The Words

Te Ao Hou, June 1963, Page 23

The Words Haka and action song are above all the expression of a message—a message of the soul. It is the words which convey this message. The actions are merely a vehicle for the words—a means of emphasis which express little in themselves. If the words do not reach the audience then, to a Maori, the whole performance is meaningless and sterile. Many of the best teachers begin their teaching session first with practice in vowel sounds. Maori speech today has become so corrupted by the flat, tight-lipped English vowel sounds that some vocal limbering up is very important when there are a high proportion of young people in a group. The next step is to learn the words thoroughly before the actions are attempted. There is often a great urge to get onto the actions quickly and the result is either mumbled in-

distinct words, because everyone is busy watching the leader and learning the actions, or poor actions, because performers have their eyes glued to a blackboard. Difficult lines must be broken down and the beats and breath pauses explained. How often have you heard a difficult haka such as Ruaumoko where lines such as ‘I patukia ki te tipua ki o Rangitopeka, pakaru te upoko o Rangitopeka’ tail off to a miserable mumble? Leaders must listen carefully and note slurring and faltering which marks uncertainty with words. Unless such faults are corrected early they are difficult to eradicate and can persist for a long while. I attended the initial practices of the group which welcomed the Queen at Waitangi this year. We spent two whole afternoons on words —without learning a single action!