Mātaki Mai - The Haka Party Incident
Ōtautahi's own weeklong reo Māori film festival, hosted in partnership with Kōrero ki Ōtautahi and Alice Cinema's.
For more than 20 years, and despite multiple complaints over many years, Pākehā engineering students at Auckland University regularly performed a parody of haka during capping week. By 1979, a group that later became known as He Taua had had enough and confronted them head-on. Unfortunately, the consequences for those activists were severe and many were convicted of crimes. Although it was a significant event in New Zealand history, it was soon largely forgotten – until Māori playwright and filmmaker Katie Wolfe put the story on the stage with her play, The Haka Party Incident, commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company and first staged in 2021.
The film cleverly intertwines multiple interviews from both sides of the confrontation, both recent and from around the time of the incident to create a resonant and thought-provoking documentary.
For more than 20 years, and despite multiple complaints over many years, Pākehā engineering students at Auckland University regularly performed a parody of haka during capping week. By 1979, a group that later became known as He Taua had had enough and confronted them head-on. Unfortunately, the consequences for those activists were severe and many were convicted of crimes. Although it was a significant event in New Zealand history, it was soon largely forgotten – until Māori playwright and filmmaker Katie Wolfe put the story on the stage with her play, The Haka Party Incident, commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company and first staged in 2021.
The film cleverly intertwines multiple interviews from both sides of the confrontation, both recent and from around the time of the incident to create a resonant and thought-provoking documentary.
Alice Cinemas, 209 Tuam Street, Christchurch Central
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