Wellington Kapa haka teacher Whaitiri Poutawa Photo: YouTube screenshot
Kapa haka teacher Whaitiri Poutawa loves his job and had a "mini freak-out" when the Level-4 lockdown was announced and he couldn't visit schools.
To keep contributing, he's taken his funny, energetic classes online, where they've attracted tens of thousands of viewers from around the world.
Whaitiri shoots his Kapahaka4kids videos in his living room with a camera is held in place by Blu Tack.
Whaitiri's usual day job is teaching te reo Māori, kapa haka and the Māori martial art mau rākau at 30 schools in the Hutt Valley and Porirua.
He was first invited to teach by an old Māori kuia working at an Upper Hutt school.
She asked Whaitiri to teach the students a passionate haka and also "Māori man stuff", he says.
"She had this core group of boys who had all this energy and they didn't know how to appropriately express that energy in the classroom or the schooling environment."
Mau rākau gave the boys something to do at school that they were keen to talk about when they got home, Whaitiri says.
As part of his work, Whaitiri teaches rangatahi about the concept of 'toa' (bravery) in relation to confidence and leadership.
'Toa' is less about being tough and more about being a person of good strong character, he says.
"We're not calling ourselves fighting warriors, we're warriors of life, we're contributors. We're inventors, we're creators, that's the concept of toa, of the warrior, that we deliver to our young people."
Whaitiri is live-streaming kapa haka classes on his Facebook page every Monday to Friday at 11am during the lockdown. You can also watch them on YouTube.
