Imagine going on stage for the first time as a member of your school kapa haka, in front of many people you don’t know. That is not new for Leo and Sam, who have been doing this for about 3 years.

We know all of the songs and Leo does the pu moana and the Maori slit drum. We love going on stage and going to practices every week.

We have interviewed three members of the St. Joseph kapa haka group. Two are leaders, and one is a normal performer. Sam and I asked each one of them three questions about their effort in the group and as individuals. They all love doing the kapa haka, but they all want to work on volume in songs like Tutira mai nga iwi and other tricky songs like that one. 

As a group, we had 3 challenges: having a good volume throughout the whole song, making the shells sound consistent, and keeping the speed of the haka slow. All of these things have been advised by our great kapa haka teachers Matua Willy and Whea Taina. The haka problem was the first they told the group about. They say that you need to have a slow haka to get the message across to people who are receiving the haka. With the shell and our volume, if you hear us on a bad day it sounds like a broken car horn and it sounds terrible. 

Our performances always have the same short and simple program that is structured like this. We have 3 waiata then our strong haka tua hua potiki and end it with a mellow song like Matariki or something like that. Matua and Whea have been keen for us to learn new songs, we have touched on one song just a little called E Ihowa and we have been taught a new fun warm-up called The Window. We love our teachers and everything for us.  

We have learned 2 new songs. I Ehowa and Mo Maria Leo will be using his slit drum to start the beat with Mo Maria. Every time we perform we love to see all of the support we have at every one of our performances and the compliments and praise we get at school. We are so thankful for Whea Taina and Matatu Willy.