Poem: "Whakaeke"
Aug. 6th, 2015 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the August 4, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by LJ user Ng_moonmoth. It also fills the "dancing" square in my 5-20-15 card for the Wellness Toolbox Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
"Whakaeke"
When Chillybin's superpower first manifested in 1960,
he made a complete nuisance of himself from
one end of New Zealand to the other,
since there was no one to stop him.
In 1961, he made the mistake
of interrupting a karanga ceremony
at the marae complex of a formidable clan.
When he iced over the podium
and demanded tribute, one young woman
strode forward and began to shout at him,
waving her arms and stamping her feet.
Chillybin was taken aback.
No one had ever challenged him before.
So he did the only thing he could think of:
he iced her feet to the floor to stop her
from dancing around like that.
Then members of her whānau came up
to join the haka at her side, family and friends
forming ranks of sturdy, tattooed bodies
all chanting and stamping in unison.
The woman crouched, rocking back and forth
in time with their song, slapping her strong thighs --
and the ice began to break away!
Chillybin's minions ran to help him,
but it was already too late.
They knew what a haka was,
but not how to do one or how to handle
the amount of energy pouring off the crowd.
The woman pulled free of the ice
and came toward them, squatting and stomping,
moving sideways like a crab as she shook her fists.
A strange power gathered, crackling like static
as it drew from the people around her,
pushing back the supervillain
and his hapless minions.
Finally they broke and ran.
The whole clan roared in triumph,
and the young woman led a victory dance.
That was the first haka mana,
the power challenge that came
to characterize New Zealand's way
of dealing with superpowers.
Forever after, people spoke of the event
as Whakaeke, the entrance song before a haka.
So Awhina Parata, newly known as Mauri,
became their first superhera, and
no end of trouble to Chillybin.
While the rest of the world was still trying
to sweep superpowers under the rug,
the Maori were already weaving them
into the fabric of their culture.
* * *
Notes:
Mauri (Awhina Parata) -- She has tinted skin, brown eyes, and short curly brown hair. She is a talented haka dancer and active in her tribal culture. Her Empathy includes the ability to merge energy from many different people to create the desired impact. She lives in New Zealand and is famous for her role in the Whakaeke. In the picture, Awhina is the farthest forward on the right side.
Origin: Her first recognized use of Empathy happened during a public confrontation with Chillybin, which became famous as the Whakaeke. However, it may have been active before then.
Uniform: Usually street clothes, but for special occasions, traditional Maori regalia.
Qualities: Expert (+2) Haka, Good (+2) Clan Ties, Good (+2) Courage, Good (+2) Leader, Good (+2) Thinking Outside the Box
Poor (-2) Broke
Powers: Good (+2) Empathy
Motivation: To hold her clan together.
Chillybin (Oscar Harris) -- He has fair skin, hazel eyes, and short wavy brown hair. He is short and wiry. His heritage is primarily British. He lives in New Zealand and is famous for his role in the Whakaeke, the first time a supervillain and superhero used haka to establish dominance. Chillybin gets by from stealing things. But sometimes he just likes to make a scene.
Origin: A dissatisfied crime boss locked Oscar in a freezer as punishment for misbehavior. Oscar came out of it with superpowers instead of ethics.
Uniform: Street clothes, but Chillybin favors loud patterns such as plaid or tropical motifs to attract attention.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Thief, Good (+2) Dexterity, Good (+2) Showing Off, Good (+2) Survivor
Poor (-2) Coward
Powers: Good (+2) Cold Powers, Average (0) Minions
The Six-Pack don't have any special powers. They're just ordinary criminals who admire Chillybin and help him with his plans to be a complete pain in the arse.
Motivation: He likes money. And attention. And messing with people.
* * *
The haka is a traditional Maori dance performed for various occasions. It resembles dominant body language by making expansive gestures such as spreading the legs and waving the arms. Although most famous as a war dance, haka also features in many other events such as funerals or graduations. Notably it incorporates women as well as men, the precursor for drawing bystanders into a soup conflict for moral support. It is also a vital job skill for T-New Zealand police, allowing them to compete against supervillains; an officer adept in haka may well defeat an opponent who has superpowers but lower social stance and dance skill. Furthermore, the chants, songs, calls, etc. are all in Maori, so fluency in that language is a necessary component of the performance. Kapa haka encompasses the breadth of the performing arts in Maori culture, and haka figures into many concepts in the language. In T-New Zealand history, the Maori were moving away from fatal combat and increasingly preferred to resolve conflicts via haka competitions, by the time of first contact with Europeans. This trend has continued to evolve and shapes their contemporary practices. You can learn how to do haka.
