Haka fatigue - All the rage on Haka in Parliament

Image by Jeanne Rouillard on Unsplash Photos.

Last year, haka was heard all around the world as Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke and Te Pati Māori broke out into the haka, Ka Mate in the debating chamber in protest of the ACT Party’s proposed Treaty Principles Bill. This performance was deemed as iconic by many, setting Hana-Rawhiti in Time Magazine as one of the ‘world’s most influential rising stars’ and inspiring thousands to take to the streets and protest the bill.

Te Pati Māori continue to haka and waiata loud and proud within the walls of the Beehive, though many have taken to social media exclaiming they have ‘haka fatigue.’ This new term has become popular on apps such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok as content creators use their platforms to express how tired they are of haka.

In July of this year, a by-election was held for the Tāmaki Makaurau seat after the passing of Te Pati Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp, who won the seat in the 2023 election. Okioki mai ra e māreikura rātou te hunga mate ki a rātou, tātou te hunga ora ki a tātou.

Te Pati Māori’s candidate Oriini Kaipara, a well-known broadcaster and journalist, won the seat. After she made her maiden speech, Kaipara and the public gallery broke out into a haka after singing a waiata to tautoko (support) her maiden speech. Speaker of the house Gerry Brownlee issued a 10-minute suspension in Parliament and declared her actions were ‘contemptuous.’

According to Te Ao Māori News, Brownlee stated “people go on to marae all over the country and respect the protocols. We have a protocol here, it is our tikanga.” He apparently had been assured there was to be no haka following Oriini Kaipara’s maiden speech.

Since the 2023 election, we have seen many clashes in parliament between the tikanga of parliament and the tikanga of our whenua.

I talked to some tauira Māori (Māori students) who responded to Brownlee’s claims to tikanga in parliament. One said “while there is merit to what Brownlee stated in terms of the rules of the house, in terms of tikanga who is to decide what tikanga should look like in Parliament? We have a Westminster system of parliament modelled after the United Kingdom, how can we acknowledge tikanga within the parliament we reside under? The term Tikanga cannot be watered down to ‘rules.’”

Another tauira commented, “to me this shows this intergenerational stereotype of Haka as something that is inherently angry and violent. Yes, it can be used in the context of war and protest, but in this context the haka was a celebration and an acknowledgement for Oriini Kaipara like the waiata that was sung.”

The haka tautoko for Oriini Kaipara has of course gained attention from not just people in Aotearoa but also overseas, gaining millions of likes across social media platforms. Many Americans have decided they are tired of the haka, as well as some New Zealanders, giving birth to the concept of ‘haka fatigue.’ Many have coined the phrase, ‘haka fatigue is real’ as well as ‘haka temper tantrums.’

What many fail to understand is that our haka are traditional. They are a way of expression across a wide range of contexts. Haka, in brief, conveys many emotions, honours the ways of our tupuna and is based around kotahitanga and bringing people together. As said by our tauira Māori, it is time to acknowledge tikanga Māori within parliament.

But how will that look when tangata Māori don’t seem to be a part of that conversation?