Wairoa-based kapa Mātangirau smeared their legs in mud to acknowledge the devastation delivered to their rohe by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Twitter
Wairoa-based kapa Mātangirau smeared their legs in mud to acknowledge the devastation delivered to their rohe by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Twitter
When Wairoa-based kapa Mātangirau got to the Eden Park stage with their legs smeared with mud, the Te Matatini crowd - and the whānau watching them around the world - knew they were about to witness something extra special.
A week before arriving in Auckland for the Olympics of kapahaka, Mātangirau were unsure whether they could even get to the stage, such was the devastation in their rohe caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
But take to the stage they did and from the time they walked onto Eden Park yesterday for day two of Te Matatini, all eyes were glued to them.
The group had even bought their own mud with them.
Herald kapa haka expert Hania Douglas said just seeing Mātangirau and then Tamatea Arikinui - another kapa haka group from Kahungungu - take to the stage was “beautiful”.
“Our Kahungungu teams today with their painted legs in mud to signify the struggles their whānau are going through in the Hawke’s Bay rohe was awesome,” Douglas said. “You could tell that while they were physically in Tamaki Makaurau for Te Matatini, their hearts are elsewhere with their whānau.
“They painted their legs in mud to symbolise how their homes are looking at the moment. There are many marae covered in knee-deep mud and they painted their legs to signify the struggles the iwi is coping with. I thought that was a beautifully symbolic way to say we are here but their thoughts are at home.”
Whānau at Wairoa had given the group an emotional farewell earlier in the week. But like most things planned in advance, things don’t always stick to a schedule.
Manukura Tānē, Edward Karauria, told Radio New Zealand when the cyclone hit and Wairoa was cut off, they were not sure they would make it.
Joylene Rohe-Karauria and Edward Karauria, of Wairoa's Mātangirau Photo / Nick Monro, RNZ
“Firstly, we had no type of contact, no phone lines, no media, no anything. So we actually didn’t know there was anything on, due to having no type of contact. Just living life and trying to help our families with the silt,” he said.
And getting to Auckland was a mission in itself.
The brakes failed on their first bus and the second was slow going, over the just reopened road to Ōpōtiki.
Eventually, Tauranga’s Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Ranginui came to the rescue, providing vans for the final leg to Auckland.
Manukura Wāhine, Joylene Rohe-Karauria, said they had to entertain themselves during long hours on the road. “We came on a school bus from home to Whakatāne, we played ‘I spy’ at one part of the trip because it was so slow, but safe, but slow.”
In normal circumstances, whānau would have come to Auckland to cheer them on, but this time they had to watch from Wairoa.
Wairoa's Mātangirau performs for the crowds. Photo / Supplied, Te Matatini
About 100 people gathered at the Gaiety Theatre, in the centre of town, to cheer the group on.
Lah Tipuna helped set it up, and said there was so much emotion in the room. “So the nannies that did come, tears, [they] cried right through the whole thing. The whole crowd were just blown away,” Tipuna said.
“[It’s] something good for our town as well... something positive for our town.”
Rohe-Karauria said members of the kapa had been doing what they could for their home town, even before outside help arrived.
“We’ve got maybe eight rangatahi from our wharekura at home, that was their first stand today. And two days before we came they were on the streets and cleaning silt out of the marae and on horses and trailers... and today they stood for the first time at Te Matatini.”
She said the hardest part was leaving their whānau in still-damaged Wairoa.
She paid tribute to their support.
“We love you and you were our fuel for today, you gave us the strength,” she said. “We left on Monday morning and we had a big whakamoemiti, and it was hard. That was the hardest day, leaving and knowing what we were leaving behind.
“And a little bit of... anxieties about whether we would get home, because there were still slips at Te Karaka and Waioeka... I mean anything could happen between now and us going home and us not being able to get home will just not be good.”