Haka regalia consists of nga kakahu, traditional Maori clothing. Women wear a pari (bodice) over a long piupiu (skirt). Men wear a tatua (sash) over a short piupiu. Tipares are woven headbands which may be worn by both women and men, sometimes used to hold feathers or other ornaments. Loose flax and finished lined are the primary materials, augmented with woolen embroidery thread, dyes, and other supplies. The korowai is a cloak or cape, traditionally decorated with feathers. During a performance of kapa haka, the two kaea -- a female leader and a male leader -- each wear one. Thus, wearing a cape constitutes a serious claim to authority in T-New Zealand. Lower-ranked soups do not wear capes, and locals can take offense at foreigners who do so if the individual does not seem to have sufficient social status to deserve it. All of these things are important parts of Maori culture.
Moko are Maori tattoos, traditionally made with a chisel and ink to create a unique combination of scarification and tattoo. The marks indicate many things including kinship, status, accomplishments, earned rights; the more tattoos, the higher the rank, except that some highly tapu (sacred, powerful, and dangerous) people are considered unsafe to tattoo. Conflict has arisen between Maori and foreigners over misappropriation, although historically the Pākehā Māori (adopted Europeans) sometimes earned moko. According to T-New Zealand law, foreign tattoos or Maori-inspired kirituhi may be merely decorative but moko are official insignia equivalent to medals or uniforms. Therefore moko must be earned; it is illegal to wear them without earning them, or to discriminate against anyone because of them. Tribal face painting appears around the world, alongside or instead of permanent markings. Maori folklore suggests that facepaint may have predated tattoos. Facepaint is sometimes used for staged shows so that performers may take different roles, or to indicate temporary authority such as the leadership of a specific event.
A whakaeke is the entrance song performed before a haka. In T-New Zealand, the first conflict between Chillybin and Mauri is called "The Whakaeke."
Chilly bin – A cooler bin, used for keeping drinks cold.
Karanga -- The ceremony of calling to the guests to welcome them onto the marae.
Marae -- the area for formal discourse in front of a meeting house; or the whole marae complex, including meeting house, dining hall, forecourt, etc.
Maori clans and the whānau or extended family form important structures within the culture.
Dominance fights appear in many animal species including meerkats, wolves, and ponies. Notably, chimpanzees do a considerable amount of such squabbling, while bonobos prefer to resolve most of their conflicts via sexual activity. Humans have developed their own versions of ritualized combat based on emotional skills. In Terramagne, most cape fights are really dominance fights, with a low chance of serious injury or death.
Threat displays belong to the family of agonistic behavior surrounding fights, which also includes gestures of aggression and submission. These serve a practical purpose of allowing opponents to size up each other's prowess, thus reducing actual combat, which lowers the chance of harm. Much the same holds true in human conflicts: the alpha male threat display helps keep it in the realm of social rather than physical altercation. In T-New Zealand, most cape fights have evolved into threat displays expressed through the cultural practice of haka.
Mana means "authority, power; secondary meaning: reputation, influence." This is the word that Maori people use for superpowers, but it retains the connotation of social status as well. Haka mana is the contemporary custom of settling disputes between superhero and supervillain with a show of song, dance, and mystical abilities -- without causing harm to anyone or anything. Thus it favors those abilities which are communal (such as Empathy or Superpower Sharing) or impressive to display (such as Illusion, Shapeshifting, or Super-Strength). Because it customarily draws on the combined stance of many people, this also allows a family or other group to fend off a single supervillain. An experienced haka team can make almost anyone back down, just with sheer social force.
Mauri -- Hidden essential life force or a symbol of this. In a superpower context, this applies to Empathy and other powers characterized by personal energy.
"Whakaeke"
When Chillybin's superpower first manifested in 1960,
he made a complete nuisance of himself from
one end of New Zealand to the other,
since there was no one to stop him.
In 1961, he made the mistake
of interrupting a karanga ceremony
at the marae complex of a formidable clan.
When he iced over the podium
and demanded tribute, one young woman
strode forward and began to shout at him,
waving her arms and stamping her feet.
Chillybin was taken aback.
No one had ever challenged him before.
So he did the only thing he could think of:
he iced her feet to the floor to stop her
from dancing around like that.
Then members of her whānau came up
to join the haka at her side, family and friends
forming ranks of sturdy, tattooed bodies
all chanting and stamping in unison.
The woman crouched, rocking back and forth
in time with their song, slapping her strong thighs --
and the ice began to break away!
Chillybin's minions ran to help him,
but it was already too late.
They knew what a haka was,
but not how to do one or how to handle
the amount of energy pouring off the crowd.
