The skinny guy behind the The Rock guy can't seem to keep up with the moves.

December 22, 2010 4:51 PM

The Hideous Financial Monster, by Te Waka Huia.
posted by Evilspork (13 comments total)

Well, that was something you don't see every day. At least not on my island.
posted by nola at 5:10 PM on December 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Daaaaaaaaaaammmmmnnnnnnn.
posted by msali at 6:05 PM on December 22, 2010

This is great, but maybe it needs some context to be properly understood. This haka was performed for the film 'Lucky People Centre International', which came out in 1998. The '90s were not such a great time to be a New Zealander. After a decade or so of rather brutal economic liberalisation, the economy was crumbling under the weight of the Asian financial crisis. Unemployment was high; Maori unemployment was even higher. Public anxiety about foreign investment was through the roof. For many, the millennial hype was tinged with worry; the 21st century is coming, are we being left behind?

I know there's a certain standalone appeal to seeing a traditional art form dealing with modern problems, but I think the performance is more poignant, perhaps even prescient, when you understand the background behind it.
posted by embrangled at 6:06 PM on December 22, 2010 [10 favorites]

Thanks for providing the much needed [more inside], embrangled. I can't speak to anything about the message or context – but that's a hell of a traditional art form. Gets the blood pumping!
posted by quadog at 6:50 PM on December 22, 2010

Thanks for this. (I remember being completely entranced by Te Waka Huia's choral group the first time I heard this song by Crowded House, then was lucky enough to see them perform about ten years later when I was in NZ in 2003. Amazing group.)
posted by scody at 7:09 PM on December 22, 2010

Incidentally, the monster in the title isn't just a generic monster; it's a Taniwha.
posted by embrangled at 7:12 PM on December 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Reading the subtitles of what they were chanting (singing?) was extremely saddening. The realisation they had that they either became puppets of this monster, or food.
posted by Alnedra at 7:12 PM on December 22, 2010

Thanks for this post, Evilspork. This is amazing and riveting on so many levels ... the actual performance is breathtaking. The modern day struggle delivered in this ancient, traditional way is powerful, particularly given the context (thanks embrangled).
posted by madamjujujive at 7:25 PM on December 22, 2010

Just as an aside, and I'm no expert by any stretch, but my understanding is that the 'wh' in Maori words such as 'Taniwha' is pronounced as 'f'.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:05 PM on December 22, 2010

I've always figured that if we need to send a group of human ambassadors to an alien world, send some Maori. They embody the fierceness of the human spirit.
posted by Xoebe at 11:46 PM on December 22, 2010

Mei's lost sandal: you're correct, 'wh' in Māori words is usually pronounced as 'f'. So Whānau is 'fanau', or Whangarei is 'Fangerei', etc.
posted by supercrayon at 12:50 AM on December 23, 2010

I've always figured that if we need to send a group of human ambassadors to an alien world, send some Maori. They embody the fierceness of the human spirit.

As I watched them, it occurred to me that any monster that would mess with those guys must be a horrible, fearsome thing indeed.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:10 AM on December 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

Haka is/are all kinds of wonderful.
posted by Samizdata at 10:17 AM on December 23, 2010