Cyclone Gabrielle: Te Arawa kapa haka concert raises $34,000 towards relief fund

Te Pikikōtuku o Ngāti Rongomai performing at Te Matatini. The group was among six to perform in Rotorua to raise funds in a free concert over the weekend. Photo: Erica Sinclair Photography / Supplied /

By RNZ

A free outdoor concert - featuring Te Arawa’s six finest kapa haka groups who performed at this year’s Te Matatini - has raised almost $35,000 for cyclone relief.

Waipuketia Ki Te Aroha - Flood Them With Love, on Rotorua’s Lakefront, raised funds for those impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle across Te Tai Rāwhiti and Te Matau-a-Māui.

Performers used the same stage where the Lakeside 25 concert was held on Saturday night and also free to the public.

Te Arawa Kapa Haka Trust chairman Trevor Maxwell said the show exceeded all expectations and he was thrilled with how everything went.

“When we closed off yesterday afternoon [Sunday], $34,000 was announced to the public and it’s still climbing because more is still coming onboard.”

Up to 20,000 people were at Lakeside 25 and that number increased again on Sunday for Waipuketia Ki Te Aroha.

“That just pleases us so it capped off a magical weekend that’ll be remembered for years to come, doesn’t get any better than this,” Maxwell said.

Five of the six teams including Te Pikikōtuku o Ngāti Rongomai, Te Hekenga Ā Rangi, Ngāti Rangiwewehi, Te Mātarae I Ōrehu and Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue made it to the finals at Te Matatini.

Tūhourangi-Ngāti Wāhiao just missed out on making the finals but won an award for best poi in the pool competition.

Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue missed out on winning the competition to Te Whānau-a-Apanui but managed to come second equal to Whangara Mai Tawhiti from Te Tai Rāwhiti.

Maxwell said they had very little time to organise Waipuketia Ki Te Aroha after returning from Te Matatini but it needed to happen.

“We came back home and all the thinking caps were on... we thought if we don’t get this opportunity, winter looms upon us and there will be a lost opportunity and would have missed out. So we had a week to do it and also raise the necessary funds in two days to pay the costs of keeping all the infrastructure over for another 24 hours and got the green light to go ahead because I think the worthy causes was just worth it.”

Maxwell said the concert gave whānau back in Rotorua who couldn’t travel to Tāmaki Makaurau a chance to watch the best performers in Te Arawa.

“The whānau on stage definitely loved it, another opportunity to perform and present what they did over the five days, six days in Auckland, but to have it all happen in one day back here, they were thrilled that they were going to be able to do that again.

“The whānau sitting in the crowds and the audiences there mixing with Māori and non-Māori, we even had tourists attend because - their luck - they were in town at the time and were talking to people that never seen anything like it and loved it.”