culturemaori

The Maoris has their own war dance called “The Haka dance” which is a very famous traditional genre of Maori dance.

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Take a look at this video to watch the Haka dance. They perform this dance for different reasons, sometimes as a warm welcome dance to guests, to celebrate if something big has happened, before ceremonies or by warriors before they were going to fight or battle. The dance is not only a war dance, and it is not only performed by men. Sometimes it is performed in mixed groups, only by woman or men, and also some simple dances are performed by children. The whole point with the dance is to proclaim their strength and to show their powers in order to intimidate the adversary.

To really scare the adversary people the Maoris’ used to show the whites of their eyes and poked out their tongue. They were showing their strength in body actions such as stamping the feet hard against the ground, slapping their hands against their body at the same time, screaming chanted words and using their body to express sound. They use their different body parts which represented many instruments. This is what they do when they dance the Haka dance.



An old tradition that belongs to the Maoris is the “Ta Moko” art. It’s tattooing, and very popular between the celebrities today. Robbie Williams is one of the artists that is a fan of “Ta moko” tattoos. It’s a permanent body and face marking that the Maoris have used for a very long time. It was brought by Maori from their Eastern Polynesian homeland. In the Maori culture, it was most high-ranking persons who received a “Ta Moko”, and those who went without them were seen as persons of lower social status. Receiving a “Ta Moko” constituted an important milestone between childhood and being an adult. Apart from signaling status and rank, another reason for the practice in traditional times was to make a person more attractive to the opposite sex. Men generally got “Ta Moko’s” in their faces. Women usually wore “Ta Moko’s” on their lips and chins. Other parts of the body that was normal to have a “Ta moko” on was the foreheads, buttocks, thighs, necks and backs of women, and the backs, stomachs and calves of men.

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