The woman pulled free of the ice
and came toward them, squatting and stomping,
moving sideways like a crab as she shook her fists.
A strange power gathered, crackling like static
as it drew from the people around her,
pushing back the supervillain
and his hapless minions.
Finally they broke and ran.
The whole clan roared in triumph,
and the young woman led a victory dance.
That was the first haka mana,
the power challenge that came
to characterize New Zealand's way
of dealing with superpowers.
Forever after, people spoke of the event
as Whakaeke, the entrance song before a haka.
So Awhina Parata, newly known as Mauri,
became their first superhera, and
no end of trouble to Chillybin.
While the rest of the world was still trying
to sweep superpowers under the rug,
the Maori were already weaving them
into the fabric of their culture.
* * *
Notes:
Mauri (Awhina Parata) -- She has tinted skin, brown eyes, and short curly brown hair. She is a talented haka dancer and active in her tribal culture. Her Empathy includes the ability to merge energy from many different people to create the desired impact. She lives in New Zealand and is famous for her role in the Whakaeke. In the picture, Awhina is the farthest forward on the right side.
Origin: Her first recognized use of Empathy happened during a public confrontation with Chillybin, which became famous as the Whakaeke. However, it may have been active before then.
Uniform: Usually street clothes, but for special occasions, traditional Maori regalia.
Qualities: Expert (+2) Haka, Good (+2) Clan Ties, Good (+2) Courage, Good (+2) Leader, Good (+2) Thinking Outside the Box
Poor (-2) Broke
Powers: Good (+2) Empathy
Motivation: To hold her clan together.
Chillybin (Oscar Harris) -- He has fair skin, hazel eyes, and short wavy brown hair. He is short and wiry. His heritage is primarily British. He lives in New Zealand and is famous for his role in the Whakaeke, the first time a supervillain and superhero used haka to establish dominance. Chillybin gets by from stealing things. But sometimes he just likes to make a scene.
Origin: A dissatisfied crime boss locked Oscar in a freezer as punishment for misbehavior. Oscar came out of it with superpowers instead of ethics.
Uniform: Street clothes, but Chillybin favors loud patterns such as plaid or tropical motifs to attract attention.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Thief, Good (+2) Dexterity, Good (+2) Showing Off, Good (+2) Survivor
Poor (-2) Coward
Powers: Good (+2) Cold Powers, Average (0) Minions
The Six-Pack don't have any special powers. They're just ordinary criminals who admire Chillybin and help him with his plans to be a complete pain in the arse.
Motivation: He likes money. And attention. And messing with people.
* * *
The haka is a traditional Maori dance performed for various occasions. It resembles dominant body language by making expansive gestures such as spreading the legs and waving the arms. Although most famous as a war dance, haka also features in many other events such as funerals or graduations. Notably it incorporates women as well as men, the precursor for drawing bystanders into a soup conflict for moral support. It is also a vital job skill for T-New Zealand police, allowing them to compete against supervillains; an officer adept in haka may well defeat an opponent who has superpowers but lower social stance and dance skill. Furthermore, the chants, songs, calls, etc. are all in Maori, so fluency in that language is a necessary component of the performance. Kapa haka encompasses the breadth of the performing arts in Maori culture, and haka figures into many concepts in the language. In T-New Zealand history, the Maori were moving away from fatal combat and increasingly preferred to resolve conflicts via haka competitions, by the time of first contact with Europeans. This trend has continued to evolve and shapes their contemporary practices. You can learn how to do haka.
Haka regalia consists of nga kakahu, traditional Maori clothing. Women wear a pari (bodice) over a long piupiu (skirt). Men wear a tatua (sash) over a short piupiu. Tipares are woven headbands which may be worn by both women and men, sometimes used to hold feathers or other ornaments. Loose flax and finished lined are the primary materials, augmented with woolen embroidery thread, dyes, and other supplies. The korowai is a cloak or cape, traditionally decorated with feathers. During a performance of kapa haka, the two kaea -- a female leader and a male leader -- each wear one. Thus, wearing a cape constitutes a serious claim to authority in T-New Zealand. Lower-ranked soups do not wear capes, and locals can take offense at foreigners who do so if the individual does not seem to have sufficient social status to deserve it. All of these things are important parts of Maori culture.
