Twenty-one high school students from Wellington, New Zealand, in the Nga Taiohi o te Rawhiti o te Upoko o te Ika cultural group visited BYU-Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center this week during a 10-day tour of Hawaii, and took time to share a very polished presentation of Maori kapa haka or traditional songs and dances in the Aloha Center mall.
The youth, ranging in age from 13-19, attend Rongotai College for boys and Wellington East Girls' College. Ethnically, they represented a combination of Maori, Tongan, Cook Island, Samoan and European descent. For many of them, this was their first trip outside New Zealand.
Eden Maziaha, Maori teacher at Rongotai College, explained the group came "to share our culture, but also to learn as much as we can about Hawaiian culture, the Polynesian Cultural Center and Brigham Young University Hawaii," as well as several other places in Hawaii. "We've learned so much and achieved so many of our objectives. The whole idea was so the students could learn more about their own identity and other cultures in the Pacific, especially ohana or whanau [family] in Hawaii," he continued.
Maziaha noted the group's kapa haka is an extracurricular activity for the visiting students, who are "only a small representation of our larger group."
Responding to the group, first with a chant, William K. "Uncle Bill" Wallace III, director of the BYUH Hawaiian Studies program , welcomed them to BYU-Hawaii. "Welcome to our aina [land]. Laie symbolizes the gathering place," he said. He also explained how his late wife, Nihipora Kereama Wallace, was a Maori woman who taught that language on campus for over 20 years.
Next, he greeted each of the visiting group members with the traditional Maori hongi or pressing of noses, and later that afternoon oriented them to the Iosepa, BYU-Hawaii's 57-foot traditional twin-hulled sailing canoe.
Maziaha, who was accompanied by his counterpart at the girls school and nine parents, added, "It's hard for me to express the aroha [aloha] we feel for the people of Hawaii, regardless of whether they're Hawaiian or whatever their background. We understand a lot of the struggles that the Hawaiian people are going through with having their culture recognized, but it's still alive to us. We can feel that, and feel that we're in the same kind of boat."
"The aloha they have given us, the manakitanga [understanding], is overwhelming."
— Photos and video by Mike Foley