In the past year, numbers have grown in the region, with three classes now being held in Napier and Hastings. The two-hour sessions are all taught in te reo and are run by volunteers and parents. Nepe Apatu told RNZ he sees people from all walks of life join up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got people who have difficulty with expression, have difficulty around other people, have difficulty speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nepe Apatu\u2019s mau r\u0101kau teacher was Sir Pita Sharples, who was taught by war hero Colonel Arapeta Awatere. And now it is Awatere\u2019s grandson, Te Ot\u0101ne Huata, who is working alongside Nepe Apatu.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in this whare, not just so we can bang sticks together, but we are also here to connect to our ancestors, connect to the ancient knowledge systems that they had back in the day and bring us closer to who we are as M\u0101ori and our identity,\u201d Huata said.<\/p>\n
Te Ot\u0101ne Huata (left) and Johnny Nepe Apatu. Photo \/ RNZ, Alexa Cook<\/p>\n
He said while mau r\u0101kau was not solely responsible for turning some people\u2019s lives around, it did play a big part.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see that quite often, but I suppose when you get here you\u2019ve already gone over the hump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whare is very important as a place to support the transformation of rangatahi [youth] … although there is no need for transformation if you start here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018It gives me a lot of confidence\u2019<\/p>\n
One of Nepe Apatu\u2019s newest pupils is 14-year-old Peyton King, who describes mau r\u0101kau as a type of meditation where there is a safe space to express herself and release tension.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I have a lot of siblings at my home and I get angry at them because I\u2019m the oldest … I can\u2019t put my stress out on them so when I come here, I get rarked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about fighting, it\u2019s about protecting yourselves and your family, it gives me a lot of confidence since (i\u2019ve experienced) bullying from schools,\u201d Peyton said.<\/p>\n
Peyton King (in grey T-shirt) practises a lunge. Photo \/ RNZ, Alexa Cook<\/p>\n
The mau r\u0101kau classes are proving popular among w\u0101hine, with a big increase in women picking up the taiaha in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I heard that they invited w\u0101hine, I got so excited, I was like yess! That we feel included in something we actually want to do,\u201d Peyton said.<\/p>\n
Her classmate Kara Huata began the course about six years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the most challenging thing I\u2019ve ever done. It\u2019s really cool to see more w\u0101hine here and getting involved … it inspires me,\u201d Kara said.<\/p>\n
\u2018A lot of it is based around trauma\u2019<\/p>\n
Like other martial arts, mau r\u0101kau has eight different stages or levels to progress through. There are 15 types of \u201cstrikes\u201d and 15 \u201cblocks\u201d, where the athletes are constantly moving their bodies and shifting their energy.<\/p>\n
It is about much more than just physical exercise though. Nepe Apatu told RNZ it had been a valuable tool in steering many away from a life of crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cMainly because the purpose is there is a focus, there is a sharpness and there is lifting yourself up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As a suicide awareness co-ordinator, Nepe Apatu had also seen mau r\u0101kau literally save lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are all sorts of people we meet in this job, not just people who are suicidal, but people who might not even look like they are suicidal, but they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about identifying the different traits that steer towards harm. A lot of it is based around trauma, trauma they\u2019ve grown up with and trauma they can\u2019t release.\u201d<\/p>\n
The class taking mau r\u0101kau lessons with taiaha at Karam\u016b High School. Photo \/ RNZ, Alexa Cook<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a trauma he has experienced first-hand, growing up in the 1950s and 1960s when he was punished for speaking te reo M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I don\u2019t mean just strapped, you\u2019re getting bloody wallopped \u2013 they did everything possible to shut you up,\u201d Nepe Apatu said.<\/p>\n
In 1975 Nepe Apatu pushed himself to learn more about te reo, and 43 years ago when Pita Sharples developed the first ever curriculum for mau r\u0101kau, Nepe Apatu picked up the taiaha too. Mau r\u0101kau is now being taught all over the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me great satisfaction … it\u2019s something that I embellish, and I can instil that in others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the past year, numbers have grown in the region, with three classes now being held in Napier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4193,806,1561,14806,4194,1976,78,24533,130,111,43,139,69,24534,1515,24536,199,810,24535],"class_list":["post-23840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alexa","tag-as","tag-bay","tag-classes","tag-cook","tag-hawkes","tag-in","tag-mau","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rkau","tag-surge","tag-taiaha","tag-take","tag-up","tag-whine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}