2007 Te Whanaketanga Participants

Starting with 2007’s Te Whanaketanga, the Polynesian Cultural Center’s eighth Maori cultural arts special event, junior and intermediate ages perform in alternating years from the adult groups. This year’s participants included:

• Te Hamata from Laie, Hawaii, and the surrounding communities, with Penny Toilolo as leader; and Roimata McGregor, Nataria Perrett and Chantel Paki as tutors. Te Hamata appeared with its "babies" up to age 5 (in exhibition only), and junior (ages 6-12) and intermediate (ages 13-18) groups. Toilolo, who literally grew up at the Polynesian Cultural Center, her husband Viliami Toilolo, and Lono Hanohano formed Te Hamata in 2000 to carry on the tradition of "great leaders and experts of Polynesia" and "give back what was graciously given to us."
• Te Manawa 'O Atooi — the "heartbeat of Kauai" — is a combination of Na Hula O Kaohikukapulani in Hanapepe and Halau Hula O Keala in Kapaa, Kauai, led respectively by sisters Kapu Kinimaka-Alquiza and Keala Kinimaka-Senkus — two of 16 siblings originally from the island of Hawaii; with PCC tutors Hone Bailey and Te Puea Corbert-Searancke. Kumu Kapu's halau dates to 1984.
• Kahurangi is a recently formed group of Kahuku High School students led by 31-year veteran physical education teacher Marseilles Nepe Mo'o, a Maori affiliated with the Tainui, Ngati Porou and Ngai Tai tribes. Marsie, as she is called, is originally from the East Coast but was raised in Rotorua. She compares the special wairua or spirits of her students to kahurangi pounamu — precious Maori jade or greenstone.
• Te Roopu O Tumanako — "the group of hope" — comes from Laie and the surrounding communities. Sheena Alaiasa started this group in 2003, with the assistance of Serena Tuililoa, "to help perpetuate our culture in our children living away from New Zealand."

Additional participants in the Haka Hard and Poi E! categories included:

• Te Mata Tairanga, five men from the Polynesian Cultural Center's promo team, who competed in the haka; led by Kisione Tongi.
• Maori Village, five men from the PCC, who also competed in the haka; led by Hone Bailey.
• Te Wananga Maori o Hawaii, 10 women in two groups who competed in the poi category.

The PCC's Maori village also made a special presentation in honor of the late "Aunty" Nihipora Kereama Wallace, who passed away about a year ago; and "Aunty" Raewyn Shelford, who passed away recently. Both helped promulgate Maoritanga (Maori traditions) at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

2006 Whakataetae Participants

Starting with the seventh annual Whakataetae, senior dancers only competed in 2006. They included:

• Ngati Hiona from Utah, Nevada, California and other mainland U.S. locations, led by Dave Atkinson, a former Polynesian Cultural Center performer.
• Te Hokioi , the 2004 winners, led by Seamus Fitzgerald and comprised of PCC employees, Maori and others in the communities surrounding the Polynesian Cultural Center.
• Te Roopu Ratapu, comprised of Maori and other Polynesians from Honolulu, led by Hawaka Jeremiah and his mother, long-time PCC cultural expert Aunty Valetta Jeremiah.

2005 Whakataetae Participants

The sixth annual Whakataetae Festival in 2005 included three special appearance groups and six competing groups — three in the senior division and three in the junior division (up to age 13).

Te Arohanui o te Iwi Maori, the first of the special appearance groups, played a significant historial role at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Seamus Fitzgerald, PCC's former ambassador of maoritanga or Maori culture, explained that "Te Arohanui is the original Maori group who performed at the opening of the Polynesian Cultural Center in 1963. There were 148 of them. This year [2005] a group of 48 comprised of original members and spouses — many of whom are in their 70s and 80s now — will be here. They're returning to the Cultural Center as a group for the first time."

"Symbolically they bring their brothers and sisters by bringing with them photos to be put in the whare puni (family dwelling and museum) to remember them. In our culture, we call it kawe mate: In New Zealand, whenever someone passes away, you take the photos to their marae [the tribal center] and they're normally hung with their ancestral carvings; but here in Hawaii it's definitely uncommon. This will be one of the first kawe mate protocols here."

Learn more about the Te Arohanui group...

Te Here A Maui from the east coast of New Zealand, where the popular movie Whale Rider was filmed, also put in a special appearance. "Only seven of them came — three of them were judges, but they're a top-class performing group in both contemporary and traditional (Maori arts)," Fitzgerald said. "They brought gifts and trophies that will be used in the future for Whakataetae."

The third special appearance group, Te Whare Tu Taua o Aotearoa, the traditional Maori fighting arts school instructed by Seamus Fitzgerald, put on a special exhibition. The day before the group was graded by the visiting judges from New Zealand, Paora Sharples and Kim Makekau, "and received their graduation shirts during the prize- awarding portion of the festival," Fitzgerald said.

The senior division includes:

• Ngati Hiona from the U.S. mainland
• Te Hokioi
• Te Wananga Maori o Hawaii , the 2003 and 2005 winners, led by Tama Halvorsen and Shannon Niania Galea'i, is another group comprised of Maori and others in the communities surrounding the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Junior division participants include:

• Kamanawa , a hula halau [school] from Kauai, instructed by PCC's own "Aunty" Valetta Jeremiah.
• Tamari'i A Hiva from nearby Hauula, led by former PCC performer Cathy Teriipaia. "They actually dance all Polynesian cultures, but as you can tell by their name, they are a strong Tahitian group," Fitzgerald said.
• Te Ropu Tumanako , the current junior championship group, is based in Laie where the Cultural Center is located, and led by Sheen Alaiasa. "They've competed for the last three years," Fitzgerald said.

2004 Whakataetae Participants

• Te Ropu Tumanako
• Te Manawa Nui (Kapolei Middle School Polynesian Club), led by Marjorie Witihira Kalama
• Tamari'i o Hiva & Tamari'i o Patitifa , led by Cathy Teriipaia
• Te Hokioi
• Te Wananga Maori o Hawaii