In New Zealand, over 400,000 people a year — including almost half of all indigenous Polynesian Maori — attend some type of kapa haka or traditional Maori performing arts presentation.

Like all Polynesian peoples, the Maori of Aotearoa as they call New Zealand, have engaged in these traditional performing arts — songs, dances and chants — for centuries.

In 1911 the first known Maori performing group successfully toured Great Britain. The first national Maori Traditional Performing Arts Festival, now called Te Matatini or "the many faces" in the Maori language, premiered in 1972 and is held every other year in various locations around New Zealand.

In the most recent Te Matatini Festival, held from February 24-27, 2005, almost 40,000 people watched over 1,200 competitors.

The Polynesian Cultural Center, which opened in 1963 and has proudly featured Maori kapa haka ever since in its spectacular and authentic Aotearoa marae or village, as well as the outstanding evening show, Horizons, began a series of annual Maori cultural competitions over six years ago, which we now call the Whakataetae Festival. Whakataetae in Maori [the 'wh' is pronounced like an 'f'] means "competition."

Seamus Fitzgerald, PCC's former Maori ambassador of culture who is originally from Turangi, New Zealand, explains, "There's a regional competition every two years, and a national competition on the opposite second year. The winners of the regional competitions represent their tribal area at the national competition, which was in Palmerston North this year. I went, and there were 45 groups who performed, with an awesome level of competition."Fitzgerald adds that since 2003 the format of PCC's Whakataetae Festival follows the outline of Te Matatini competitions in New Zealand."I believe the senior groups here have the same skill level as the ones in New Zealand," Fitzgerald says. "That was supported by [previous] judges. I have a letter from the key judge, Watini Mitai-Ngatai — who in the area of performing arts is probably respected as much as anyone could be for his expertise in kapa haka and Maoritanga [Maori culture] — who wrote the national committee, saying that the Hawaii competition needs to be part of the regional competition, and the winners should perform at the nationals because they're at the same level.""That's our ultimate goal," Fitzgerald said, "that we qualify here in regional competition and the winner goes back and represents North America in New Zealand."

Until then, you can enjoy a superior level of Maori kapa haka at the Polynesian Cultural Center, especially during future annual Whakataetae Festivals.

People behind the scenes

In staging the Polynesian Cultural Center Whakataetae Festivals, Fitzgerald has been part of a small, hard-working group. Though young, he's well qualified for his role.

Fitzgerald first came to the Cultural Center as a BYU-Hawaii student. After he graduated in 1999 with a degree in Pacific Island Studies, he returned to New Zealand where he went on to earn a master's degree in Maori Studies from Massey University in Palmerston North. He has recently returned again to New Zealand to work on a doctorate degree, but hopes to come back to the PCC in the future.

In addition to his work for the Polynesian Cultural Center, and his volunteer work leading the performing group Te Hokioi and the mau taiaha (Maori martial arts) school, Fitzgerald has also lectured in Maori language, literature, history and performing arts at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Asked the significance of the name of his own group, Te Hokioi, Fitzgerald explains the New Zealand hokioi is an extinct eagle which used to feed off the ostrich-sized or larger moa bird, which is also extinct. "To the Maori people, the hokioi was seen as a spiritual messenger, and its appearance was seen as a messenger from the gods."

"I chose the name Te Hokioi to remind us, as a group, that our main purpose is to fulfill that same spirit."

"Our goal has always been to keep the culture alive. Our tutors taught me what I've been given is not mine to hold. There's an obligation to pass it on to anybody who has the right heart and who comes seeking for it. I can't be selective of who I teach. If someone comes to me and sincerely wants to learn something, I have an obligation to teach them. We are just caretakers of the culture. It's not ours to own. We must pass it on."

"When we pass it on to the students who are here, it becomes more dynamic in their own lives. It strengthens them spiritually and mentally, and it will be an advantage to them as they move into the rest of the world. They'll have a stronger identity of who they are, of who their ancestors were. That's always portrayed through the dance and the language."

Another key member of the committee in the past has been "Uncle" Colin Karewa Shelford, 76, the recently retired rangatira or island manager of the Cultural Center's Aotearoa village who first came to the PCC in 1972.

Shelford, who grew up speaking Maori in a tiny community in the Northland of New Zealand, recalls once he started school he was not permitted to speak the language in class or on the grounds.

He sees the PCC's Whakataetae Festival as a way to "keep the dances and songs of our culture alive, not only for the performers themselves, but for the people who come and see. It's also something for the students who come here to school to look forward to and be involved in."

"As I think back over the competitions here, there's been a definite increase in the level of performance by our competing groups. The last competition was something out of the ordinary."

Other Whakataetae committee members have included Ellen Gay Dela Rosa, senior PCC manager over all special events; Nihipora Kereama Wallace, Valetta Jeremiah, George Kaka, Mark Clawson and Tama Halvorsen.