort of is thrown in with the use of the taiaha. So yeah, she’s, Erana’s right, you’ve got to learn….that’s the basics, that’s pretty much the engine room of the use of mau rākau, which is your feet. If you can’t move your feet you’ve pretty much had it.

Kia ora, thank you Dion.