Something to watch today: Tuesday 25 February

Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga 2025 (25 February to 1 March)

Back in 2017 I was work­ing as Marketing Manager for Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School and one of my respons­ib­il­it­ies was stu­dent recruitment.

Many of our stu­dents got their first taste of per­form­ing arts through the kapa haka (tra­di­tion­al Māori per­form­ing arts) move­ment at school or through iwi (tribe) or hapū (sub tribe ) and it was sug­ges­ted that tak­ing a stall on the grounds of that year’s bian­nu­al nation­al fest­iv­al and com­pet­i­tion, Te Matatini, might be a good way to reach poten­tial future artists.

As an English-born pāke­hā, my exper­i­ence with Te Ao Māori (the Māori world) was lim­ited but, thanks to the Toi Whakaari whānau (fam­ily) it was growing.

That event was held in Hastings, Hawke’s Bay, and it was about as mind-blowing an occa­sion as I’ve ever exper­i­enced. Five days in the sum­mer heat, a sta­di­um crammed with up to 30,000 audi­ence mem­bers, extraordin­ary per­form­ance after per­form­ance. It was incredible.

As it happened, we got very little interest in our stall – every­one was there for the show – but I’m so glad I got to exper­i­ence it.

This year’s event is in Taranaki and starts today. It’s streamed live inter­na­tion­ally* through TVNZ+ or Māori+ and it’s a great thing to have on in the back­ground while you are work­ing. As it gets closer to finals time on Friday and Saturday, the ten­sion will really ratchet up and you might not get any work done.

If you want to know more, I can recom­mend this “beginner’s guide” at The Spinoff, and here’s a short video from the 2023 event in Auckland:

And here are the win­ners from 2023, Te Kapa Haka o Te Whānau a Apanui:

They won in 2017, too.

Where to watch Te Matatini 2025

The con­tent below was ori­gin­ally paywalled.

Aotearoa, Australia, Fiji and Pacific Islands: Streaming on TVNZ+ or Māori+ (free but login required)