Haka

This is the story of the great Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha and how he came to compose the haka 'Ka Mate, Ka Mate'. Te Rauparaha is pursued across the island by his enemies and he fears for his life. At Lake Rotoaira, he is hidden in a kūmara pit, and Te Rangikoaea, a woman of great power, sits in front of its entrance. As he hears his enemies approach, Te Rauparaha whispers in the dark ‘Will I die?’ Will I live?’. His enemies cannot find him, and he climbs back to the sunlight. As he recounts this adventure to his people, his words are repeated and the haka rings out, which is now passed down from generation to generation.

• Patricia Grace, Author

  Patricia Grace is the first Maori woman to publish a collection of short stories (1975). Since then she has published three other short story collections, three award-winning novels, and several children's books. Her novel Dogside Story (UH Press edition, 2002) won the 2001 Kiriyama Prize for fiction. She is widely anthologized and translated into more than eight languages, and is considered not only one of the finest writers in New Zealand and the Pacific, but one of the most important writers of the post-colonial novel in English in the world today.