Blogs • The President 2009

The Haka and Waiata, after a few intense months of training and vigilant practise, have been presented within the College. The men and women of Selwyn put hours of sweat and hardwork into learning and fine tuning these two special representations of our College... Trust me, the windows of the common room steam up after a good practise!

 It is due to the huge respect we have for the Maori culture and traditions of not only Selwyn "Te Whare O Herewini", but of Aotearoa, that this is such a big deal for the college. The boys presented a rousing haka to the women of our college,  after a spiritual preparation in the Chapel.

It's an intense and spine-tingling experience. Long, slow, precise and ferocious; in my experience of watching many boys schools hakas, I am yet to have seen a college perform with quite the same passion or feeling. It is a truly unique facet of Selwyn College. With a rigid selection process of not only the leaders of the haka, but the lines themselves, every Selwynite is eager and proud to be apart of something greater than himself. Congratulations must be given to the boys selected to lead, with Jesse Waipara selected as the Sub-Kaea and Nick Morgan given the supreme honour of Kaea, again after a long selection process... For the duration of the haka, the Kaea is in complete command of the boys of the college, and being selected is indicative of their mana and the respect for them.

The girls then presented a beautiful waiata the following night, and even though many of them told me they were worried they wouldn't be able to match the haka, they were wrong!

Us boys were truly blown away by the lovely warmth and beauty that the girls exuded when singing the waiata, and it brought tears to more than a few eyes. We boys hadn't seen that side of the girls before! They were led fantastically by Joanna Lealiifano as Sub-kaea, and Ayla Jenkins as kaea. The girls of the college really lit up the quad that night and their radiance was there for all to see, which is a tribute to the leaders and all their hard work; I don't think its something many of us will forget.

The haka and waiata presentations are special nights,  a once in a lifetime experience. It is a turning point for a new group of people thrown together, to become Selwynites who claim ownership of the place and the family within it;

For each of us the haka and waiata is a very personal expression of a piece of New Zealands unique culture, a piece of the place you live and all the traditions that go with it, and a tribute to the special people within.