Originally Posted by
davflaws
Fair enough. I withdraw and apologise for suggesting you should get a life. You clearly have one, and you are very obviously interested in the world around you. I let my niggles over the cringe/puke run away with me.
I have sure been embarrassed by a few hakas - and since I'm writing to you I nearly rewrote the earlier bit to avoid committing myself to hakas. But Ka Mate has become special.
Anyway - I reckon it saves a lot of grief to have the option of looking at Ka Mate on a number of levels. Sometimes its a genuine challenge, more often it is only a symbol (though we might argue about what it signifies on any particular occassion). It is always a dramatic performance. If it is done well it moves me.
The group protesting the building of Nawha prison in their rohe moved me with Ka Mate. I wasn't bothered by the contradictions inherent in performing a Ngati Toa haka in defence of the mana of Ngapuhi. But that was for different reasons.
My school's performance of Ka Mate never moved me in the slightest, but I didn't cringe at the time tho I would now.
The All Blacks prior to Buck Shelford were pretty cringeworthy too.
I'm sure some Maori (you avoided committment to an s there) are embarrassed on occassion too.