Teaching my first class, I thought it was about sharing a few kapa haka songs.
I was wrong.
What it’s really about is bringing a language to life. Waiata happens to be a brilliant way of doing that.
Our waiata are oral histories that come alive again with each performance. They also have the language built right into them.
A language that is alive is a language that is used, that is seen, heard, felt, valued and is growing each day.
It might look like learning a few songs, or integrating a couple of phrases…
… but your weekly kapa haka session or daily te reo time are really building blocks for a living language.
