260809aw5 Wetini Mitai - general manager of the Mitai Maori Village.
260809aw5 Wetini Mitai - general manager of the Mitai Maori Village.
Te Ingoa/Name: Te Matarae I Orehu. Nga kaiwhakahaere: Wetini Mitai Ngatai. Manukura Tane/Male Leader: Wetini Mitai-Ngatai. Manukura Wahine/Female Leader: Miriama Hare. Te Wahanga/Pool: Te Haumi, Pool B, Friday 7th March.
Wetini Mitai-Ngatai is one week away from his 12th national's appearance. It'll also be his eighth as tutor and male leader of Te Matarae-i-Orehuonce they descend upon Otautahi in ten days. He says the campaign is going really well. "We're getting things we need to do out of the way, learning the words, everything is starting to converge. I think we're making good time, good progress." Te Matarae-I-Orehu celebrated 20 years last year by taking out the Te Arawa regional competition in May. Since making its national debut in Rotorua in 1996, Te Matarae-i-Orehu has qualified for the finals every time they've competed, taking top spot in Ngaruawahia in 2000 and again in Gisborne in 2011.
The group now prepares to carry that mana down to Christchurch for the first time. It's an opportunity to tell stories about the haukainga and honour them as hosts of the festival and more than 35,000 people expected to attend.
"It's a Maori thing to do, whereby when visiting another land, you whakarangatira those people. Acknowledge them by the knowledge that you have about them, their history," said Mitai-Ngatai. As the field of performers gets younger and younger by the festival, Mitai-Ngatai reflects on his early years with Ngati Rangiwewehi and Tuhourangi kapa haka. He says he was lead into it at the age of 13 by his elders, the most influential, master of weaponry and oratory, Irirangi Tiakiawa Tahuriorangi. He chose Mitai-Ngatai to continue the teachings that he was given by their kuia and koroua, a bond that, after the transmission of invaluable knowledge, eventually lead to the birth of Te Matarae-I-Orehu. "To take the group has been something I never set out to do myself. So, I kind of got put into that role by my uncle."
"At a big meeting of all the Te Arawa delegates there were votes that were cast. Of course he didn't have a group at the time, so he wasn't allowed to participate in the voting. He did get up to make a vote, and the hui said, 'no you don't have a group.' Then he got up and walked to the front of the meeting and he wrote this word, 'Te Matarae-I-Orehu, that's my group,' so he was able to participate in the voting."
"The very next day he went to see Mitai-Ngatai at his home. "Our first meeting he came around 1994, October the 8th. He said 'all right, we've got a group, Te Matarae-I-Orehu. I'll write the words, you do the choreography. You take it.' So that's what it's been like since the time he came around. It was a very, very difficult starting because nobody knew who we were, nobody wanted to come. And they just thought oh, if we go with that group we won't get anywhere."
Te Matarae i Orehu
Two decades later Mitai-Ngatai, 57, now has five national male leadership titles that he shares with Te Ropu Manutaki veteran, former Maori Party co-leader Dr Peter Sharples. He is the owner of Mitai Maori Village in Rotorua and other internationally based businesses. But when it comes to kapa haka, he says he still has the desire inside him to share the knowledge passed down to him.
"That's why I fire up, because the whanau is still involved. It's the people that keep wanting to continue is what inspires me."
