I listened carefully to the news presenter, but pretty much all I understood was "kia ora" (hello) and then the place names. So it was, "Kia ora. Blah blah blah Hokitika blah blah Rotorua." English subtitles would really be helpful here guys, but I guess I'm not really the target audience. Apparently, you can get subtitles if you watch it online. Even though I can't understand, it's interesting to just hear the sounds of the language and watch the images. You can get an idea of what is important to Maori by what they're reporting.
I was able to gather that there was some sort of haka competition going on this week. There was a lot of footage of kids performing hakas on stage. I did a google search and discovered that indeed there was a competition - the National Secondary Schools Kapa Haka Championships 2010, in Rotorua. The performances are amazing to watch, especially the facial expressions. Start with bad-ass facial tattoos (or, in a pinch, apply black make-up to look like tattoos). Then open the eyes real wide and bug them out a bit, for a sort of "I'm insane!" look. Then stick the tongue out - waaaay out, Gene Simmons style, for a "I'm dangerously insane!!" look. The result: pure intimidation.
The men have tattoos on their faces and thighs. The women paint their lips black and have tattoos on their chins.
Te Karere showed lots of videos from the competition, and you can watch them on its website but you have to watch adverts first. I couldn't find much of it on You Tube, but did find this one:
The video is not very easy to see, but if you go to this website you can see some great photos from an earlier competition.
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