Maori Wedding haka moves bride to tears in New Zealand

boing
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Looks more interesting than having to watch the actual game, frankly.

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So can anyone tell me - was this the bride’s family challenging, and welcoming, the groom?
Edit: nope, it was a surprise by the men in his family, info was in the bbc link.

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Kinda both, but in a totally respectful, loving way.

According to the bride, the groom is “more Maori” than she is, so don’t look at this as her family being Maori vs him being an outsider. This is just how many Maori families celebrate major milestones in that culture.

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Let me play devil’s advocate. There’s a lot of Spanish speaking soccer fans in my city.

Is it “speaking in tongues” for their teams to say stuff before a game in Spanish?

Asshole.

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Shows us what race means. Really, not that much.

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Waldo is Welsh???

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Waldo isn’t even his real name!

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surprised nobody is yelling about appropriation

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Article. Read it.

“Ben is a Maori, he is probably more Maori than I am,” Ms Armstrong said. “Because
he has fair skin, some people have been saying on social media that
‘he’d better not hurt the bride’, but they’re actually his family.”

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He’s even changed his name! What’s he wanted for anyway?

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Given that “tongue” and “language” are often the same word in many languages, I’d say it’s just one translation away. Too close to be upset over.

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Yeah, just more silly, “hypersensitive,” “political correctness,” amirite?

I might be inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt here, since I think you’ve said English isn’t your first tongue?

In my English-speaking context, using “speaking in tongues” when referring to someone else speaking another language is the same thing as saying they’re “babbling.” It’s condescending. at best, and usually an implicit complaint that they’re not speaking what they “should be” speaking, i.e., English. It’s an ugly form of xenophobic nativism.

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It’s of course your right to choose the more controversial narrative and become upset over it, if you enjoy things more that way.

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And it’s yours to be an asshole who dismisses the pain of others and condones the actions of perpetrators. Ok got it thnx bye.

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78

I was taught one version of the haka by a Maori guy who went on to play rugby internationally. For Finland, but still…

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Wllddy in the original Welsh (stress on the “ll”).

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There are different hakas for different situations. The most famous haka is called Ka Mate, and that’s what the All Blacks used to use; they created their own haka a few years ago with lyrics and motions that are specifically meant to be intimidating and challenging. The whole point isn’t a “fuck you”, it’s warrior-like intimidation. They’ve been doing it for over a hundred years at football matches, so it’s tradition at this point.

The haka at this wedding is most definitely not a “fuck you” or a haka meant to intimidate. It’s part of Maori tradition to do a haka like this to honor someone; to have a haka done for you is a huge honor.

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Correct: to the uninitiated, the haka look the same, but are for different purposes in these two situations. At the rugby games, to intimidate and challenge the other team.

Is it positive? Is it negative? Is it violent? Is it disrespectful of the other team? In the rugby case, it’s a little of everything. So it comes as no surprise that the opposing teams form wedges and “march against” the haka. In fact, I am really surprised that the opposing teams are not chanting loudly all the while or outright shouting, to disrupt the haka and suck power away from it. But hey whatever, it’s rugby and they do what they want. I find it overly violent and don’t like watching it that much.

At the wedding - a different story! To an outsider, it seems very odd, loud posturing and shouting. But it’s meant to inspire not intimidate.

We can be open to multiple uses for the same tool, right? We’re adaptable, no?

And one other note, what do you feel when you are watching and listening to one of these haka? Are you a little bit swept up in the moment by it? Are you a little bit brought to tears but don’t wanna just out and out cry your eyeballs out? Are you inspired? Well, you might be all of the above, because emotions come in many stripes and flavors. Westerners have our emotions generally in little pigeoholes, labeled like happy, sad, angry. But there is a whole range of emotion and expression available to us. The haka is wonderful because it evokes so many different emotions simultaneously, some that seem to oppose one another. Some that we don’t have words for. It puts people in a place where normal Western rules do not apply. I think they are awesome.

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From my experience, a haka that involves miming cutting the opponent’s throats while chanting about destroying them is one of the least violent things about rugby. That’s one painful sport.

I got to see several hakas performed when I visited New Zealand, both on-stage and in person, just a few feet away, and it’s incredibly intense. Watching huge guys stomping in a warrior’s dance, screaming and sticking their tongues out, and knowing that it’s meant as an honor is… intense, that’s really the best word for it. One thing you don’t see in this video is what the Maori women do. As they sing and twirl their poi balls around, they’ll suddenly stare at you fiercely and bug out their eyeballs in the most freaky, disturbing way, and then smile sweetly and go back to singing. In its quiet way it’s as intense as watching the men do this stuff.