Moko are Maori tattoos, traditionally made with a chisel and ink to create a unique combination of scarification and tattoo. The marks indicate many things including kinship, status, accomplishments, earned rights; the more tattoos, the higher the rank, except that some highly tapu (sacred, powerful, and dangerous) people are considered unsafe to tattoo. Conflict has arisen between Maori and foreigners over misappropriation, although historically the Pākehā Māori (adopted Europeans) sometimes earned moko. According to T-New Zealand law, foreign tattoos or Maori-inspired kirituhi may be merely decorative but moko are official insignia equivalent to medals or uniforms. Therefore moko must be earned; it is illegal to wear them without earning them, or to discriminate against anyone because of them. Tribal face painting appears around the world, alongside or instead of permanent markings. Maori folklore suggests that facepaint may have predated tattoos. Facepaint is sometimes used for staged shows so that performers may take different roles, or to indicate temporary authority such as the leadership of a specific event.
A whakaeke is the entrance song performed before a haka. In T-New Zealand, the first conflict between Chillybin and Mauri is called "The Whakaeke."
Chilly bin – A cooler bin, used for keeping drinks cold.
Karanga -- The ceremony of calling to the guests to welcome them onto the marae.
Marae -- the area for formal discourse in front of a meeting house; or the whole marae complex, including meeting house, dining hall, forecourt, etc.
Maori clans and the whānau or extended family form important structures within the culture.
Dominance fights appear in many animal species including meerkats, wolves, and ponies. Notably, chimpanzees do a considerable amount of such squabbling, while bonobos prefer to resolve most of their conflicts via sexual activity. Humans have developed their own versions of ritualized combat based on emotional skills. In Terramagne, most cape fights are really dominance fights, with a low chance of serious injury or death.
Threat displays belong to the family of agonistic behavior surrounding fights, which also includes gestures of aggression and submission. These serve a practical purpose of allowing opponents to size up each other's prowess, thus reducing actual combat, which lowers the chance of harm. Much the same holds true in human conflicts: the alpha male threat display helps keep it in the realm of social rather than physical altercation. In T-New Zealand, most cape fights have evolved into threat displays expressed through the cultural practice of haka.
Mana means "authority, power; secondary meaning: reputation, influence." This is the word that Maori people use for superpowers, but it retains the connotation of social status as well. Haka mana is the contemporary custom of settling disputes between superhero and supervillain with a show of song, dance, and mystical abilities -- without causing harm to anyone or anything. Thus it favors those abilities which are communal (such as Empathy or Superpower Sharing) or impressive to display (such as Illusion, Shapeshifting, or Super-Strength). Because it customarily draws on the combined stance of many people, this also allows a family or other group to fend off a single supervillain. An experienced haka team can make almost anyone back down, just with sheer social force.
Mauri -- Hidden essential life force or a symbol of this. In a superpower context, this applies to Empathy and other powers characterized by personal energy.
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(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-07 11:28 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2015-08-07 08:39 pm (UTC)Yay!
>>I have a case of the major warm fuzzies, and I can't entirely articulate why. <<
Maybe because haka can have words in it, but is primarily about expression emotion through dance moves.
>> If I say that the idea of a group of people unifying in song/dance in response to a challenge really appeals somehow, <<
There are equivalents elsewhere, too. Different versions appear throughout much of Oceania. Some Native American cultures use communal song/dance for very similar purposes including ceremonies and war posturing. In the Great Plains cultures, the most prestigious form of counting coup was to strike an enemy without injuring him, because it was riskier than killing from a distance or clobbering him flat. Much later, breakdancing evolved in city gangs as a nonviolent alternative to armed conflict.
>>am I crowding in on a culture that I have no claim to? <<
My thoughts on the issue of cultural blending, assimilation, and appropriation include:
* When people meet, they trade ideas. They just do. The only way to avoid this is to avoid people. A bunch of cultures have tried that. It tends not to work well due to having many drawbacks which usually outweigh the benefits.
* Familiarity favors acceptance. Isolation favors hostility. People are more likely to raise a fuss over something they view as alien and threatening than something they recognize. Cross-cultural sharing leads to higher recognition, and furthermore, it's about the only thing that causes a dominant group to know anything about a less powerful group.
* Good ideas deserve to spread. Some good ideas occur in many places, but others are scarcer. Swap around. MOAR GOODEEZ for everyone!
* Colonialism and racism are massive problems that caused a lot of historic damage and continue to make life difficult today, for everyone, but especially for the descendants of people who were overrun. Fixing even small parts of this is very difficult.
* Understand that this can make people very touchy due to inherited or personal trauma, which can happen on both sides of a divide.
* If you take what you want from anywhere and walk away without giving anything back, that is stealing and it is not ethical. If you take things that you find useful, and in return you support the culture that made them, then both parties benefit from the exchange. So for instance, I write about wolves, and I support activism to protect living wolves in their natural habitat. I write about many different cultures, and I support people's sovereignty; I'm particularly encouraging of heritage languages.
