The video has been viewed more than 700 times since its upload to You Tube about 10 days ago and may be viewed by searching for Ko Wairarapa Challenge at the video-sharing website. Mr Ammunson, speaking on the video, said he had worked in the late 1980s at the Masterton community polytechnic and Maori research students had requested an address in te reo Maori that could be used for powhiri, or ceremonies of welcome, and other events at the campus.
He said he talked with others about the request and wrote some words "about te karu o te ika - the eye of Maui's fish". He left the region for work soon afterward and returned some years later, he said.
"Much to my pleasant surprise various Maori studies teachers in the different schools had adapted those words, added actions to it, and it had become the haka Ko Wairarapa, in many ways the haka of the Wairarapa people. Tena Ko tou katoa."
To see the full instructional video, go to the YouTube clip here