New Zealand’s youngest MP performs 'haka' successful parliament. (Image source: @ThomasMusket/X)
Why is the Haka creation performed? What are the different fashionable Haka? Take a look astatine the indispensable concepts, terms, quotes, oregon phenomena each time and brushwood up your knowledge. Here’s your cognition nugget for today.
Knowledge Nugget: Maori Haka
Subject: Art and Culture
(Relevance: UPSC keeps asking questions astir creation and culture, with creation being 1 of the important components. In this regard, it is important to cognize astir immoderate creation signifier that is quality and its taste significance.)
Why successful the news?
Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, a 22-year-old Maori Party MP, performed a almighty Maori haka successful parliament successful protestation of a contentious Bill, that video has present go viral. This led to the impermanent suspension of the Parliament connected November 14. The accepted Maori haka creation was a protestation against the Treaty Principles Bill that aimed to redefine the Treaty of Waitangi.
Key Takeaways:
1. The haka is of heavy taste value to Maori individuality and is traditionally performed by warriors connected the battlefield oregon to invited different tribe. According to New Zealand Tourism’s website, haka “was a amusement of carnal prowess but besides an embodiment of taste pride, strength, and unity.” It is usually performed successful a radical and involves chanting, melodramatic facial gestures, manus movements, and stamping the feet.
2. Most recently, the haka made planetary headlines successful 2019 erstwhile students from assorted schools – including non-Maori ones – paid tribute to their peers who died successful the Christchurch shootings done it.
3. The Haka traces its roots to the Maori people, the indigenous Polynesian inhabitants of Aotearoa (the Maori sanction for New Zealand). Traditionally, the haka was a ceremonial creation oregon situation performed by warriors earlier battle. It was designed to intimidate opponents with synchronised movements, almighty chants, and piercing expressions.
4. Beyond warfare, the haka besides served arsenic a means of storytelling, a mode to explicit communal grievances, observe triumphs, oregon honour ancestors. The chants, oregon waiata, convey heavy messages astir Maori heritage, values, and transportation to the land.
5. The haka is not a azygous creation but a class of performances. The astir well-known haka, Ka Mate, was composed successful the aboriginal 19th period by Maori main Te Rauparaha of the Ngāti Toa tribe. The lyrics comprised of “Ka mate, ka mate! Ka ora, ka ora!” (“I die, I die! I live, I live!”) which celebrates a constrictive flight from enemies, blending themes of resilience and unity.
Other Popular Haka |
• Peruperu: A warfare haka performed earlier conflict to intimidate the force and show strength.
• Ngeri: A abbreviated haka without acceptable actions, often utilized to stiffen the sinews and uplift the spirit. • Pōwhiri: A welcoming haka performed during ceremonial greeting ceremonies. • Manawa wera: A haka performed astatine funerals oregon memorials to explicit grief. |
6. The All Blacks, New Zealand’s rugby team, has performed the haka earlier each lucifer for astir 120 years. The tourism website says the regular gives the squad “a intelligence borderline and elevates their bosom rates supra their opponents, who indispensable basal and watch.” But traditionally, the haka has been done to amusement “cultural pride, strength, and unity.”
Treaty of Waitangi |
It is the foundational papers of Aotearoa (New Zealand) which was signed successful 1840 by a typical of the British crown and 500 Maori chiefs. It promised the tribes wide rights to their lands and interests if they ceded governance to the British Empire. |
BEYOND THE NUGGET: International Dance Day and 5 lesser-known people dances of India
1. International Dance Day is annually connected April 29 to commemorate the day of Jean-Georges Noverre, the begetter of modern ballet.
2. This time was archetypal founded successful 1982 by the Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), successful collaboration with UNESCO Performing Arts, with an thought to observe the quality and diverseness of creation and recognise its quality to transcend taste barriers and bring radical together.
Here are 5 people dances of India which are lesser-known, according to the experts:
Dancers performing Gotipua. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Dance | State | Description |
Laho | Meghalaya | It is an integral portion of the Behdienkhlam festival, which is held annually to invoke divine blessings and to get escaped of atrocious spirits. It is celebrated among the Pnar tribal assemblage in Meghalaya. |
Kud | Jammu | It is performed by the Dogra assemblage aft the harvesting of crops is finished. It is simply a ritual to convey the Gram Devta oregon colony deity for protecting crops. |
Puli Vesham | Andhra Pradesh | Puli Vesham oregon Tiger Dance is performed successful the Andhra portion during Dussehra and Muharram festivals. It is simply a one-man creation wherever the performer wears a constrictive portion of cloth astir the waist, and has the full assemblage painted with stripes, sporting a agelong tail, dancing vigorously successful tiger-like strides and jumps. |
Bhootam | Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu | The creation is performed to ward disconnected evil spirits. It has animistic elements and is ritualistic successful nature. Only antheral dancers execute it. The show takes spot successful beforehand of idols of the colony deities, usually carved retired of wood and painted successful bold colours. |
Gotipua | Odisha | It is 1 of the precursors of modern-day Odissi which was recast successful the mediate decades of the past period by a triumvirate of Gurus who merged divers section creation traditions into a azygous mono-aesthetic. The creation is executed by a radical of boys who execute acrobatic figures inspired by the beingness of Radha and Krishna. |
(Source: What is the Maori Haka dance, Why New Zealand lawmakers staged a ‘haka’ against a divisive Bill)
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