Hawke's Bay kura part of new NCEA Māori performing arts subject pilot

Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga high school kapa haka team at the Rāhui Pōkeka Festival in Hamilton last October. Photo / Supplied

After using NCEA Dance as a backdoor to get University Entrance for Māori performing arts, the announcement of new NCEA subject Te Ao Haka has delighted a Hawke's Bay kura taking part in the pilot programme.

This year students at 30 schools around the country are able to study Māori performing arts at NCEA level with new subject Te Ao Haka.

One of those kura, and the only one in Hawke's Bay which is part of the pilot, is Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga.

School kaiakao (teacher) Tūhoe Huata says "it's about time" and is looking forward to teach the subject to the schools' pupils who already love Māori performing arts.

As a Māori immersion school, they have a focus on Māori performing arts and have previously offered unit standards in the subject.

But to offer Māori Performing Arts at University Entrance level, they would previously use the NCEA Level 3 Dance subject as a backdoor.

"It felt like we had to go through another door to be us, or go through another door to show our passion."

But Huata is also positive about it, saying the subject meant they learnt a lot in terms of dance terminology.

Te Ao Haka is a performance-based subject which is grounded in Māori culture, language and identity.

Huata said it will be both beneficial for Māori and non-Māori students, giving both social connections, increasing confidence and building self-esteem.

"It's not just for Māori, it's for anyone that has a passion for indigenous dance, Māori culture and knowledge.

For Māori students they will be able to re-connect with their culture and language.

Non-Māori students will be able to understand the style of dance, the why, and engage with traditional Māori knowledge and culture.

"I'm always going to go back to when we had to go through dance. There were a lot of things where I thought 'far out these are interesting terms', it'll be the same for kapa haka, learning terms and understanding 'why do they do this'."

Huata has been part of an expert group of 6-7 people as part of the development team providing feedback from a performance and tutor point of view.

"This has been a long journey, it started way before my generation got to the discussion table."

Huata talks about when he was at school and kapa haka tutors would go into the school and it was treated as more of an extracurricular thing than a subject.

"It was like a tick box that the school was doing.

"But then slowly and surely because of that generation being in competitive kapa haka and workshopping, the involvement and evolution of MPA within schools has increased and developed.

He later on taught kapa haka in schools but then wanted to become more permanently involved so became a teacher alongside four other family members who now teach at the kura.

"I wish I had this when I was at school.

"Just the opportunities that our students are getting now in our art form are awesome, they're exciting, and [students] are getting acknowledged for an art form they're passionate about."

The subject will be taught four lessons a week, have both internals and externals and will launch next week when the students return.