Kapa Haka o Ngati Whakaue perform to an audience including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Shanghai. Photo / Thomas Coughlan
Kapa Haka o Ngati Whakaue perform to an audience including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Shanghai. Photo / Thomas Coughlan
You can’t see the Pleiades star cluster in Beijing.
The light pollution (not to mention the other pollution) is so thick in the Chinese capital, even at midnight, that the most you’ll see if you cast your eyes skyward is a ruddy glow, wafting up from the vast citybelow.
Things are different in New Zealand, where the rising of the cluster is celebrated by Matariki.
It’s fair to say that most years Beijing is probably quite far down the list of places to celebrate Matariki, but perhaps not in 2025.
Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Photo / Thomas Coughlan
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is visiting China, and like Chris Hipkins before him, he’s accompanied by a kapa haka group, the winners of Te Matatini, Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue (Hipkins travelled with Kapa Haka o Te Whānau-a-Apanui, the then-champions).
Christopher Luxon greeted members of Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Whakaue after singing along with their waiata in Shanghai. Photo / Thomas Coughlan
The group performed at a large gala dinner in Shanghai.
The haka, Ka Mate, was perhaps unsurprisingly the biggest hit with the local audience, although it was the waiata Tutira mai nga iwi that was most popular with the travelling New Zealanders, who joined in.
Even Luxon, who was on stage for the waiata, started singing along, although (perhaps mercifully) his voice was drowned out by better singers.