* Respect also matters. Some renditions are well done and presented sincerely; others are sloppy or deliberately insulting. Hurting people on purpose is not okay, and hurting them accidentally isn't great either. This can mean that some things are okay to borrow and others really aren't. People put crosses on everything and many a non-Christian has a Buddy Christ bopping along on their dashboard, but you don't usually see anyone other than the Pope in a Pope hat. I really admire the Maori solution of distinguishing between official tattoos and decorative ones.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-07 07:33 pm (UTC)Well...
Date: 2015-08-07 08:13 pm (UTC)You can learn enough in a short class to use it for haka even without being fluent at a conversational level -- you mostly need the phonemes and some basic vocabulary -- but the more you know, the better. A good speaker of Maori can make up chants on the spot, which if they are apt to the occasion and funny or dramatic, can really add to the energy. A fluent speaker can help a less-fluent kaea by shoring up the chant during callbacks. Naturally anyone who plans for this kind of activity will benefit from practicing Maori and making it a selection-relevant trait when interviewing minions. Maori soups have a higher rate of minions as a result -- like a chorus line, really, they need performance backup.
Also, the haka mana events get even more publicity than the sporting ones, which means people hear Maori on television or radio a lot. If the chants are improvised instead of traditional, there's a lot of laughter and "WHAT did she just call him?" as the fluent speakers translate for everyone else. So you can learn a bit that way.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-07 02:50 am (UTC)I still regret that we were unable to make their competition that year.
--Rogan
Thank you!
Date: 2015-08-07 03:17 am (UTC)I'm glad you enjoyed it.
>> We actually accidentally met a family of Maori dance competitors, back when Sneak was trying to save a lamed horse. The family was the horse-owner's neighbors, so we ended up knocking on their door to spread word about the horse. When they realized we were foreign and had no idea what haka was, they immediately set us down to show some vids of the competition. It was FUCKING AWESOME. <<
That is so cool!
>>I still regret that we were unable to make their competition that year.
--Rogan<<
Bummer. It would have been exciting.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-07 03:39 am (UTC)... And I have spent an hour and a half or more editing a couple of Wikipedia articles about New Zealand. (Tino rangatiratanga, Claudia Orange)
You're welcome!
Date: 2015-08-07 03:48 am (UTC)Re: You're welcome!
Date: 2015-08-07 05:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-07 03:41 am (UTC)implies? Or no?
Well...
Date: 2015-08-07 03:43 am (UTC)Re: Well...
Date: 2015-08-07 05:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-07 01:01 pm (UTC)Wow. My family's Australian, but we don't buy into the 'rivalry' between Australia and New Zealand. The sad part is, at least half of Australians are joking when we say 'bloody Kiwis', the other half aren't being so friendly. We love watching the haka at sporting events and my brother and Mum were real fans when they went. For what people say about Australians, if the Aussies face off against the Kiwis, the Aussie sportsman pay attention and show respect. One team from another country who faced the Kiwis didn't...so the New Zealanders thrashed them, much to the joy of my mother watching.
Thank you!
Date: 2015-08-08 05:32 am (UTC):D
>> My family's Australian, but we don't buy into the 'rivalry' between Australia and New Zealand. <<
Well, good.
>> The sad part is, at least half of Australians are joking when we say 'bloody Kiwis', the other half aren't being so friendly. <<
There are prats in every crowd.
>>We love watching the haka at sporting events and my brother and Mum were real fans when they went. For what people say about Australians, if the Aussies face off against the Kiwis, the Aussie sportsman pay attention and show respect. One team from another country who faced the Kiwis didn't...so the New Zealanders thrashed them, much to the joy of my mother watching.<<
Heh, yeah.
haka mana
Date: 2017-01-03 03:27 am (UTC)I've never seen haka competitions. Something new to look forward to, yay!
Re: haka mana
Date: 2017-01-03 03:42 am (UTC):D
>> I've never seen haka competitions. Something new to look forward to, yay! <<
I have only written a little of this, but I really enjoy it.
New Zealand has filmed many haka variations, from the traditional to the modern.
Here's a traditional one. It's a huge display of testosterone. See their fingertips shaking? That's what happens when you raise so much energy your body can't contain it, and it starts dripping off the edges. If they were soups, they'd be glowing.
This modern one is for a wedding, and it's all about social support. They stomp and yell about everything, even happy things. :D
Now imagine that with superpowers.
Also, my T-Maori would boo the house down watching a movie like Civil War. To them it's about as entertaining as watching toddlers have a mud fight. They're all about social ties and skill precision.