New Zealand Government 2024 NOV 14 Protest Haka.

'Ka mate, ka mate' - when is it appropriate to perform haka?

The Ngāti Toa haka performed in Parliament was the well-known 'Ka mate, Ka mate,' which tells the story of Te Rauparaha who was being chased by enemies and sought shelter where he hid. Once his enemies left he came out into the light.

Ngāti Toa chief executive and rangatira Helmut Modlik told RNZ the haka was relevant to the debate.

He said the bill had put Māori self-determination at risk - "ka mate, ka mate" - and Māori were reclaiming that - "ka ora, ka ora".

Haka was not governed by rules or regulation, Modlik said. It could be used as a show of challenge, support or sorrow.

"In the modern setting, all of these possibilities are there for the use of haka, but as an expression of cultural preferences, cultural power, world view, ideas, sounds, language - it's rather compelling."

Modlik acknowledged that Parliament operated according to its own conventions but said the "House and its rules only exist because our chiefs said it could be here".

"If you're going to negate... the constitutional and logical basis for your House being here... with your legislation, then that negates your right to claim it as your own to operate as you choose."

He argued critics were being too sensitive, akin to "complaining about the grammar being used as people are crying that the house is on fire".

"The firemen are complaining that they weren't orderly enough," Modlik said. "They didn't use the right words."

Modlik said Seymour should expect a robust response to his own passionate performance and theatre: "That's the Pandora's Box he's opening".

Following the party's protest on Thursday, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi told reporters "everyone should be proud to see [the haka] in its true context."

"We love it when the All Blacks do it, but what about when the 'blackies' do it?" he said.

On Friday, speaking to those gathered for the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti in Rotorua, Waititi said the party used "every tool available to us to use in the debates in that House".

"One of those tools are the Māori tools we take from our kete, which is haka, which is waiata, which is pōkeka - all of those things that our tīpuna have left us. Those are natural debating tools on the marae."