Anyone visiting New Plymouth late in February could well have thought they had slipped back 200 years or so. The city reverberated to the beautiful harmony of waiata or thundered to violent chants or energetic haka. It was Te Matatini the accumulation of more than 50 years of revitalizing Maori performing arts in New Zealand.
More than 55 groups from around New Zealand and thousands of spectators swamped New Plymouth Bowl of Brooklands for five days to find the champion in various sections of these arts and revive a culture almost destroyed by colonization. The result is a testimony to the dogged determination of a proud indigenous population to revive its language and performing traditions in the face of widespread oppression…
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