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Glossary

Every te reo Māori word used on this site, with what it means and why it matters.

We put the translation in brackets the first time a word appears on a page, because the meaning is the point — a haka you do not understand is only noise. This page gathers them in one place.

Te reo Māori is a living language. Some of these words carry more than a single English word can hold, so where that is true we have said so rather than pretending otherwise.

What is a haka?Ask us anything

Live translation of a kapa haka performance

People and belonging

Māori	The indigenous people of Aotearoa. Also the language and the culture.
Aotearoa	New Zealand. Usually translated as “the land of the long white cloud”.
iwi	Tribe. The largest kinship grouping, descended from a shared ancestor.
hapū	Sub-tribe. The grouping of families within an iwi that most people belong to day to day.
whānau	Family, in the wide sense — not only parents and children.
kaumātua	Grandparents and elders. The people who hold the knowledge and give permission.
whakapapa	Genealogy. The line of descent that places a person in relation to their people, their land and their history.
kaihaka	Haka performers.
rōpū	A performing group.
mana	Standing, authority and prestige — held by a person, a group or an object, and given by others rather than claimed.
rangatira	Chief. A leader of an iwi or hapū, recognised as such by their own people.
pepeha	The way a person states who they are and where they are from — their mountain, their river, their people and their place.
tangata whenua	People of the land. Those who belong to a place and host others on it.

The performance

haka	A composed Māori posture dance performed by a group as one — voice, body, face and breath together. There are many kinds, and not all of them are challenges.
kapa haka	Māori performing arts as a whole: waiata, poi, haka and the movement that carries them. Literally “a group performing”.
waiata	Song.
waiata-ā-ringa	Action song — sung with hand movements that carry the meaning of the words.
mōteatea	Traditional chanted song poetry, often very old, usually unaccompanied.
poi	A light ball on a cord, swung and struck in time. Demands precision from a whole group at once.
wero	The ceremonial challenge laid down before a formal welcome, to establish whether visitors come in peace.
pōhiri	The formal welcome ceremony that brings visitors onto a marae, or into a gathering.
karakia	A blessing or incantation. Opens and closes things properly.
pūkana	The widening of the eyes. Not a grimace — it intensifies the meaning of the words being performed.
whetero	The protruding of the tongue, performed by men. Like pūkana, it carries meaning rather than aggression.
kōrero	The telling — what the words mean and where they come from. Every haka has one, and we never perform without giving it.
kupu	Words. The words of a haka or waiata.
karanga	The call of welcome, made by women, that opens a pōhiri and brings visitors on.
whakaaraara	A rousing call used to open a performance or alert a group.
whākana	The widening of the eyes, held open and fixed. Performed by women, where whetero is performed by men.
takahi	The stamp of the foot. The collective stamping that drives the rhythm of a haka.
ihi, wehi, wana	The three qualities a haka is judged by — the force of it, the awe it raises, and the exhilaration it leaves behind.
Te Matatini	The national kapa haka championship of Aotearoa, held every two years. The highest stage there is.

Objects and dress

taonga	Treasures. Objects, but also language, knowledge and anything else held precious and passed on.
kākahu	A cloak. The finest are woven from harakeke and feathers, and are worn on the occasions that warrant them.
piupiu	The flax skirt worn in performance, which makes its own sound as the body moves.
harakeke	New Zealand flax. The plant piupiu and woven taonga are made from.
pounamu	Greenstone. Carved and worn, and given rather than bought where it can be.
hei matau	A fish hook, carved from bone or pounamu and worn at the neck. Associated with safe passage over water.
koru	The unfurling frond of a fern — new life, and the shape behind much Māori design.
taiaha	A long fighting staff, used in performance as well as in combat.
kotiate	A hand club, held close and used at close quarters.
moko	Traditional Māori marking of the skin. Moko kanohi is facial moko.
kahu huruhuru	A feather cloak. Worn as a mark of respect and standing.

Places, custom and everyday words

marae	The communal meeting grounds of a Māori community — where people are welcomed, decisions are made and the dead are farewelled.
wharenui	The meeting house that stands on a marae. The building is understood as an ancestor.
tikanga	Māori custom and protocol. What is done, how, by whom, and in what order.
te reo	The Māori language. Te reo Māori in full.
kōhanga reo	Full Māori-immersion language nests for young children — the movement that brought te reo back from the edge.
tono	To request, or to invite. “Tono mai” is our invitation to get in touch.
kotahitanga	Unity. Thinking, moving and acting as one.
mātauranga Māori	Māori knowledge systems — the body of knowledge and the way of knowing carried by each iwi.
whakataukī	A proverb. A saying that carries advice in a compact form.
kāinga	Home.

If a word is missing

Tell us and we will add it. If you have heard a word in one of our performances and want to know what it carried, ask — that is the part we most like explaining. You can also read what is a haka for the longer version, or see how we work on performances and workshops.

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Where our people have performed

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